Street dogs and DNA

What are street dogs or free-breeding dogs? American scientists Raymond and Lorna Coppinger define them as dogs that are not pets or working dogs. And they say that of the billion dogs on the planet, about 750 million of them (75% of the total dog population) are street dogs, strays, free-living, free-ranging, or free-breeding dogs – in other words, unregistered dogs or dogs without pet collars.

The Coppingers exclude strays – their definition of stray dogs are those who are lost or missing. Street dogs, free-living, and free-breeding dogs are referred to as village dogs.

The Coppingers are canine researchers (or canine biologists) – they study dogs. In their 2001 book, Dogs: A Startling New Understanding of Canine Origin, Behavior & Evolution, they looked at the genetics of village dogs. They say dogs domesticated themselves (and not, as other scientists say, evolved from domesticated wolves). However, not all scientists agree with their theory. Their recent book is called What is a Dog?

The Coppingers have studied village dogs from all over the world. They say village dogs are not mongrels or strays wandering about. Village dogs are the same across the globe, whether from Africa, Asia, or America. According to the Coppingers, village dogs are generally medium height (not too big and not too small) and are often lion-coloured (light brown), although the coloring can be darker or lighter. Some live completely on their own, while most scavenge for food around human populations. Village dogs survive on garbage, and are ‘superbly adapted scavengers.’ They calculated that about 100 people produce enough garbage to support seven free-living (free-breeding), or village, dogs.

There has not been much research on village dogs, except in the context of rabies. About 60,000 people globally die each year of rabies from dog bites.

But what are village dogs? Are they a separate breed or a mixed breed? Biologist, Adam Boyko, at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, compiled DNA (gentic information) from village dogs around the world. He concluded that village dogs in Mongolia are the centre of dog diversity – that Mongolia is geographically the nearest place to where dogs first evolved.

When Boyko analyzed the DNA of village dogs on remote Fijian and French Polynesian islands, he determined that they were 99% European. But the village dogs in Borneo showed almost no trace of European heritage. Wieslaw Bogdanowicz, a scientist from the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, analyzed village dogs in Eurasia. Bogdanowicz determined that they were different from purebred and mixed breeds – which he referred to as a superbreed. He also found that modern European street dogs trace their ancestry to East Asia (about 4,000 to 11,000 years ago).

Currently there is a major DNA study of fossil dogs, led by Greger Larson at Oxford, to determine the origins of dogs. Most scientists think street dogs evolved from ancient wolves about 15,000 years ago. The Coppingers think that dogs evolved after the invention of agriculture around 8,000 years ago, and that street dogs are ancestors of these first dogs. The Coppingers think – and so do other scientists – that street or village dogs should be studied further because they ‘represent a treasure trove of scientific information.’

But for communities and cities that want to reduce their street dog problem – scavenging for food in garbage dumps – the Coppingers recommend one thing: reduce the garbage.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/19/science/the-world-is-full-of-dogswithout-collars.html?emc=edit_th_20160419&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=72405193

MARTINA NICOLLS is the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).