Behavioural data on begging responses of free-ranging dogs in urban India

Published: 13 May 2026| Version 1 | DOI: 10.17632/bn4drcjk7n.1
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Description

This dataset contains behavioural observations of 650 free-ranging dogs from urban and peri-urban West Bengal, India. The data were collected to examine how social context, dog sex, experimental gaze/food condition, and experimenter gender influenced begging behaviour toward humans. Behavioural variables include total begging time, active begging time, passive begging time, and non-begging time during a 180 s experimental trial.

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Steps to reproduce

1. Use the behavioural dataset to calculate total begging time, active begging time, passive begging time, and non-begging time for each dog during the 180 s trial. 2. Fit a beta-binomial GLMM to test effects of social context, dog sex, experimental condition, and experimenter gender on total begging time. 3. For dogs that showed begging behaviour, fit a second beta-binomial GLMM to test the same predictors on the proportion of begging expressed as active begging. 4. Use the anonymized human survey dataset to compare reported feeding behaviour between male and female respondents using a chi-square test with Yates’ correction. 5. Check model diagnostics using simulation-based residual diagnostics, including tests for uniformity, overdispersion, and outliers.

Categories

Animal Behavior, Behavioral Ecology, Methodology in Biological Sciences, Urban Ecology, Human-Animal Interaction

Funders

  • Department of Biotechnology, India
    Grant ID: BT/HRD/NBA-NWB/39/2020-21 (YC-1)

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