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I have read this article with great interest. Does anyone have any thought on how this group of dogs may contribute to the future of dog as a species from angle of natural selection if they are free to breed? Will the smartest and healthiest of off springs provide new gene pool? Well, can't think now since I am busy and have a deadline to meet. Any input will be interesting to hear.
I believe that most dog breeds exist solely because of selective breeding by means human intervention, so they otherwise would never have come into existence in nature. Now that some of these breeds and crossbreeds have crossbred further, and as more and more dogs readjust to a wild state, I think it's a wonderful thing that more dogs can finally return to nature...well, nature with a subway involved.
The sad thing about many strays in any community is that from time to time officials decide to have mass kill offs. It is only inevitable with no neutering, shots available or control of things like fleas, ticks, mange, kennel cough, rabies,etc.
But the dogs that do survive and reproduce will prove "survival of the fittest".
I had a shared dog with my son for years. She knew how to get around town very well, and would, all on her own, choose who she wanted to spend time with. She spent most of her time with my son, but would come to my house at any time, spend a couple of days there, and go back to my son's place.
She covered a distance of over 13 city blocks, which included crossing a fairly busy thoroughfare and one complicated intersection.
Dogs create their own territory when given the chance, and a city is no different for them than wilderness. Both have obstacles and other creatures to avoid or follow. Their routes are not what a person would use, but urban dogs are just as aware a city and how to navigate within it as humans are; they just do the navigation in a different way, using their best senses.
The relationship between dogs and humans has, from the earliest beginnings, more reward in it for the dog than the human. The few wolves that can tolerate close proximity to humankind have better and more secure shelter, more warmth, and more access to food than the wolves who cannot tolerate the closeness. Since the tolerant wolves had much less stress in their lives, they lived longer, so they reproduced more and for a longer time.
What the tolerant wolves did naturally- alert quickly to natural threats- helped humans as much as the wolves, so they became tolerated, not feared. When the wolves that were most submissive to humans became trusted, those wolves got the best scraps, got the warmest part of the cave, and their pups were the least likely food for the humans when times were thin. A human will eat the best guard dog last.
Eventually, the same subservient wolves tagged along on human hunts, as wolves hunt in packs. When those wolves allowed the humans to do all the heavy work- the killing, butchering and carrying of the game- in return for simply being patient and accepting the tougher parts of the kill, it further increased the human-wolf bond, once again with more favor to the wolves than the people.
That's the way it remains in the present. The wolves have become dogs, with small physical differences and greater mental differences, but it's still all in the dog's favor.
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