Professor Anindita Bhadra
Associate professor, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Founder of the Dog Lab
I was listening to a keynote presentation on free-ranging dogs in Indian cities delivered by professor Dr. Anindita Bhadra at the ISAZ 2023 conference held at the University of Edinburgh. I had a flashback to an interview with Professor Alan Beck two years prior when I asked him why scientists had ignored the relationship between pets and people until he published the groundbreaking book he wrote with Aaron Katcher, Between Pets and People. The Importance of Animal Companionship (1983). Both authors thought that pets were so common that they did not warrant scientific attention. They were a "given" of daily life.
Dr. Anindita Bhadra's research on free-ranging dogs in India is not just a local study but one with profound global implications. By focusing on a common sight in many of her country's cities, which had been largely ignored until 2009, when her Ph.D. supervisor suggested she study these animals, she is shedding light on a phenomenon that is not unique to India. With stray dogs accounting for 70-80% of dogs worldwide, her research has the potential to significantly influence policies and practices related to animal welfare in urban areas worldwide, making her work of utmost importance.
Dr. Bhadra's decision to follow her academic advisor's advice was not just a professional but a personal one. With a one-year-old son, she was keen to remain in her native country. Therefore, in the same year, she established the Dog Lab in Mohanpur in the Nadia district of West Bengal (India). This personal and professional commitment led her and her team to scientifically analyze 1941 sightings of the free-ranging dogs on the IISER-Kolkata Campus at Mohanpur, at the township of Kalyani in West Bengal and the Indian Institute of Science campus at Bangalore, using tools as familiar and efficient as their eyes, their brains, cameras, binoculars, notebooks and pens.
A relaxed and friendly bunch
The team led by Dr. Badra came to a positive conclusion: the free-ranging dogs they observed are generally friendly, even submissive to humans, and lazy. Laying around, looking at what is happening, and napping are much-loved activities.
The busy pregnant females
Pregnancy breaks that pattern. Professor Bhadra and her team studied 148 sites from 2010 to 2015. They observed that pregnant females become pretty active.
Mothers-to-be devote considerable energy and time to looking for a suitable den to give birth and rear their brood. They carefully inspect many locations before making up their minds. Their overwhelming majority choose a den that provides access to food given by humans instead of dubious-quality leftovers sitting in dustbins and garbage dumping sites, showing a picky streak as far as food is concerned. Access to water is also crucial. Therefore, a human presence or home is essential in selecting a den. That sets free-ranging dogs apart from most urban animals.
Manabi Paul, personal archives
Homes sweet homes
Manabi Paul, personal archives
Do you feel safe and comfy?
Manabi Paul, personal archives
Mother and pups in a den
Manabi Paul, personal archives
Mealtime in a den
Manabi Paul, personal archives
A High-Rise Den. Beware of the steps!
Caring for the little bundles of joy
Unsurprisingly, individuals in smaller litters receive more maternal care than the ones in bigger litters. Although mothers remain impartial, sibling rivalry unavoidably favours some. Of course, nursing is critical. Mothers offer fewer suckling opportunities to their older offspring. Undeterred, they initiate suckling more often than in their younger years.
Manabi Paul, personal archives
"We're hungry!"
Daddy, you want to play?
Because male dogs are natural philanderers, the researchers dubbed "putative fathers" the dads they encountered. They nonetheless care for their litter as much as the mother does. They take responsibility for play and protection while the mother nurses and grooms. They sometimes go as far as regurgitating food for their little ones.
Manabi Paul, personal archives
Putative father and son
Manabi Paul, personal archives
A dog family
It takes a village or a Great Indian Joint Families to raise pups.
Alloparental care is when an adult dog—other than the mother but often a female relative—cares for her pups. Allocare also exists among the male members of the group.
Manabi Paul, personal archives
An alloparent with pups
Manabi Paul, personal archives
A grandmother with her newborn grandchildren
Pint-Sized Thieves
Pups always initiate allonursing. Because nursing is metabolically taxing, allomothers reserve it for their litter. That led the researchers to conclude that allomothers were "victims of milk theft." Pups are alert, waiting for an opportunity to suckle, then spring into action, snatch milk, gulp it, and run away.
Manabi Paul, personal archives
Little gluttons are on the lookout to steal some milk.
