Understanding Parental Care in Free-ranging Dogs of India

Paul, Manabi (2017) Understanding Parental Care in Free-ranging Dogs of India. PhD thesis, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata.

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Abstract

Domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) have evolved from cooperatively hunting and breeding ancestors, the gray wolves (Canis lupus lupus), but have adapted to a facultatively social scavenging lifestyle on streets. They have evolved through a process of domestication, adapting to living in close proximity with humans, solitarily as pets, in groups artificially assembled by humans, and as natural social groups in free-ranging populations. Pets typically breed and reproduce under human supervision, but free-ranging dogs represent a condition in which they exist as naturally breeding populations, independent of direct human supervision. Therefore studying such free-ranging populations can provide interesting insights into the ecology and ethology of dogs. We conducted a five year-long study on free-ranging dogs in India to understand the nature of parental care provided by mothers at different stages of pup development. Using behavioural patterns of mother-pup interactions, we draw up a timeline of pup ontogeny. This thesis provides insights into the cooperation-conflict dynamics that pups experience during their early life, and it is likely that these ontogenic experiences influence their social decision making in the future, thus shaping the dynamics of the social group.

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