Comparative Behavioral Biology is proud to welcome:
Anna Czupryna
from the Lincoln Park Zoo
presenting “Tails from the Serengeti: Domestic dog demography in rural villages in Tanzania”
On Wednesday, May 4th at 12pm
in Biopsychological Sciences Building (BPSB) Room 122
940 E 57th St.
Abstract: Free-roaming dogs are both a public health and conservation concern because of their potential to transmit diseases such as rabies. Understanding domestic dog population dynamics and how they are impacted by interventions, such as rabies vaccination, is vital for the planning and implementing of such disease control efforts. Our four-year longitudinal study compared the demography of free-roaming domestic dogs in villages with and without a rabies vaccination campaign near Serengeti National Park in Tanzania.
We identified and followed the life histories of 2,649 owned free-roaming domestic dogs living in four rural villages west of Serengeti National Park. Two villages were part of an existing annual domestic dog rabies vaccination program while two villages were not engaged in any disease control efforts. We revisited households annually and collected dog health, demographic and ownership practice data.
Adult dogs (>12mos) had overall higher survival than puppies in all villages. We observed a male-biased sex ratio across all age classes and higher adult male dog survival. Within the vaccination villages, vaccinated dogs had a decreased risk of death. However, overall mortality in one non-vaccination village was significantly higher than in the two vaccination villages and other non-vaccination village. Dogs in poor body condition had lower survival than dogs in ideal body condition in all villages. Sickness and spotted hyena, Crocuta crocuta, predation were the two main causes of dog death.
Free-roaming domestic dogs in rural communities exist in the context of their human owners as well as the surrounding wildlife. Our results suggest that vaccination alone does not impact domestic dog population dynamics and highlights the need to examine ownership practices. Understanding the role of dogs and their care within these communities is important, particularly in areas where this widespread carnivore can have public health and wildlife conservation implications.