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How Street Dogs Spend Their Days
- not_the_fda 4y agoI highly recommend the movie Stray https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/stray_2021 https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/stray_2021 It follows the life of some stray dogs in Istanbul.
- medstrom 4y agoI looked for it and wow, there have been many movies with that name. 1991: Strays 1997: Strays 2015: Stray 2016: A Stray 2017: The Stray 2018: Stray 2019: Stray 2020: Stray 2021: Stray 2023 (upcoming): Strays and a 2021-2022 TV show "Strays" and a 2022 video game "Stray"...
- ggm 4y agoIs this not how lions spend their days? Or jackals. Or wolves, or foxes: pack predators have good fight/flight/feed balance and just hang around, minimising energy cost. Dogs just do it more.. urbanely.
- bediger4000 4y agoWolves are substantially bigger than dogs. As I understand it, wolves require a lot more calories to live, maybe twice as much. That causes major differences in time budget. Lions fornicate quite often, and it's important enough socially that wild animal rescue places don't neuter male lions, while they do neuter male tigers.
- quickthrower2 4y agoThis is interesting enough. Dogs have a special relationship with humans, and this is dogs, in the wild, in human environments but while not being a pet.
- ggm 4y agoThe cats in Rome (and Athens) are pretty relaxed, spend all day in the sun on the ancient monuments, hassling tourists for a lick of ice-cream and stealing food, but also fed by the local nonnas. There's a reddit video of a (?slum?) location celebrating when their local "adopted" street dog is found again after going missing for some time. People become attached to these dogs. So there's a high degree of socialisation going on in some cases.
- FatalLogic 4y agoThis is a very strange piece of research because they admit they only observed the dogs during daytime, but they've still made broad statements claiming the dogs exhibit friendly and docile behavior at all times - despite a reputation for aggression that the researchers casually dismiss. The reality is that street dogs in India are often more active, and sometimes far more aggressive, at nighttime. They often rest quietly during the day to avoid suffering from the extreme heat
- ghayes 4y agoYeah the observation period is very limited for the claims being made. It seems that adding a tracking device and/or camera could lead to significantly stronger conclusions, which surely has been accomplished by other researchers.
- rob74 4y agoAdding a tracking device and/or camera is also much more expensive than just sending some students out to look at some dogs however...
- entropie 4y ago> They often rest quietly during the day to avoid suffering from the extreme heat As most predators do in hot climate. Its a pretty complex topic and its good that some research is done. Wolfs hunt mostly during night time too, but dogs are not wolfs and despite research from like the 80s where dog behaviour was derived from wolf studies (that actually were mostly done with wolfs in zoos and national parks (Yellowstone was pretty big I think) we know now that these studies fail to explain real wolf behaviour). We just began to understand how wolfs interact with each other in packs in free nature and its fairly complex. The entire 90s dog trainer used studies about wolfs to explain behaviour and train dogs, often the word dominance is used and that you have to be the "pack leader" for your dog to make him follow your "orders". Which is plain wrong on many levels but would go to far now. Why do I talk about wolfs? Well, dogs that grew up with humans and get lost (in nature) are known to change behaviour very fast. (It mainly depends on the breed and ofc. character). They begin to act more like wolves again to the point where they develop shyness in front of people and it has happened that they no longer let themselves be called by their original owner and also have not accepted food from them. It can be very difficult to get them used to humans again. Obviously, this must be different for dogs that live in urban environments without their/a owner. What is probably not different is that pack structures develop but quite rarely in intra-species "serious" conflicts because they don't need to fight over resources. Most animals fight only if really necessary because even a won fight can lead to death because of injuries.
- akamaka 4y agoThe street dogs of India seem especially lethargic compared to ones I’ve seen elsewhere. I wonder if it’s the hot climate, the ease of finding food in an ultra-dense urban environment, or perhaps more exposure to parasites. It would be great do to some follow up studies to compare other countries.
- blackdogie 4y agoI'll be honest, there doesn't seem to be much scientific reasoning here behind things. Things like tracking distance the dogs travelled in a day would be pretty easy to do for a random sample. Or the breakdown of sex / estimated age / etc. Maybe it's just a starting point but it doesn't give much info IMHO.
