Abstract
Research on human-animal interaction has skyrocketed in the last decade. Rapid urbanization has led scientists to investigate its impact on several species living in the vicinity of humans. Domesticated dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) are one such species that interact with humans and are also called man’s best friend. However, when it comes to the free-ranging population of dogs, interactions become quite complicated. Unfortunately, studies regarding free-ranging dog–human interactions are limited even though the majority of the world’s dog population is free-ranging. In this study, we observed twelve groups of free-ranging dogs in their natural habitat, the streets. We quantified their interactions at the intra (dog–dog) and interspecific (dog–human) levels. The study areas were divided into two zones, namely – intermediate and high flux, based on human activity or movement. Social network analysis revealed higher instances of interspecific than intraspecific interactions, irrespective of the human flux zones. Humans, in significantly higher occasions, initiated both positive and negative behaviors in comparison to dogs. Our findings conclude that humans are a crucial part of the interaction network of Indian free-ranging dogs.
Highlights
Domesticated dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) have a long and rather intricate co-evolutionary relationship with humans (Vilà et al, 1997; Savolainen et al, 2002; Thalmann et al, 2013; Frantz et al, 2016)
The groups were more connected in terms of intra and interspecific interactions in intermediate human flux zones than the high human flux zones
Dogs were actively interacting with conspecifics and with humans more in the intermediate as compared to the high human flux zones
Summary
Domesticated dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) have a long and rather intricate co-evolutionary relationship with humans (Vilà et al, 1997; Savolainen et al, 2002; Thalmann et al, 2013; Frantz et al, 2016). Dogs and humans share very warm social relationships, driven primarily by the abilities of dogs to communicate with humans, much more than any other species. More recent studies have postulated that these skills of dogs could be attributed to their “differential behavior” (Range et al, 2019) leading to increased conflict-avoidance and “hypersociability” (VonHoldt et al, 2017) accounting for their greater sociability toward humans. These socio-cognitive skills have enabled dogs’ successful co-existence with humans
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