Domestic dogs have evolved from wolf-like ancestors through domestication to become man’s best friend. They have adapted to living solitarily among humans as pets, and form social bonds with humans. But they also live as free-ranging populations in various human habitats, typically as scavengers depending on humans for resources, and are well adapted to living in human proximity. In this talk Dr. Anindita Bhadra will share insights from a five year-long study on free-ranging dogs in India, including how these dogs interact, how they care for their pups and the pups of relatives, and how underlying cooperation-conflict dynamics within the social groups of free-ranging dogs are quite reminiscent of the joint family system in human societies. How the overall trend of cooperation at various levels can be adaptive for survival in a stochastic environment will also be discussed. A question and answer session will follow moderated by Dr. Monique Udell. Come join us on April 18th, or for the recorded session after, to learn more about this important population of domestic dogs and what they might teach us about our own companions from an world renowned expert, Dr. Anindita Bhadra.

Sponsor:E-training for Dogs
Speaker(s):Anindita Bhadra PhD

Contact: Cheryl Aguiar
 Email: cheryl@e-trainingfordogs.com
 Phone: 970-231-9965
 Web: http://e-trainingfordogs.com/2011/03/the-library/