Cuernavaca, Mexico: free-roaming dogs at the trash can buffet

Описание: What's it like to be a free-ranger with constant access to a rich trash can buffet? Meet three local Cuernavaca dogs and find out! Throughout the day, these dogs are provided with a refill of this natural "snuffle mat" as folks dump their trash and compost, and will usually leave edible items outside the cans themselves.

The study I reference in this video is:

Sarkar, Sau and Bhadra. Scavengers can be choosers: A study on food preference in free-ranging dogs. In: Applied Animal Behavior Science, Volume 216, July 2019, 38-44.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.20...

Abstract:

"Domestic dogs have descended from gray wolves through a process of domestication, evolving from a predominantly hunting to a scavenging lifestyle. Though the exact process of domestication is not yet clearly understood, various behavioral adaptations in dogs are considered to have been crucial to the development of the unique bond shared by dogs and humans. Similarly, an enhanced ability to digest carbohydrates has been suggested as a major adaptation that enabled dogs to adapt to life among humans. Free-ranging dogs in India mostly subsist on a carbohydrate-rich diet but a set of choice tests have revealed that they can use a Rule of Thumb to locate meat, thereby maximizing their protein intake. However, it has never been tested whether they use this Rule of Thumb to preferentially feed on meat in the context of scavenging, especially when they have to find food among garbage. They often compete with conspecifics as well as other scavenging species and are also sometimes threatened by humans during scavenging. Under such constraints, preferential feeding might not be a feasible option. We carried out a choice test on 68 free-ranging dogs on urban streets, simulating scavenging from dustbins, to test whether they use the Rule of Thumb in scavenging situations. The dogs were provided with three choices of baskets filled with garbage mixed with either bread pieces (10), chicken pieces (10) or both (5 + 5). The dogs did apply the Rule of Thumb to eat the protein first, but did not discard the carbohydrate. They utilized a Sniff-and-Snatch strategy for maximizing meat uptake from the noisy background of garbage. This is a highly efficient scavenging strategy that can help them to maximize food intake, while allowing them to eat the most preferred food first, and has perhaps been adaptive for their survival in a highly heterogenous human-dominated environment."