Heterogeneity of hunting ability and nutritional status among domestic dogs in lowland Nicaragua

Abstract

In past and modern human societies, dogs have played an important role as hunting companions. Given considerable ethnographic evidence that dogs vary in their hunting abilities, this paper addresses the effects of key demographic variables, namely age and sex, on the amount of harvested game that dogs contribute in an indigenous Nicaraguan community. Controlling for variation in the time spent potentially hunting, male dogs and older dogs are significantly associated with greater harvests. These results may account for documented preferences for males in both archaeological and ethnographic contexts. Among societies in which dogs are used both as hunting companions and sources of food, the age-related delay in peak hunting ability also suggests a tradeoff that might explain the consumption of dogs shortly after they have reached adult size. Informant rankings of two cohorts of dogs indicate that residents of the community exhibit high agreement about the relative abilities of the dogs, and the rankings indicate that dogs from the same household exhibit comparable skill. There is little evidence that talented, highly-ranked dogs are provided a more nutritious diet, as measured by nitrogen-based and carbon-based isotopic analysis of hair samples. Overall, although dogs can be quite advantageous as hunting companions, this research suggests that the heterogeneity of hunting ability combines with the high mortality of dogs to impose risks on households that depend on dogs as a source of harvested meat.