- walrus01 4y agoa number of years ago I was nearly attacked by a pack of feral dogs in the outskirts of rawalpindi, pakistan. it was about 5:30 am before most of the city was awake and I was taking myself and luggage out to the nearest main road to get a taxi to catch an early flight. it turns out that the tactic for scaring off a mountain lion also works with them, if you raise your arms over your head as high as you can reach while simultaneously screaming "YARRRGGGH!!!!!!" as loud as humanly possible, you can chase away a whole pack. still was quite a sketchy situation.
- entropie 4y agoCan you describe the attack?
- walrus01 4y agoa group of about eight to ten of the typical small to medium size south asian feral dogs came out of the grass and bushes by the side of the road, and began approaching me all together at a medium pace, in a group with what I interpreted as aggressive body language (having owned a number of different breeds of domestic north american dogs for many years since childhood). I had been pulling a wheeled piece of luggage which possibly set them off because its noise was quite unusual at that time and place.
- aitchnyu 4y agoIME you can stay still and stare back for a minute and they will back off.
- fractallyte 4y agoI was confronted by a pack of dogs on the outskirts of Varna, Bulgaria. It was just me, no one else around. The dogs certainly were aware of it. Remembering that opening an umbrella tends to severely freak out dogs, I walked past them, then turned around and took off my jacket with a big flourish. They panicked and ran away, then just barked at me from a distance. Haha
- rootusrootus 4y agoI once got cornered by a pack of dogs in Hyderabad in an early morning attempted walk to a coffee shop (what can I say, first time in Hyderabad, I didn't really grok that walking any significant distance is an adventure). Not sure if they'd have actually attacked, but they were making all the right sounds. Luckily there was a fence I could scale that they were unwilling or unable to go over. But during the heat of the day? They did seem relaxed. Though I never tried to pet one or anything like that. Dogs getting agitated around humans in Hyderabad would probably be pretty exhausting.
- rendall 4y ago> I didn't really grok that walking any significant distance is an adventure Because of dogs, or also other things happening?
- rootusrootus 4y agoBecause of traffic. Walking around the buildings in our business park in Hitec City isn't bad, there are sidewalks. But even going a half mile up the road is hard if you're not comfortable with how Indian drivers and pedestrians interact. I personally feel okay with the smaller intersections near our office there, because walking steadily and making no sudden moves seems to do the trick. But any bigger road is essentially blocked for me if I don't have a native from the area to lead me across. Even so, it's quite a thrill getting across a halfway busy road on foot, no matter how skilled you are. Nobody is actually trying to kill you, and in fact is certainly avoiding you, but they aren't giving you more than a few inches of clearance. Kinda related, it's still on my bucket list to drive from Hitec City over to Charminar and back. But since the pandemic hit, my twice-a-year trips to Hyderabad have stopped and I think it's entirely plausible they will never restart. It may be that if I'm ever to enjoy Absolute BBQ again it'll be in Illinois :(
- galago 4y agoIn Cuzco Peru (very touristy) a few years ago I noticed that a lot of the feral dogs were outfitted with football (soccer) jerseys, often famous international teams. So, I think they would get a food donation advantage from fans of that team (e.g. Barcelona). I also saw dogs carefully waiting at stoplights to cross a street. It occurred to me that the angry/agressive dogs probably don't make it because its not an effective survival strategy. Probably an outlier situation from an international perspective, but interesting. A pack of dogs ran up to me at one point and I was pretty scared, but they just went past and kept going. They seemed to have a lot of agency, meaning that they survived without any "owner" as we think of it in the USA.
- oh_sigh 4y agoIt's actually common in Peru to let your dog out during the day, and then they generally come home at night. So, those shirted dogs may be actually owned and cared for by someone who puts the shirt on every morning.
- dTal 4y agoIf feral dogs are obtaining and donning football jerseys of famous international teams to solicit food donations from loyal tourists, then I have severely underestimated canine intelligence.
- witheld 4y agoIt’s more being docile enough to be equipped with a Jersey, and to not remove it.
- je_suis_le_loup 4y agoI adopted a pariah dog from Punjab 3 years ago. Described here: https://sevastray.com/blogs/news/rani https://sevastray.com/blogs/news/rani. She definitely snoozes midday in the hot Georgia summer and is super friendly.
