ArticleAnimals : an open access journal from MDPI2018
Anthropogenic Food Subsidy to a Commensal Carnivore: The Value and Supply of Human Faeces in the Diet of Free-Ranging Dogs.
Article in Animals : an open access journal from MDPI, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 51 citations in OpenAlex.
- Dog Breeds for the Future: Theoretical Assessment of Strategies for Enhancing the Behavioural Reliability of Existing Dog Breeds, or Developing New Ideal Urban Companion Dogs.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Review
- Coprophagy in Healthy Dogs Does Not Alter Fecal Core Microbiota or Increase Carriage of Enteropathogens.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Article
- Fair game: urban free-ranging dogs balance resource use and risk aversion at seasonal fairs.Current zoology · 2026Article
- Neophilia in wolves and dogs.Animal cognition · 2025Article
- Cutaneous Larva Migrans Refractory to Therapy with Ivermectin: Case Report and Review of Implicated Zoonotic Pathogens, Epidemiology, Anthelmintic Drug Resistance and Therapy.Tropical medicine and infectious disease · 2025Article
- Decreased risk-proneness with increasing age in equally raised and kept wolves and dogs.PloS one · 2025Article
- Functional significance and welfare implications of chewing in dogs (Frontiers in veterinary science · 2025Review
- Cofeeding at rich clumped food patches in free-ranging dogs: social tolerance or scramble competition?Behavioral ecology and sociobiology · 2025Article
- Article
- Free-ranging dogs match a human's preference in a foraging task.Current zoology · 2024Article
- Dogs in Lithuania from the 12th to 18th C AD: Diet and Health According to Stable Isotope, Zooarchaeological, and Historical Data.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2024Article
- Human and dog Bayesian dietary mixing models using bone collagen stable isotope ratios from ancestral Iroquoian sites in southern Ontario.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Article
- The evolution of dog diet and foraging: Insights from archaeological canids in Siberia.Science advances · 2022Article
- Interspecific coprophagia by wild red foxes: DNA metabarcoding reveals a potentially widespread form of commensalism among animals.Ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- Attitudes towards free-roaming dogs and dog ownership practices in Bulgaria, Italy, and Ukraine.PloS one · 2022Article
- Climate Change and Companion Animals: Identifying Links and Opportunities for Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies.Integrative and comparative biology · 2021Article
- Commensalism or Cross-Species Adoption? A Critical Review of Theories of Wolf Domestication.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2021Review
- Ecology of domestic dogs Canis familiaris as an emerging reservoir of Guinea worm Dracunculus medinensis infection.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2020Article
- The Effectiveness of Dog Population Management: A Systematic Review.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2019Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
As the global population of free-ranging domestic dogs grows, there is increasing concern about impacts on human health and wildlife conservation. Effective management of dog populations requires reliable information on their diet, feeding behavior, and social ecology. Free-ranging dogs are reliant on humans, but anthropogenic food subsidies, particularly human faeces (i.e., coprophagy) have not previously been fully quantified. In this study we assess the contributions of different food types to the diet, and their influences on the social behaviour of free-ranging dogs in communal lands of rural Zimbabwe, with a focus on coprophagy. Free-ranging dog diets, body condition, and sociology were studied amongst 72 dogs over 18 months using scat analysis and direct observations. Human faeces constituted the fourth most common item in scats (56% occurrence) and contributed 21% by mass to the observed diet. Human faeces represented a valuable resource because relative to other food items it was consistently available, and of higher nutritional value than ‘sadza’ (maize porridge, the human staple and primary human-derived food), yielding 18.7% crude protein and 18.7 KJ/kg gross energy, compared to 8.3% and 18.5 KJ/kg for sadza, respectively. Human faeces had protein and energy values equivalent to mammal remains, another important food item. Dog condition was generally good, with 64% of adult females and 74% of adult males in the highest two body condition scores (on a five point scale), suggesting a plentiful and high quality food supply. Dogs largely fed alone, perhaps as a consequence of the small, inert, and spatially dispersed items that comprise their diet, and its abundance. We discuss the relationships between sanitation, human development, the supply of human faeces, female dog fertility, and population control.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.