Domestic Dog Ecology
A study was carried out in the Web Valley of the Bale Mountains National Park from November 2001 to October 2002 focusing on the ecology of domestic dog (Canis familiaris) to determine potential impacts on the Ethiopian wolf by exploitative and interference competition, disease transmission and hybridization. An examination of the socio-cultural importance of dogs was also carried out. The results showed that the density of dogs was highest (10 dogs/km2) in the wet season and lowest (4 dogs/km2) in the dry season. All dogs were owned and no feral dogs were identified. Nocturnal observation of behaviour of dogs and questionnaires revealed that dogs fulfil two primary roles in Bale; namely dogs help the local people defending their livestock from wild carnivores by acting as an ‘early-warning’ system and they keep villages clean of livestock carcasses, food preparation waste and human faeces. Only a small proportion of dogs were found to roam out of settlements, where close contact with wolves poses a risk of hybridization and disease transmission.