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‘Stray appetites’: a socio-ecological analysis of free-ranging dogs living alongside human communities in Bangalore, India
Across the developing world, humans and free-ranging domestic dogs share common spaces. The relationship between these dogs and humans can range from one of dependence, to apathy, to conflict. Given the high number of humans attacked by dogs every year in India, and the lack of an effective populati...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Springer US
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8551108/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34720573 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11252-021-01097-4 |
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author | Bhalla, Shireen Jagriti Kemmers, Roy Vasques, Ana Vanak, Abi Tamim |
author_facet | Bhalla, Shireen Jagriti Kemmers, Roy Vasques, Ana Vanak, Abi Tamim |
author_sort | Bhalla, Shireen Jagriti |
collection | PubMed |
description | Across the developing world, humans and free-ranging domestic dogs share common spaces. The relationship between these dogs and humans can range from one of dependence, to apathy, to conflict. Given the high number of humans attacked by dogs every year in India, and the lack of an effective population control strategy, we seek to provide insights into the conflict and propose alternative population management options based on reducing the carrying capacity of the environment. We used a mixed methods approach to understand both ecological and sociological underpinnings of free-ranging dog-human relationships in Bangalore, India. We conducted a photographic capture-recapture survey of free-ranging dogs to estimate population size and linked it to the availability of potential food sources. We also conducted a qualitative survey to assess attitudes of residents towards the dog population. We found that dog population varied from 192 to 1888 per square kilometre across a gradient of housing densities. The density of houses, bakeries and garbage piles were significant predictors of dog population size. Crucially, as low as 10 to 18% of houses supported the large population of dogs, highlighting the need for residents to act responsibly towards the dogs. Further, we found that garbage, although significant, is a secondary food source to household-maintained dogs. Since on the whole, respondents expressed the desire for a reduction in dog population, we suggest decreasing the carrying capacity of the environment by targeting these three food sources. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11252-021-01097-4. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8551108 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Springer US |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-85511082021-10-29 ‘Stray appetites’: a socio-ecological analysis of free-ranging dogs living alongside human communities in Bangalore, India Bhalla, Shireen Jagriti Kemmers, Roy Vasques, Ana Vanak, Abi Tamim Urban Ecosyst Article Across the developing world, humans and free-ranging domestic dogs share common spaces. The relationship between these dogs and humans can range from one of dependence, to apathy, to conflict. Given the high number of humans attacked by dogs every year in India, and the lack of an effective population control strategy, we seek to provide insights into the conflict and propose alternative population management options based on reducing the carrying capacity of the environment. We used a mixed methods approach to understand both ecological and sociological underpinnings of free-ranging dog-human relationships in Bangalore, India. We conducted a photographic capture-recapture survey of free-ranging dogs to estimate population size and linked it to the availability of potential food sources. We also conducted a qualitative survey to assess attitudes of residents towards the dog population. We found that dog population varied from 192 to 1888 per square kilometre across a gradient of housing densities. The density of houses, bakeries and garbage piles were significant predictors of dog population size. Crucially, as low as 10 to 18% of houses supported the large population of dogs, highlighting the need for residents to act responsibly towards the dogs. Further, we found that garbage, although significant, is a secondary food source to household-maintained dogs. Since on the whole, respondents expressed the desire for a reduction in dog population, we suggest decreasing the carrying capacity of the environment by targeting these three food sources. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11252-021-01097-4. Springer US 2021-02-16 2021 /pmc/articles/PMC8551108/ /pubmed/34720573 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11252-021-01097-4 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Article Bhalla, Shireen Jagriti Kemmers, Roy Vasques, Ana Vanak, Abi Tamim ‘Stray appetites’: a socio-ecological analysis of free-ranging dogs living alongside human communities in Bangalore, India |
title | ‘Stray appetites’: a socio-ecological analysis of free-ranging dogs living alongside human communities in Bangalore, India |
title_full | ‘Stray appetites’: a socio-ecological analysis of free-ranging dogs living alongside human communities in Bangalore, India |
title_fullStr | ‘Stray appetites’: a socio-ecological analysis of free-ranging dogs living alongside human communities in Bangalore, India |
title_full_unstemmed | ‘Stray appetites’: a socio-ecological analysis of free-ranging dogs living alongside human communities in Bangalore, India |
title_short | ‘Stray appetites’: a socio-ecological analysis of free-ranging dogs living alongside human communities in Bangalore, India |
title_sort | ‘stray appetites’: a socio-ecological analysis of free-ranging dogs living alongside human communities in bangalore, india |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8551108/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34720573 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11252-021-01097-4 |
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