i'd like to see a photo of the bridge. It may be some visual illusion that causes the dogs to visually misinterpret the scene - or some stimulus that causes them to go somewhat mad. I'd like to know more about the dogs' behaviour before they jumped - i.e. were they barking, or acting strangely?
Ms Graham added: "Dogs naturally have a very good ability to judge distances so that they know they are going to be safe, so it is possible there is something which is causing an optical illusion or enticing the dogs to jump. From photographs of the bridge it would appear that the tree canopy rises above the bridge and it may cause some sort of confusion to the animal which thinks it is jumping to something solid.
"It may be an optical illusion or a sound or smell which the dogs can detect but humans cannot. They hear higher ranges of noises and have an acute sense of smell. It could be there is a noise coming from below the bridge that is enticing them."
I've always been under the impression that dogs had poor eyesight and depth perception (they're colorblind as well) which is why they rely a lot more on their sense of smell.
U4EA wrote:I've always been under the impression that dogs had poor eyesight and depth perception (they're colorblind as well) which is why they rely a lot more on their sense of smell.
but from a darwinian perspective a dog better know wtf a ledge is.
