What is a dog?
By: Raymond Coppinger and Lorna Coppinger ; foreword by Alan M. Beck
Contributors: Coppinger, Lorna, author; Beck, Alan M., writer of foreword
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 257
ISBN-13: 9780226127941
Subjects: Human-animal relationships; Dogs; Behavior
Description: "Exploring the natural history of these creatures, the Coppingers explain how the village dogs of Vietnam, India, Africa, and Mexico are strikingly similar. These feral dogs, argue the Coppingers, are in fact the real representative dogs, nearly uniform in size and shape and incredibly self-sufficient. Drawing on nearly five decades of research, they show how dogs actually domesticated themselves in order to become such sufficient scavengers of human refuse. The Coppingers also examine the behavioral characteristics that enable dogs to live successfully and to reproduce, unconstrained by humans, in environments that we ordinarily do not think of as dog- friendly."--From publisher description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 233-245) and index.
Table of contents: title: About dogs. What is a dog? ; The world is full of village dogs ; Why do village dogs all look alike? ; What is a niche?; title: Behavioral ecology. Behavioral ecology of dogs ; The cost of building a dog ; The cost of feeding a dog ; The cost of reproduction ; Avoiding hazards and their costs; title: That special relationship between people and dogs. The symbiotic relationship ; Dogs adopt people (and other animals) ; People adopt dogs ; People breed special dogs ; Breed genes stray into the village dog population ; Dog genes stray back into the wild; title: Summary. Where and why are all these dogs? ; What should we do, if anything, with all the dogs?