Dog FAQ

Now here’s a surprising piece of information: a recent study in Australia, carried out by Dr Peter Banks and Jessica Bryant, at the University of New South Wales, has suggested that dog walking can reduce the abundance of birds by as much as forty percent, even if the dog is kept on a lead.

The researchers did a controlled experiment into dog walking at ninety different sites in woodland on the urban fringe of Sydney, and monitored the responses of different kinds of birds. There were three conditions: individuals walking with dogs, people walking alone without dogs, and a control of no walkers and no dogs.

The sites used were of two types: firstly places where dog walking was allowed and done regularly, so that the birds in those places may have become used to dogs; and secondly, national park sites, where dog walking was forbidden by law. A range of dog sizes and breeds, and a range of different walkers, were used. In all cases the dogs were kept on leads.

Observers monitored all native birds seen or heard within fifty metres of a 250-metre trail. The monitoring started twenty seconds after the person, with or without dog, had set off and continued for ten minutes.

Banks and Bryant concluded that, “Dog walking caused a 41 per cent reduction in the numbers of bird individuals detected and a 35 per cent reduction in species richness compared with untreated controls. Humans walking alone also induced some disturbance but typically less than half that induced by dogs.”

Some Australian dog owners dispute the findings, and feel that their dogs do not constitute a danger to wildlife.

Filed under: Dog walking