Territory and Group Structure of Free-Ranging Dogs in Urban–Rural India: Data for Testing the Resource Dispersion Hypothesis

This dataset supports a study testing the Resource Dispersion Hypothesis (RDH) in free-ranging dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) across urban and rural habitats in India. It includes spatial and social data collected through two complementary approaches: a census-based study and a territory-based tracking study, conducted over three reproductive seasons—pre-mating, mating, and post-mating (pup emergence).

The census-based dataset comprises observations from 52 rural and 41 urban sites, where surveys documented dog presence, group structure, age-sex classification, and affiliative interactions. Each survey area was defined as a polygon (1.29 to 161 hectares) encompassing human settlements and nearby accessible areas. Observers also geolocated and categorized food-related resources (e.g., waste bins, food stalls, shops, markets), recorded anthropogenic food subsidies through household surveys, and scored resource points following published protocols.

The territory-based dataset includes high-resolution spatio-temporal tracking of free-ranging dog groups across multiple seasons. Territories were defined using behavioural observations (≥30 hours per group/season), focusing on aggression, scent-marking, and territorial defense. Each territory polygon includes GPS-marked boundaries and mapped food resources.

Resource distribution within each territory is quantified using:

Patch Richness (total food resource points),
Resource Heterogeneity (types of food sources), and
Resource Dispersion (mean inter-resource distances, calculated using R spatial packages).
The dataset also includes metadata on dog group composition, male:female ratios, and seasonal changes in territory size.

Statistical analysis scripts (GLMs and GLMMs using lme4 and glmmTMB in R) are available to reproduce the findings. The data can be used to study spatial ecology, urban animal behaviour, and effects of human-driven resource variation on free-ranging species.