Bark in the Park: A Review of Domestic Dogs in Parks

Weston, Michael A.; Fitzsimons, James; Wescott, Geoffrey; Miller, Kelly K.; Ekanayake, Kasun B.; Schneider, Thomas J.

doi:10.1007/s00267-014-0311-1

Cited by 78 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…The negative effects of domestic dogs on wildlife, including predation, disturbance and disease transmission, can be reduced by excluding dogs from nature reserves and providing alternative dog exercise areas, such as designated off‐leash dog parks (Weston et al . ). The success of these measures depends on public education campaigns that highlight pet ownership responsibilities, and an ongoing program of compliance and enforcement (Eyles & Mulvaney ).…”

Section: Lesson 4: Education and Engagement Connects Residents With Nmentioning

confidence: 99%

Key lessons for achieving biodiversity‐sensitive cities and towns

Ikin¹,

Roux²,

Rayner³

et al. 2015

Eco Management Restoration

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Summary Australia's urban landscapes offer opportunities to marry socio‐economic and biodiversity conservation objectives. Yet, information is needed on what urban landscape and habitat features are important for wildlife. In this article, we draw together our research from southeastern Australia to describe key lessons for biodiversity‐sensitive cities and towns. Lesson 1: The effects of urbanization on wildlife extend into adjacent habitats. We recommend retaining large, undisturbed areas of habitat away from development, avoiding intensive development adjacent to important conservation areas, prioritizing areas of ecological and social significance, screening light and noise pollution at the urban fringe and around large nature reserves, and planting appropriately provenanced locally native species for public streetscapes, parks and gardens. Lesson 2: Strategic enhancement of urban greenspace offers biodiversity gains. We recommend increasing the total amount of greenspace cover, maintaining ecological structures as habitat islands, using landscaping techniques to minimize risks to human safety, and gardening with low‐flowering native shrubs. Lesson 3: Large old trees need to be managed for long‐term sustainability. We recommend retaining large old trees in new developments, increasing the maximum standing life of urban trees, protecting regenerating areas and planting more seedlings, supplementing habitat features associated with large trees, and ensuring that young trees have space to grow through time. Lesson 4: Education and engagement connects residents with nature and raises awareness. We recommend education programs to enhance opportunities for residents to experience and learn about biodiversity, engaging residents in the establishment and maintenance of wildlife habitat, providing ‘cues to care’, facilitating access to garden plants that benefit wildlife, and encouraging cat containment. These lessons provide an evidence‐base for implementing conservation and management actions to improve the capacity of our cities and towns to support a diverse and abundant biota.

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Section: Lesson 4: Education and Engagement Connects Residents With Nmentioning

confidence: 99%

Key lessons for achieving biodiversity‐sensitive cities and towns

Ikin¹,

Roux²,

Rayner³

et al. 2015

Eco Management Restoration

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“…Thus, current practices in urban planning may have paradoxical outcomes for wildlife, concentrating dogs in conservation areas. This situationdogs being quasi ubiquitous in public green spaces and becoming concentrated in reserves -is not uncommon elsewhere (Weston et al 2014a). It calls for land-use planning decisions to more clearly articulate the precise objectives of green spaces (e.g.…”

Section: Dog Management On Beachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conservation gone to the dogs: when canids rule the beach in small coastal reserves

et al. 2014

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On most developed coastlines, dunes backing ocean beaches constitute an urbanised landscape mosaic containing remnant pockets of small conservation areas. Urbanised beaches are also prime sites for domestic dogs, known to be environmentally harmful in many other settings. It is unknown, however, whether small, protected parcels of dune are adequate for biological conservation and whether dogs compromise their functional conservation objectives. Here we examine, for two small (2 km ocean boundary) reserves in Eastern Australia abutting an urban area, whether such small reserves can continue to function as effective conservation instruments on ocean beaches, using scavenger community composition and efficiency to assess ecosystem function. Two non-native species of canidsdomestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) and red foxes (Vulpes vulpes)-were ubiquitous and numerous inside conservation areas, to the point of having become the most abundant vertebrate scavengers at the beach-dune interface, outcompeting native scavengers for wavecast carrion. Dogs and foxes have effectively supplanted raptors, normally abundant on nonurban beaches in the region, and other avian scavengers, as the principal consumers of animal carcasses both inside the declared reserves and at the urban beach. Whilst the ecological threats posed by foxes are widely and intensively addressed in Australia in the form of fox-control programs, dog controls are less common and stringent. Our data emphasize, however, that managing domestic dogs may be required to the same extent in order to maintain key forms and functions in coastal reserves situated close to urban areas.

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“…Better understanding of how dog walkers and wildlife trappers share the use of forest and municipal lands is needed to more effectively manage these shared spaces to minimize potential conflicts between dog owners and wildlife trappers, and foster public support for and participation in wildlife trapping. Future research on normative perceptions of dog control, multiuse recreation, and impacts of dogs on conservation can inform community‐based engagement and educational efforts (Williams et al , Weston et al ).…”

Section: Management Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Limiting conflicts when managing public lands for furbearer trapping and dog‐related recreation

Triezenberg

Knuth

2018

Wildl. Soc. Bull.

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Resource users with different interests frequent public lands, resulting in opportunity for conflict. We examined the issue of interactions among wildlife trappers and dog owners by examining stakeholders' socio-demographics, land usage, concerns, attitudes, and satisfaction with multiuse public land management for recreation with dogs and furbearer trapping. We sent mail-back questionnaires to licensed dog owners (n ¼ 1,000; hereafter, dog owners) and licensed wildlife trappers (n ¼ 1,000; hereafter, wildlife trappers) in a 10-county area of New York, USA, during 2009. After weighting data, results revealed dog owners and wildlife trappers had differences in land usage patterns for all land types. Dog owners and wildlife trappers, regardless of whether they owned a dog, differed in all items except that they had similar levels of satisfaction for management of public lands in their region for both recreation with dogs and wildlife trapping. Seeing dogs under voice and sight command of their owner or trainer was positively related to satisfaction with management of public lands for wildlife trappers and agreement that dog owners have few places to take their dogs and allow them to run off-leash. Concern about dogs getting caught in wildlife traps was negatively related to satisfaction with public lands management for wildlife trappers. For dog owners, agreement that trappers should be allowed to trap on public lands was positively related to satisfaction. Our results suggest that state wildlife agencies seeking to improve stakeholder interactions and satisfaction with public land management for both wildlife trapping and recreation with dogs should promote the importance of dogs being under control through voice or sight command or directly on a leash, and should consider creating spaces for dogs to run off leash. Ó 2018 The Wildlife Society.

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Bark in the Park: A Review of Domestic Dogs in Parks

Cited by 78 publications

References 43 publications

Key lessons for achieving biodiversity‐sensitive cities and towns

Key lessons for achieving biodiversity‐sensitive cities and towns

Conservation gone to the dogs: when canids rule the beach in small coastal reserves

Limiting conflicts when managing public lands for furbearer trapping and dog‐related recreation

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