The ecology and behaviour of feral dogs: a case study from Central Italy

In Italy, free-roaming dogs are a familiar sight to anyone visiting the countryside. A nationwide census conducted in 1981 revealed that almost every region reported free-roaming dog populations. The national estimate was about 800 000 free-roaming dogs, mostly distributed in the central and southern regions (Boitani & Fabbri, 1983a ). More recently, these estimates were confi rmed by Genovesi & Duprè ( 2000 ). Feral dogs were estimated to represent about 10% of the total (they are only a component of the more numerous population of free-roaming dogs, as these also include stray dogs and all those allowed by their owners to move freely in and out of villages and into surrounding countryside). We studied one group of dogs in the Apennine Mountains about 100 km east of Rome. The group was selected as representative of a truly “feral” condition. We were interested in dogs living in a completely wild and free state with no direct food or shelter intentionally supplied by humans (Causey & Cude, 1980 ). The dogs also showed no evidence of socialization to humans (Daniels & Bekoff, 1989a ), and tended to display a strong and continuous avoidance of direct human contact. Here we present data on group composition, life histories, recruitment, home range, movements and activity patterns.