Widespread Presence of Domestic Dogs on Sandy Beaches of Southern Chile

SIMPLE SUMMARY: The presence of dogs on sandy beaches is a concern when it comes to protecting the breeding and migratory stop-over sites of shorebirds. To manage this threat, it is necessary to understand the factors that explain the presence of dogs at sandy beaches. To address this, we conducted a study in southern Chile where we surveyed dogs and their tracks at 14 beaches. Dogs were present on all of them, and we found that their abundance was higher when more people were on the beach and at beaches surrounded by more houses. Furthermore, we detected that, given the opportunity, dogs frequently harassed whimbrels, a long-distance migratory shorebird. Dogs at beaches were often not supervised, and only 13% were on a leash. Although our study shows the association between dogs and people, it identifies that this relationship is not simply one of dogs and their owners; instead, it is free-ranging dogs that are associated with beach-goers and human settlements. Therefore, we suggest that to reduce dog harassment of shorebirds, it is fundamental to reduce the number of unsupervised and unleashed dogs at beaches. ABSTRACT: Dogs on sandy beaches are a threat to shorebirds. Managing this problem requires understanding the factors that influence the abundance of dogs in these ecosystems. We aimed to determine the proportion of beaches used by dogs and the effects of human presence on dog abundance on sandy beaches of southern Chile. We conducted dog counts and recorded the presence of tracks on 14 beaches. We used zero-inflated generalized linear mixed models to determine if the number of people, number of households, and other covariates were associated with dog abundance. We detected dog tracks on all the beaches, and dog sightings on most of them. Dogs were frequently not supervised (45%) and only 13% of them were leashed. The number of people on the beach and the number of houses near the beach were positively associated with the number of dogs on beaches. Finally, when dogs co-occurred with whimbrels (Numenius phaeopus), the probability of dog harassment was high (59%). Our work reveals that human presence determines the abundance of dogs on sandy beaches. Therefore, our study suggests that any strategy aiming at reducing dog harassment of shorebirds requires changes in those human behaviors that favor the presence of free-ranging dogs at beaches.