- freecodyx 4y agoI’ve developed a phobia from street dogs. Especially with the bad experiences i had with them when i was kid. But what i have noticed. When the street is busy. They’re peaceful otherwise they will try to intimidate you as a group either you’re walking,cycling, biking, driving. When i am in the car and i am safe. I play games with them. I stop the car. They stop and they wait for me to drive. So they can run and bark outloud. Seems like they’re just playing. I wish i had the same courage when i am walking/running
- mertd 4y agoIsn't that the same for humans? You'd perceive little danger if you saw someone walking in your general direction in a crowded park, but remove all others and make it night time and the perception of that person changes entirely.
- Gigachad 4y agoIt’s way more complex than that. Your brain is running pattern recognition on the persons height, gender, age, race, clothing, gait, where they are looking, etc to work out the risk level. If you saw an old lady carrying shopping bags you’d feel no risk of danger vs a large male in a hoodie walking in a weird way and looking at you.
- discordance 4y agoSome dogs in Moscow have learned to use the metro system to navigate the city, hanging out with other dogs or a friendly person who they know will feed them at certain times of the day [0]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_dogs_in_Moscow#Subway-dwelling_dogs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_dogs_in_Moscow#Subway-d...
- jansan 4y agoI had an encounter with a street dog in Sofia/Bulgaria that I will never forget. We were at the outskirts of the city and decided to take a walk to the center along one of the main roads. After a while we noticed that a street dog was following us at a constant distance of maybe 15 meters. It looked quite friendly and we thought it may be hoping to get food from us, but we did not have any. We talked to it, also waved good bye several times, but it kept following us. Then, suddenly it came closer, maybe to 5 meter distance, and just after that a pack of other street dogs came from a side street, angrily barking and obviously having a problem with out dog being in their hood. But they were afraid of us humans and our dog suddenly acted as if it was our pet dog, walking really close to us. We continued walking and the pack of street dogs eventually gave up. Suddenly after that, our dog was gone. Obviously it had a plan right from the beginning: Using us as protection to get past that pack of dogs into the city center. And it perfectly executed the plan.
- johnsanders 4y agoMore research is needed.
- mike_d 4y agoAgreed. Must pet more doggos.
- Markoff 4y agomy experience with street dogs in India was positive, they were never* agressive towards me, quite the opposite, in Goa beach they were protecting white (!) people on beach from locals, in morning when I sat on empty beach they even made circle around me and lay around me, but when (clearly) local came to beach they started bark at him immediately, I wonder if tourists treat them better than locals, so they behave accordingly at least in Goa *only place in India where I was attacked by dogs was right at the southern gate of Taj Mahal, dog snapped after my leg but it seems he didnt bite, even guard checked my leg and mind saying when I travelled around Agra I saw in other location again younger boys attacked by street dogs, so seems Agra is really bad place with dogs, everywhere else in India was my experience with street dogs uneventful
- nunodonato 4y agoNot totally related but I feel this is the right place to share this small event. I was driving in a relaxed small town, saw a dog in the sidewalk. He turned to the crosswalk to cross the road and stopped there waiting. I thought, why not? And stopped my car. On the opposite side of the road, a trucker thought the same and also stopped. As we both stood there, the dog crossed the road. Me and the trucker looked into each other and smiled
- grapeskin 4y agoMakes me wonder whether this is knowledge the dog picked up on its own through observation, or knowledge passed on through dog communication. Both being incredible.
- dankboys 4y agoor, the dogs that would go hell for leather across the road didn't have good outcomes
- srean 4y agoFolks like you make the world a little better every day.
- _448 4y agoThis reminds me of a documentary, "A Cow a Day", aired by BBC Radio Three a couple of years ago. The documentary was by the poet and radio producer Pejk Malinovski. Pejk follows a random street cow on the streets of Varanasi in India. When I first heard about this documentary, I thought, what a ridiculous idea of following a stray cow for a day and making a documentary out of it! But when I listened to the audio documentary, it was one of the most engaging documentary I had listened to!
- MrGilbert 4y agoFor anyone interested: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b09sqqd3 https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b09sqqd3 I just listened to it, and it's... yeah, I get what you mean when you wrote "it was one of the most engaging documentary I had listened to!". It truely is.
- sandebert 4y agoSurely this must be a candidate for the Ig Nobel Prize?
- pelagicAustral 4y agoI sure do spend more than 6% of my time in maintenance (“groom,” “scratch,” “defecate,” “drink,” “sniff garbage,” etc.)
- taylodl 4y ago"Our analysis reveals that dogs are generally lazy and friendly animals" - a kindred spirit! No wonder they're man's best friend!