Like the adults, pups sleep a lot. Professor Bhadra and her team noticed that only offspring of the same litter sleep bundled together. They suggest that the goal is to keep warm and nurture social bonds.
Manabi Paul, personal archives
"We need our zzzzzs…"
"You are served…."
Pastry or Poultry?
One of Dr. Bahdra and her team's first experiments sought to determine whether free-ranging dogs would pick carbohydrates or animal proteins. Bread and rice are part of Indians' daily diet, so that they may partake with canine beggars. Anandarup Bhadra presented some lucky errand dogs with a platter with small servings of carbohydrates and meat. The experiment revealed that the adults preferred the latter while the pups(8-10 weeks) indiscriminately gulp every bit of food on the platter. The team dubbed that behaviour a rule of thumb: "If it smells like meat, eat it," the goal being to increase their foraging efficiency (Bhadra et al., 2016)."
A scientist through and through
Professor Anandita Bahdra abides by the conviction that scientists must constantly question their findings. Becoming complacent is the cardinal sin no bona fide scientist must succumb to. After the first experiment revealed that dogs prefer meat, she and her team wondered if the results would be the same if nourishment were available in a more realistic setting. After all, being served on a platter by a dedicated waiter is not part of the daily experience of free-ranging dogs. Thus, the "dustbin experiment" was born, and Rohan Sarkar designed it. On the roadside, the team put three similar baskets half-filled with refuse like vegetable peels, flowers, paper, plastic, etc. In one were ten chunks of chicken; in another, ten pieces of bread; and the third one contained five pieces of chicken and 5 of bread. The team had mixed food with the garbage to incite the dogs to search for it. The dogs had one minute to look into the baskets. The results confirm the findings of the first experiment: the dogs had eaten more from the refuse/chicken basket and from the refuse/chicken/bread basket. They happily swallowed some biscuits, but meat remained their first choice.
Love as a life insurance policy
Fond of good food as they proved to be, is it the main reason free-ranging dogs will bond with human beings? The answer is heartwarmingly surprising. In another two groundbreaking experiments, Professor Bhadras's team realized that offering food was not the key to building trust between a dog and a stranger: affection in the form of petting the animal thrice on the head was. Simply put, more dogs accepted food in the hand of the experimenter if he had petted them. However, that behaviour may involve more than just appreciation of a display of affection. It may be a strategy for survival among stray dogs. A person demonstrating affection to a dog may become trustworthy and less of a threat to its life. Free-ranging dogs live in a human environment that presents a clear danger to survival. It is a sad fact that humans often use poison to kill them. That menace becomes evident soon after pups are born: on the 364 professor Bhadra's team tracked, only 69 reached the age of 7 months. Humans can be responsible for 63% of these pups' mortality rate.
Since humans are both a source of food and shelter and a threat to errand dogs, Dr. Bhadra and her team became interested in their ability to comprehend human gestures like pointing or threatening postures. They visited Indian cities and put two covered bowls near solitary stray dogs. A researcher then pointed to one of the two bowls, either one or many times, and recorded whether the dog approached the indicated bowl. They also noted the emotional state of the stray animals -pups, juveniles and adults- as they perceived it. Half the participating animals who did not approach a bowl showed anxiety. The other, the more happy-go-lucky half, came near one of the bowls 80% of the time, notwithstanding the number of gestures. The proof was in the bowl, so to speak: some stray dogs can decipher unknown human gestures' meaning.
In other experiments, her team tested the response of free-ranging adult dogs to neutral, friendly, low-threat and high-threat gestures. In each case, a piece of chicken was offered to the dog after the cue. The friendly cues unsurprisingly enticed more dogs to come near the experimenter. On the other hand, the high-impact threatening gestures -even mitigated by a piece of chicken- kept them at bay. So they understood the meaning of different postures and could decipher human behaviour.
Professor Bhadra opened a new field of research, and there is much more to know about in the future.
To follow Dr. Bhadra’s and her team's research, click on: https://www.facebook.com/iiserkDogLab/
Sources
Canine Cognition and the Human Bond (Volume 69) 2023, Chapter 4: Anindita Bhadra and Rohan Sarkar A Dog's Life in the Human Jungle
Comments