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Dog demography and husbandry practices facilitate dog-wildlife conflict in a suburban-forest interface

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Abstract

Dogs have been recognized as a conservation concern for wildlife. Increasing dog populations have led to a rise in health and ecological problems for humans and wildlife. Dog demography and husbandry practices of dog ownership are key factors for planning population and disease management programs. We conducted a cross-sectional dog demography study in five towns near remnant patches of forest in Central Mexico. The results from surveys applied to 267 households showed high dog ownership (83%). The human dog ratio was 2:1, 2.3 ± SE 1.5 dogs per dog owning household. Mean fecundity rate was 0.8 ± 0.5, with only 11% of the dogs sterilized. Mortality rate was higher in pups than dogs surpassing the year (1.3 vs. 0.12). Overall, vaccination coverage against rabies was higher (81%) than against distemper virus and canine parvovirus (26%). Average dog density for all sites was 1,777 dogs/km2. Free-roaming was allowed to 82% of the dogs. Regarding wildlife interactions, 64% of owners have observed wildlife near their houses and 23% have observed a negative interaction, such as predation or chasing of dogs over native fauna. The high densities and high rates of free-roaming dogs found in the study suggest that is likely that dogs harass, compete or predate on wildlife. A high density of dogs and the low vaccination coverage against some pathogens of animal health concern, increases the risk of cross-species transmission between domestic and wild carnivores. Awareness-raising campaigns for dog owners and a dog population management program are required.

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Funding

Partial financial support was received from the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Lerma through project 54302002 and from Idea Wild. The National Council for Science and Technology (CONACYT) awarded a postgraduate scholarship (622999) to the first author.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Doctorado en Ciencias Biológicas y de la Salud, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Lerma, Mexico

    Libertad Orozco

  2. Área de Investigación en Biología de la Conservación, Departamento de Ciencias Ambientales, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Av. De las Garzas 10, Col. El Panteón, 52005, Lerma, Estado de México, Mexico

    Libertad Orozco, Heliot Zarza & Rurik List

  3. Department of Medicine and Epidemiology, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, 95616, Davis, California, USA

    Andrés M. López-Pérez

  4. Laboratorio de Ecología de Enfermedades y Una Salud, Departamento de Etología, Fauna Silvestre y Animales de Laboratorio, Facultad de Medicina Veterinaria y Zootecnia, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Av. Universidad 3000, 04510, Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico

    Gerardo Suzán

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  1. Libertad Orozco
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Contributions

Conceptualization: Libertad Orozco, Rurik List. Formal analysis: Libertad Orozco, Andrés M. López-Pérez. Writing- original draft: Libertad Orozco, Rurik List. Writing- review & editing: Libertad Orozco, Andrés López-Pérez, Gerardo Suzán, Heliot Zarza, Rurik List.

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Correspondence to Rurik List.

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Orozco, L., López-Pérez, A.M., Zarza, H. et al. Dog demography and husbandry practices facilitate dog-wildlife conflict in a suburban-forest interface. Urban Ecosyst 25, 1725–1734 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-022-01251-6

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