Anindita Bhadra

Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata · Department of Biological Sciences

Scent marks play a crucial role in both territorial and sexual communication in many species. We investigated how free-ranging dogs respond to scent marks from individuals of different identities in terms of sex and group, across varying strategic locations within their territory. Both male and female dogs showed heightened interest in scent marks...

Rest is an essential biological activity for all animals. Urban animals encounter multiple anthropogenic disturbances while resting. Since free-ranging dogs (FRDs) have survived as a population in the Global South for centuries, they provide a unique opportunity to study adaptation to the human-dominated landscape. In a field-based study over 3 yea...

Scent marks play a crucial role in both territorial and sexual communication in many species. We investigated how free-ranging dogs respond to scent marks from individuals of different identities in terms of sex and group, across varying strategic locations within their territory. Both male and female dogs showed heightened interest in scent marks...

Palatability of food is driven by multiple factors like taste, smell, texture, freshness, etc. and can be very variable across species. There are classic examples of local adaptations leading to speciation, driven by food availability. Urbanization across the world is causing rapid decline of biodiversity, while also driving local adaptations in so...

Rapid urbanization is a major cause of habitat and biodiversity loss and human–animal conflict. While urbanization is inevitable, we need to develop a good understanding of the urban ecosystem and the urban-adapted species, in order to ensure sustainable cities for our future. Scavengers play a major role in urban ecosystems, and often, urban adapt...

The human face is a multi-signal system continuously transmitting information of identity and emotion. In shared human-animal environments, the face becomes a reliable tool of heterospecific recognition. Because humans display mixed behaviour and pose differential risk to animals, adaptable decision-making based on recognition and classification of...

Rest is essential for animals to retain energy and alleviate stress. However, free-ranging dogs in human-dominated areas encounter obstacles such as noise, pollution, limited food sources, and anthropogenic disturbance while resting. Since free-ranging dogs have survived as a population in India, as in many other parts of the Global South for centu...

Seasonal fairs, bustling with human activity, provide a unique environment for exploring the intricate interplay between humans and free-ranging dogs. This study investigated these interactions during seasonal fairs in Nadia and Bardhaman districts, West Bengal, India. Across 13 fairground sites, we explore how human footfall and resource availabil...

Individual human recognition is important for species that live in close proximity to humans. Numerous studies on domesticated species and urban-adapted birds have highlighted this ability. One such species which is heavily reliant on humans is the free-ranging dog. Very little knowledge exists on the amount of time taken by free-ranging dogs to le...

Acquiring knowledge about the environment is crucial for survival. Animals, often driven by their exploratory tendencies, gather valuable information regarding food resources, shelter, mating partners, etc. However, neophobia, or avoiding novel environmental stimuli, can constrain their exploratory behaviour. While neophobia can reduce potential pr...

Most of the research on color vision related behaviors in dogs has involved training the dogs to perform visual discrimination tasks. We investigated the meaning of color to untrained Indian free-ranging dogs (FRDs). Using one-time multi-option choice tests for color preference in 134 adult dogs, we found the dogs to prefer yellow objects over blue...

Acquiring knowledge about the environment is crucial for survival. Animals, often driven by their explorative tendencies, gather valuable information regarding food resources, shelter, mating partners, etc. While neophilia, or the preference for novel environmental stimuli or objects, can promote exploratory behaviour, neophobia, or avoidance of no...

Hymenopterans present a fascinating diversity of social organisation, from solitary individuals building unprotected nests like the potter wasps to the very complex and highly organised societies of honey bees and most ants. A large number of paper wasps have intermediate levels of social complexity, and are designated as primitively eusocial, as t...

Free-ranging dogs (FRDs) represent the largest population of dogs around the world. Their lives are not under direct human supervision and these dogs can be found in and around all possible forms of human habitation. Increased urbanization, poor population management measures and open garbage dumps have compounded their population over the years, l...

The assessment of research performance is widely seen as a vital tool in upholding the highest standards of quality, with selection and competition believed to drive progress. Specifically, academic institutions need to take critical decisions on hiring and promotion, while facing external pressure by also being subject to research assessment [1–4]...

Free-ranging dogs form the majority of the domesticated dog population in the world. They are a ubiquitous presence in many Southeast Asian countries, especially India, and were the first animals to colonize urban settlements. They spend their entire lives on streets unsupervised by humans and fending for themselves. In this chapter, we summarize t...

