A Hugarian Pointer yawns during the fitting of a fleece jumper by Ulrike Schubert at  Germany's first custom tailor shop for dogs in Leipzig, Germany. New research demonstrates that dogs can catch the yawns from humans.
Waltraud Grubitzsch / EPA file

Dogs find human yawns contagious, suggesting they have a rudimentary capacity for empathy, British scientists said on Wednesday.

Although yawning is widespread in many animals, contagious yawning — a yawn triggered by seeing others yawning — has previously only been shown to occur in humans and chimpanzees.

It turns out, however, that man's best friend is highly sensitive to catching human yawns, with 72 percent of 29 dogs tested yawning after observing a person doing so.

Writing in the journal Biology Letters, Atsushi Senju and colleagues at London's Birkbeck College said this behavior showed dogs were skilled at reading human social cues and "may relate to their capacity for empathy."