April 03, 2006
Update 4: The Domesticated Wolves of Lima
| Since we are still far from the
Amazon, the chance of seeing a howler monkey or caiman is very slim. Here
in Lima, Peru, a giant city of over 10 million people, we have come across
a "wild" animal of a different sort.; the domesticated dog. Lurking
around the streets and alleys, stray dogs can be seen everywhere. As they
are "wild," there are several things we should know about stray
dogs before sharing the streets. Did you know that Dogs are domesticated Wolves? How could that be? Does that mean your dog is basically a wolf? About 15,000 years ago, humans started to build cities. Some hungry wolves found easy meals provided by the man-made trash piles in the village. Soon people began to intentionally feed the wolves and the bond began; this was the beginning of domestication of the dog. The main behavior defining dogs from wolves was this willingness to eat near humans. A wolf's life changes drastically as soon as it finds a reliable, sizeable meal without hunting. Their world shrinks along with their need for speed and predatory skills. In fact, dogs have a smaller brain and less powerful bodies than wolves. This is clear by the looks of the many mangy mutts strolling through Lima. The odd thing is that no one takes ownership of the dogs and there are no government agencies working to control the dog population. Certainly I can try to understand the situation better…. Perhaps the dogs are helpful cleaners of the streets, eating all the smelly, decomposing food. Maybe they serve as a protection or security alarm to warn of intruders. Maybe they possess some mystical powers that people are attracted to. Whatever the story is, we will be sure to keep our distance from stray dogs. Just as if they were wild animals, we will not feed the dogs. Dog Gone! Patrick
|
Since you told us to be aware of rabies, we did not get close enough to photograph any stray dogs here in Lima. |
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