Foraging and acquiring of food is a delicate balance between managing the costs (both energy and social) and individual preferences. Previous research on solitarily foraging free-ranging dogs showed that they prioritise the nutritionally highest valued food, but do not ignore other less valuable food either, displaying typical scavenger behaviour....

Foraging and acquiring of food is a delicate balance between managing the costs, both energy and social, and individual preferences. Previous research on the solitary foraging of free ranging dogs showed that they prioritized the nutritionally highest valued food patch first but do not ignore other less valuable food either, displaying typical scav...

Rapid urbanization is a major cause of habitat and biodiversity loss and human-animal conflict. While urbanization is inevitable, we need to develop a good understanding of the urban ecosystem and the urban-adapted species in order to ensure sustainable cities for our future. Scavengers play a major role in urban ecosystems, and often, urban adapta...

Rapid urbanisation leading to habitat loss is a major problem for biodiversity conservation. While urbanisation negatively affects the survival of many species, some species are well adapted to the urban environment, often depending on humans directly or indirectly for food and shelter. Such animals show various behavioural adaptations to anthropog...

Animals of different taxa can read and respond to various human communicative signals. Such a mechanism facilitates animals to acquire social information and helps them react in a context-dependent manner. Dogs have garnered extensive attention owing to their socio-cognitive skills and remarkable sensitivity to human social cues. For example, dogs...

Review of the book: Experiments in Animal Behaviour: Cutting-Edge Research at Trifling Cost by Raghavendra Gadagkar

Presented my MS thesis work on the effects of sterilization on the social behaviour of free-ranging dogs of India.

Talks about the effects of sterilization on the social behaviours of free-ranging dogs in India.

My virtual poster presented at Animal Behaviour Live held virtually on 18th-19th November 2021 features the effects of sterilization on the social behaviours of free-ranging dogs in India.

Rapid urbanisation, leading to habitat loss is a major problem for biodiversity conservation. While urbanisation negatively affects the survival of many species, some species are well adapted to the urban environment, often depending on humans directly or indirectly for food and shelter. Such animals show various behavioural adaptations to anthropo...

The domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris) is known to have evolved from gray wolves, about 15,000 years ago. They frequently exist as free-ranging populations across the world. They are typically scavengers and well adapted to living among humans. Most canids living in and around urban habitats tend to avoid humans and show crepuscular activity pea...

The poster talks about the scavenging strategies and feeding preference of free-ranging dogs both in solitary and groups

Interaction with its immediate environment determines the ecology of an organism. Short-lived perturbations in the habitat can adversely affect both wild and domesticated species. When such disturbances are unpredictable, they are more challenging to tackle. Therefore, specific strategies become essential for species to overcome adversities that ca...

Apparently random events in nature often reveal hidden patterns when analyzed using diverse and robust statistical tools. Power law distributions, for example, project diverse natural phenomenon, ranging from earthquakes to heartbeat dynamics into a common platform of self-similarity. Animal behavior in specific contexts has been shown to follow po...

Interaction with its immediate environment determines the ecology of an organism. Species present in any habitat, wild or urban, may face extreme pressure due to sudden perturbations. When such disturbances are unpredictable, it becomes more challenging to tackle. Implementation of specific strategies is therefore essential for different species to...

The ability of dogs to read human communicative intents is cognitively remarkable. For example, pet dogs have been shown to follow human pointing cues readily, from simple to complex ones. The dual influence of domestication and ontogeny is thought to be responsible for such socio-cognitive skills in dogs. While domestication talks about genetic pr...

Research on human-animal interaction has skyrocketed in the last decade. Rapid urbanization has led scientists to investigate its impact on several species living in the vicinity of humans. Domesticated dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) are one such species that interact with humans and are also called man’s best friend. However, when it comes to the f...

Cohabiting with humans in the same ecological space requires significant variation in the behavioral repertoire of animals. Behavioral variation can potentially improve the chances of survival of an individual. The influence of humans can be measured by quantifying specific behavioral parameters of the interacting individuals. Sociability or the te...

