Sight, smell and more: What cues do free-ranging dogs use for decision-making while scavenging?

TL;DR

This study investigates how free-ranging dogs use visual and olfactory cues during foraging, revealing their flexible, speed-oriented decision-making influenced by environmental factors and sensory inputs.

Contribution

It provides novel insights into the hierarchical and synergistic use of sensory cues in free-ranging dogs during natural foraging.

Findings

Dogs show limited preference for olfactory cues over visual cues.

Decision-making is influenced by environmental noise, risk, and perceptual factors.

Dogs adopt a good-enough strategy, prioritizing speed over accuracy.

Abstract

Finding food is a fundamental activity for survival of all living organisms. Free-ranging dogs have been known to use their olfaction to assess the quality and type of available food but their use of visual ability in foraging is not well-documented. In the current study, we seek to remedy that by testing free-ranging dogs in a food-based choice test. We tested whether the dogs implemented hierarchical or synergistic usage of cues while finding food. We found limited prioritization of olfactory cues over visual cues in dichromatic choice tests but in phases with similar perceptual elements, the sensory choice was not clear. Furthermore, free-ranging dogs display a dynamic decision-making in unpredictable urban environments adopting a good-enough strategy during foraging. They prefer speed over accuracy, settling for intermediate quality food if their preferred food item is not available. These dogs also displayed left-bias during food choice. In multi-sensorial, natural setting multiple modulators like environmental noise, risk, and internal perceptual elements apart from food cues seem to be affecting the decision-making in dogs.