A humoristic way to communicate the interactions of free-ranging dogs with native fauna in southern Chile
Dogs are the most abundant carnivores on the planet. From leashed to feral dogs at the extremes, they live along a range of different conditions of confinement and dependence on humans (Vanak & Gompper 2009). All categories of dogs, but especially dogs without confinement can be implicated in conflicts with humans and wildlife (Doherty et al. 2017, Twardek et al. 2017). This is particularly true for many countries of the Global South, where owned dogs are often allowed to roam free. Free-ranging dogs can be considered as invasive carnivores on Navarino Island, southernmost Chile, an island without native terrestrial predators. Over a decade, Elke Schüttler and her team have studied the impacts and movements of free-ranging and feral dogs (i.e., independent of intentionally supplied human subsidy) on the island. Through a calendar of the year 2024, co-created with Faunánimo, a group of Chilean designers of humoristic fauna, they have communicated their results in twelve comics with monthly messages to stimulate responsible pet ownership (access to digital calendar and related publications here: bit.ly/49kANHK). Two-hundred calendars were distributed among the local population of the island, as well as among regional and national stakeholders. For this newsletter, Elke Schüttler has selected four comics of the calendar and translated them from Spanish into English.
Elke Schüttler
Cape Horn University Center, University of Magallanes and Cape Horn International Center (CHIC), Puerto Williams, Chile
Foundation, Santa Cruz, Galapagos, Ecuador.
The first comic shows the predation of eggs of upland geese (Chloephaga picta) by free-ranging dogs, recorded during a study on the impact of invasive American mink (Neogale vison) on ground-nesting waterbirds (Schüttler et al. 2009). The second comic makes reference to the little investigated question of genetic flow between feral and village dogs to maintain feral dog populations. This comic is based on a study that evidenced extensive overnight forays of village dogs far away from town during which they potentially interacted with feral dogs (Schüttler et al. 2022); the on-going project ANID FONDECYT REGULAR 1230554 financed by the Chilean Commission for Scientific and Technological Research is currently analyzing blood and saliva samples of both dog populations. The third comic illustrates the fact that tourists are vectors for the movement of free-ranging dogs into wilderness, as shown by Schüttler & Jiménez (2022) through questionnaires with tourists and camera-traps in trekking trails. Finally, the fourth comic highlights the importance of the dog-owner bond to limit excursions of free-ranging dogs into nature, supported by an interdisciplinary study on GPS-collared dogs which participated in an evaluation of attachment behaviors during an experimental assessment, the Strange Situation Procedure (Saavedra-Aracena et al. 2021).
Science Communication
References
Doherty TS, Dickman CR, Glen AS, Newsome TM, Nimmo DG et al. (2017) The global impacts of domestic dogs on threatened vertebrates. Biol Conserv 210:56-59.
Saavedra-Aracena L, Grimm-Seyfarth A, Schüttler E (2021) Do dog-human bonds influence movements of free-ranging dogs in wilderness? Appl Anim Behav Sci 24:105358.
Schüttler E, Klenke R, McGehee S, Rozzi R, Jax K (2009) Vulnerability of ground-nesting waterbirds to predation by invasive American mink in the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve, Chile. Biol Conserv 142:1450-1460.
Schüttler E, Saavedra-Aracena L, Jiménez JE (2022) Spatial and temporal plasticity in free-ranging dogs in sub-Antarctic Chile, Appl Anim Behav Sci 250:105610.
Schüttler E, Jiménez J (2022) Are tourists facilitators of the movement of free-ranging dogs? Animals 12(24):3564.
Twardek WM, Peiman KS, Gallagher AJ, Cooke SJ (2017) Fido, Fluffy, and wildlife conservation: the environmental con- sequences of domesticated animals. Environ Rev 25:381-395.
Vanak AT, Gompper ME (2009) Dogs Canis familiaris as carnivores: their role and function in intraguild competition. Mammal Rev 39:265-283.
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