Newspaper article

Research on human-animal interaction has skyrocketed in the last decade. Rapid urbanization has led scientists to investigate its impact on several species living in the vicinity of humans. Domesticated dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) are one such species that interact with humans and are also called man’s best friend. However, when it comes to the f...

Co-habiting with humans in the same ecological space requires significant variation in a species’ behavioral repertoire. Behavioral variation can potentially improve the chances of survival of a species. Influence of humans can be measured by quantifying specific behavioral parameters of the interacting species. Sociability or the tendency to be fr...

In urban environments, humans are a part of an interaction network of several species, impacting them directly or indirectly. The positive, negative and neutral components of such impact can be assessed by studying human-animal interactions in various habitats. While studies have shown animals' reactions to specific human social cues, information i...

Since free-ranging dogs regularly engage in various kinds of interactions with each other, it is interesting to know whether they are capable of distinguishing between vocalizations of their own and other groups. In this study, a playback experiment was used to test if dogs can differentiate between barkings of their own vs other groups.

Canids display a vast diversity of social organizations, from solitary-living to pairs to packs. Domestic dogs have descended from pack-living gray wolf-like ancestors. Unlike their group living ancestors, free-ranging dogs are facultatively social, preferring to forage solitarily. They are scavengers by nature, mostly dependent on human garbage an...

The domestic dog is known to have evolved from gray wolves, about 15,000 years ago. They majorly exist as free-ranging populations across the world. They are typically scavengers and well adapted to living among humans. Most canids living in and around urban habitats tend to avoid humans and show crepuscular activity peaks. In this study, we carrie...

Dogs are one of the most common species to be found as pets and have been subjects of human curiosity, leading to extensive research on their socialization with humans. One of the dominant themes in dog cognition pertains to their capacity of understanding and responding to human referential gestures. The remarkable socio-cognitive skills of pet do...

The ability of animals to communicate using gaze is a rich area of research. How domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) use and respond to the gaze of humans is an area of particular interest. This study examined how three groups of domestic dogs from different populations (free-ranging dogs, pet dogs, and shelter dogs) responded to a human during...

Animals in their natural environment often face situa-tions where it may be advantageous for them to be able to make decisions based on numerical or quantity discrimination. Canids like pet dogs, wolves and coy-otes have been known to have a preliminary sense of number. We tested 303 unique free-ranging dogs for seven food-choice tasks, skewed in t...

Dogs are the most common species to be found as pets and have been subjects of human curiosity leading to extensive research on their socialization with humans. One of the dominant themes in dog cognition pertains to their capacity of understanding and responding to human referential gestures. The remarkable socio-cognitive skills of pet dogs, whil...

The benefits of group living mostly surpass the disadvantages like sharing of resources and competition over food, space and mates, driving the evolution of social organization. Group living can be facilitated by social tolerance and cooperation among the group members. Social canids (e.g. wolves) display cooperative breeding, hunting, and prosocia...

The sociability of urban Indian free-ranging dogs varies at microhabitat levels. This study shows the influence of human flux (~movement) on behavioural outcomes of dogs.

METHODS Cafeteria Choice test Dustbin test Cafeteria Choice test Dustbin test QUESTIONS • Do free-ranging dogs follow the Rule of Thumb? • Do they use any strategy while scavenging? • Do dogs share? Scavenging Strategy Dogs followed sniff-and-snatch, in case of proteins (χ 2 =9.32, df=1, p=0.0022). Latency between the two experimental setups Sniffi...

South Asian countries are often at odds with each other for political, economic, and emotional reasons. The conflicts are a frustrating contrast to the promise of the region. Covering only 3.5% of Earth's landmass, but inhabited by 23.7% of humanity, the region has the highest rate of economic growth, is rich in knowledge-based institutions, and is...

Mutualism is a very special and rare kind of natural cooperative behavior. A tradition practiced in some parts of sub-Saharan Africa is an interesting case of mutualism between two very unlikely partners — birds and humans. Some species of honeyguides have developed a mutualistic relationship with the African honey-hunters. Both species use a set o...

Species inhabiting urban environments experience enormous anthropogenic stress. Behavioural plasticity and flexibility of temperament are crucial to successful urban-adaptation. Urban free-ranging dogs experience variable human impact, from positive to negative and represent an ideal system to evaluate the effects of human-induced stress on behavio...

