A tale of two species: How humans shape dog behaviour in urban habitats

Abstract: Species inhabiting urban environments experience enormous anthropogenic stress. Behavioural plasticity and flexibility of temperament are crucial to successful urban-adaptation. Urban free-ranging dogs experience variable human impact, from positive to negative and represent an ideal system to evaluate the effects of human-induced stress on behavioural plasticity. We tested 600 adult dogs from 60 sites across India, categorised as high - HF, low - LF, and intermediate - IF human flux zones, to understand their sociability towards an unfamiliar human. Dogs in the HF and IF zones were bolder and as compared to their shy counterparts in LF zones. The IF zone dogs were the most sociable. This is the first-ever study aimed to understand how the experiences of interactions with humans in its immediate environment might shape the responses of an animal to humans. This is very relevant in the context of human-animal conflict induced by rapid urbanization and habitat loss across the world.