The meat of the matter: a rule of thumb for scavenging dogs?
Animals that scavenge in and around human settlements need to utilise a broad range of resources, and thus generalist scavengers are likely to be better adapted to human-dominated habitats. In India, free-ranging dogs ( Canis lupus familiaris ) live in close proximity with humans in diverse habitats...
Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
---|---|
Format: | Dataset |
Language: | unknown |
Published: |
Taylor & Francis
2015
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.1568632.v2 https://tandf.figshare.com/articles/dataset/The_meat_of_the_matter_a_rule_of_thumb_for_scavenging_dogs_/1568632/2 |
id |
ftdatacite:10.6084/m9.figshare.1568632.v2 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftdatacite:10.6084/m9.figshare.1568632.v2 2023-05-15T15:49:56+02:00 The meat of the matter: a rule of thumb for scavenging dogs? Anandarup Bhadra D. Bhattacharjee M. Paul A. Singh P.R. Gade P. Shrestha Anindita Bhadra 2015 https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.1568632.v2 https://tandf.figshare.com/articles/dataset/The_meat_of_the_matter_a_rule_of_thumb_for_scavenging_dogs_/1568632/2 unknown Taylor & Francis https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03949370.2015.1076526 https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.1568632 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode cc-by-4.0 CC-BY Neuroscience Evolutionary Biology FOS Biological sciences 59999 Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified FOS Earth and related environmental sciences Ecology Immunology FOS Clinical medicine 69999 Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified Science Policy dataset Dataset 2015 ftdatacite https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.1568632.v2 https://doi.org/10.1080/03949370.2015.1076526 https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.1568632 2021-11-05T12:55:41Z Animals that scavenge in and around human settlements need to utilise a broad range of resources, and thus generalist scavengers are likely to be better adapted to human-dominated habitats. In India, free-ranging dogs ( Canis lupus familiaris ) live in close proximity with humans in diverse habitats, from forest fringes to metropolises, and are heavily dependent on humans for their food. It has been argued that the ability to digest carbohydrates was one of the driving forces for dog domestication. Though dogs are better adapted to digest carbohydrates than other canids, pet dogs show a clear preference for animal proteins. Our observations on streets of urban and semi-urban localities show that the free-ranging dogs are scavengers which primarily receive carbohydrate-rich food from humans. Their source for animal protein is typically garbage bins and leftovers, and such resources are rare. Using a series of field-based experiments, we test if the free-ranging dogs have adapted to a generalist scavenging lifestyle by losing preference for animal protein. Our experiments show that the free-ranging dogs, which are descendants of the decidedly carnivorous gray wolf ( Canis lupus lupus ), have retained a clear preference for meat, which is manifested by their choice of anything that smells of meat, irrespective of the actual nutrient content. The plasticity in their diet probably fosters efficient scavenging in a competitive environment, while a rule of thumb for preferentially acquiring specific nutrients enables them to sequester proteins from the carbohydrate-dominated environment. Dataset Canis lupus gray wolf DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) Thumb ENVELOPE(-64.259,-64.259,-65.247,-65.247) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) |
op_collection_id |
ftdatacite |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Neuroscience Evolutionary Biology FOS Biological sciences 59999 Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified FOS Earth and related environmental sciences Ecology Immunology FOS Clinical medicine 69999 Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified Science Policy |
spellingShingle |
Neuroscience Evolutionary Biology FOS Biological sciences 59999 Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified FOS Earth and related environmental sciences Ecology Immunology FOS Clinical medicine 69999 Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified Science Policy Anandarup Bhadra D. Bhattacharjee M. Paul A. Singh P.R. Gade P. Shrestha Anindita Bhadra The meat of the matter: a rule of thumb for scavenging dogs? |
topic_facet |
Neuroscience Evolutionary Biology FOS Biological sciences 59999 Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified FOS Earth and related environmental sciences Ecology Immunology FOS Clinical medicine 69999 Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified Science Policy |
description |
Animals that scavenge in and around human settlements need to utilise a broad range of resources, and thus generalist scavengers are likely to be better adapted to human-dominated habitats. In India, free-ranging dogs ( Canis lupus familiaris ) live in close proximity with humans in diverse habitats, from forest fringes to metropolises, and are heavily dependent on humans for their food. It has been argued that the ability to digest carbohydrates was one of the driving forces for dog domestication. Though dogs are better adapted to digest carbohydrates than other canids, pet dogs show a clear preference for animal proteins. Our observations on streets of urban and semi-urban localities show that the free-ranging dogs are scavengers which primarily receive carbohydrate-rich food from humans. Their source for animal protein is typically garbage bins and leftovers, and such resources are rare. Using a series of field-based experiments, we test if the free-ranging dogs have adapted to a generalist scavenging lifestyle by losing preference for animal protein. Our experiments show that the free-ranging dogs, which are descendants of the decidedly carnivorous gray wolf ( Canis lupus lupus ), have retained a clear preference for meat, which is manifested by their choice of anything that smells of meat, irrespective of the actual nutrient content. The plasticity in their diet probably fosters efficient scavenging in a competitive environment, while a rule of thumb for preferentially acquiring specific nutrients enables them to sequester proteins from the carbohydrate-dominated environment. |
format |
Dataset |
author |
Anandarup Bhadra D. Bhattacharjee M. Paul A. Singh P.R. Gade P. Shrestha Anindita Bhadra |
author_facet |
Anandarup Bhadra D. Bhattacharjee M. Paul A. Singh P.R. Gade P. Shrestha Anindita Bhadra |
author_sort |
Anandarup Bhadra |
title |
The meat of the matter: a rule of thumb for scavenging dogs? |
title_short |
The meat of the matter: a rule of thumb for scavenging dogs? |
title_full |
The meat of the matter: a rule of thumb for scavenging dogs? |
title_fullStr |
The meat of the matter: a rule of thumb for scavenging dogs? |
title_full_unstemmed |
The meat of the matter: a rule of thumb for scavenging dogs? |
title_sort |
meat of the matter: a rule of thumb for scavenging dogs? |
publisher |
Taylor & Francis |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.1568632.v2 https://tandf.figshare.com/articles/dataset/The_meat_of_the_matter_a_rule_of_thumb_for_scavenging_dogs_/1568632/2 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-64.259,-64.259,-65.247,-65.247) |
geographic |
Thumb |
geographic_facet |
Thumb |
genre |
Canis lupus gray wolf |
genre_facet |
Canis lupus gray wolf |
op_relation |
https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03949370.2015.1076526 https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.1568632 |
op_rights |
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode cc-by-4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.1568632.v2 https://doi.org/10.1080/03949370.2015.1076526 https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.1568632 |
_version_ |
1766384952136433664 |