Apparently random events in nature often reveal hidden patterns when analysed using diverse and robust statistical tools. Power-law distributions, for example, project diverse natural phenomenon, ranging from earthquakes1 to heartbeat dynamics2 onto a common platform of statistical self-similarity. A large range of human languages are known to foll...

Domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) are remarkably sensitive and responsive while interacting with humans. Pet dogs are known to have social skills and abilities to display situation-specific responses, but there is lack of information regarding free-ranging dogs which constitute majority of the world's dog population. Free-ranging dogs found in...

Domestic dogs have descended from gray wolves through a process of domestication, evolving from a predominantly hunting to a scavenging lifestyle. Though the exact process of domestication is not yet clearly understood, various behavioral adaptations in dogs are considered to have been crucial to the development of the unique bond shared by dogs an...

Dogs have co-evolved with humans for at least 15,000 years, through the process of domestication, which has led to the development of several cognitive abilities in these social canids. Canids like dogs, wolves and coyotes have a preliminary number sense. We tested 286 unique free-ranging dogs for 7 food-choice tasks, skewed in terms of stimulus: o...

Dog human relationship Inter-specific interactions between human and free-ranging dogs in the streets of India.

Domestic dogs are remarkably sensitive and responsive while interacting with humans. Pet dogs are known to have social skills and abilities to display situation-specific responses, but there is lack of information regarding free-ranging dogs which constitute majority of the world's dog population. Free-ranging dogs found in most of the developing c...

Cooperative breeding is an excellent example of cooperation in social groups. Domestic dogs have evolved from cooperatively hunting and breeding ancestors but have adapted to a facultatively social scavenging lifestyle on streets, and solitary living in human homes. Pets typically breed and reproduce under human supervision, but free-ranging dogs c...

Venn diagram. Venn diagram showing the number of mother-litter units that received maternal care, male care and female allocare. Light red, blue and dark red represents the litters which received maternal care, male care and female allocare respectively. (TIF)

Table showing the AIC values for different data sets. Since we have used the “proportion of time spent in active care” and “proportion of time spent in passive care” as the response variables, we need to find a best fit distribution for the data. We have used “fitdistrplus” package to check the best fit distribution of the data set that are continu...

Ethogram representing active and passive care behaviours. A table showing the ethogram for care (modified from Paul et al. 2017). A unique two letter code was used for recording each behaviour during observations. The table shows the code, the name of the behaviour and its description. Maternal/ Allo care was divided into active and passive care. A...

Detailed summary of the GLMMs for active care. Text represents the detail summary of the GLMMs for active care shown by the putative fathers (PF) and allomothers (AM) towards focal pups during the observations. (TXT)

Detailed summary of the GLMMs for passive care. Text represents the detail summary of the GLMMs for passive care shown by the putative fathers (PF) and allomothers (AM) towards focal pups during the observations. (TXT)

Tabulated details of quadratic regression. Table showing the details of quadratic regression. Formula used: lm(formula = femaleallocare ~ week + week2). Proportion of time spent in active care by the allomothers (femaleallocare) was considered as the response variable for the quadratic regression. The two variables used are the pup age in weeks (we...

Most insect societies can be classified as either primitively or highly eusocial. Primitively eusocial insect societies are usually led by queens who are morphologically indistinguishable from the workers and use aggression to control the workers, thereby typically holding top positions in the colony’s dominance hierarchy. Highly eusocial species h...

Dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) are the first species to have been domesticated, and unlike other domesticated species, they have developed a special bonding with their owners. The ability to respond to human gestures and language, and the hypersocial behaviours of dogs are considered key factors that have led them to become man's best friend. Free-r...

This study summarizes an ontogenic effect on free-ranging dogs’ point following behaviour.

Differences in pet dogs’ and captive wolves’ ability to follow human communicative intents have led to the proposition of several hypotheses regarding the possession and development of social cognitive skills in dogs. It is possible that the social cognitive abilities of pet dogs are induced by indirect conditioning through living with humans, and...

Experimenter 2 standing in a neutral posture in control condition. (PDF)

Sample sizes used for the three age categories in the experiment for test and control conditions. (PDF)

Age wise sample size of pups used for test and control experiments. (PDF)

Pointing gesture using an adult individual. (MP4)

Effect of frequency of gaze alternation on pup’s point-following behaviour. (PDF)