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THOMAS J. DANIELS AND MARC BEKOFF 6 Population and Social Biology of Free-Ranging Domestic Dogs, Canis familiaris SOCIAL ORGANIZATION REFERS to the spatial relationships, group composition , and patterns of social interaction among individuals, and the overall manner in which these variables interact to characterize a population (Bekoff and Wells, 1986). Among carnivores, intraspecific variation in social organization often is a response to the quantity and distribution of local food resources (Bekoff et al., 1984), and the strategy for acquiring those resources (Caraco and Wolf, 1975; Nudds, 1978). Few detailed data on the social organization of free-ranging domestic dogs (Canis familiaris), (those having unrestricted access to public property—Beck, 1973), have been reported (Beck, 1973; Daniels, 1983a, 1983b; Fox, 1978), and no comparative studies of populations in different habitats have been conducted previously. Likewise, factors that influence patterns of social behavior have remained largely unexamined despite the 10,000–14,000-year (Davis and Valla, 1978; Fox and Bekoff, 1975; Scott, 1967) association between dogs and humans. However, dogs provide an excellent model to study comparative aspects of canid ecology and behavioral plasticity (Daniels, 1987a); they are found in every terrestrial habitat in which humans reside and may be the most abundant extant land carnivore. In this paper, we present data on survivorship patterns, population size and density, age structure, and sex ratios for urban, rural, and “wild” or feral dogs. In addition, we describe the social organization of three populations of free-ranging dogs and factors that influence it. MATERIALS AND METHODS Dogs were observed between June 1983 and December 1984 on the Navajo reservation in the southwestern United States and in Ciudad (Cd.) Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. Three habitat types were selected: urban, rural, and wild. Urban sites were defined as areas with a human population density v\386/km2 (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1982). Urban dogs were studied in Cd. Juarez (1,200 m elev.), on the United States-Mexico border directly across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas. Cd. Juarez is the largest Mexican border city, with a human population approaching 1 million and an area of 4,854 km2. Reprinted from Daniels, T. J., and M. Bekoff. 1989. Population and Social Biology of Free-Ranging Domestic Dogs, Canis familiaris. Journal of Mammalogy 70, 754–762, by permission of Alliance Communications Group. The city is located in the northernmost reaches of the Chihuahuan desert (Schmidt, 1979), with a mean annual precipitation of about 20 cm. Two study sites were selected in poorer sections of Cd. Juarez because of the high correlation between economically depressed areas and the occurrence of freeranging dogs (Beck, 1973; Daniels, 1983a). Site 1 was 0.91 km2 and site 2, about 12 km ESE of site 1, was 0.67 km2. Study sites in rural and wild areas were located on the Navajo reservation, a 64,750-km2 area located primarily in Arizona, and extending into New Mexico and Utah. Rural sites were less populated and more isolated geographically (surrounded by broad expanses of sparsely inhabited land) than urban areas. Wild sites were uninhabited or sparsely inhabited by humans. Mean human density was 1.7/km2 although most people lived at higher densities in the approximately 110 communities that compose the reservation. Field work was conducted in and near the communities of Window Rock, Arizona and Navajo, New Mexico, on the Arizona-New Mexico border. Reservation communities typically have ≤2,000 residents distributed among several small housing areas. Virtually every reservation community was rural in that it provided habitat intermediate between the urban and wild areas. Rural dogs came in contact with people at a greater rate than feral animals, although not as frequently as dogs in urban areas, and had access to more isolated areas free of human residents. Thus, rural dogs had resources available within the community and the potential to roam beyond community boundaries and to encounter wildlife and feral dogs. Efforts to locate feral dogs were centered on a dump on the outskirts of Navajo, New Mexico. Dumps provided locally abundant food resources that attracted feral dogs (Daniels, 1988). The reservation habitat is dominated by a mix of piñon pine (Pinus edulis) and Rocky Mountain juniper (Juniperus scopulorum) trees (Brown, 1982). Major subdominant shrub species were big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata ), cliffrose (Cowania neomexicana) and snakeweed (Gutierrezia sarothrae). Mean annual precipitation is between 25 and 50 cm, and the sites were at 1,500–2,300 m elevation. The numerous sandstone canyons may be 2...

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