Lives of Streeties

Over the course of the last few months, we have gradually come to realise that we have been staring at something fascinating - Streeties have been managing extraordinarily complicated interactions, collaborations and negotiations with the people around, something most...

At BHARCS, our focus is not on behaviourism, but on ethology. That’s why we love studying streeties -  the free ranging dogs of India.

Lives of Streeties is an ongoing study that I am conducting on the street dogs of Bangalore, India. Streeties is a term of endearment that Bangaloreans use to refer to the dogs that roam free on the streets of the city.

I spent most of 2015 flying back and for...

A mum and her puppies have turned up at our exploring site. Every morning when we go there, the mum shows that she does not like us being there. The puppies are cautions, except for this one. Nishi has managed to make friends with her, as you can see in these slightly...

The intent of #livesofstreeties is to bust myths about streeties. Today the myth we want to bust is that streeties are somehow different from our pet dogs. It's this mental separation that makes people afraid of street dogs. Even among academics, I sometimes see people...

Media only seems to talk about street dogs when they gravely hurt humans and then the media paints an elaborately sensational narrative of the "feral dogs of India" being "let loose on the people". Of course, no one can deny that as resources shrink, man-animal conflic...

When people walk their dogs in Bangalore, some people struggle dealing with streeties and see streeties as a nuisance. But they don't have to be. In fact, streeties can be a huge asset.  Many of them have very good social skills, much better than most pet dogs. People...

Our street dogs are not just adorable bundles of love and joy, but also a source of information that fascinates the world. After all, dogs are a human's best friend and many of us are eager to know more and more about them. The best way to get to know an animal is to o...

In the 1960s, Blue cross of India discovered that the Madras High Commision had been trying to control dog population through culling for over 100 years and had not achieved much success. After the study, the High Commision had to admit that their strategy had been a f...

Streeties lead the most unconventional of lives. Dogs are and have always been extreme survivors and can be highly creative when it comes to problem solving in their lives. They are also very keen observers of humans and seem to have the ability to identify a "dog frie...