Preventive Veterinary Medicine 135 (2016) 59–66 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Preventive Veterinary Medicine journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/prevetmed Urban dogs in rural areas: Human-mediated movement defines dog populations in southern Chile Federico J. Villatoro a,∗ , Maximiliano A. Sepúlveda b , Paulina Stowhas c,1 , Eduardo A. Silva-Rodríguez d,∗ a Programa de Doctorado en Medicina de la Conservación, Facultad de Ecología y Recursos Naturales, Universidad Andres Bello, República 440, Santiago, Chile b Departamento de Planificación y Desarrollo, Gerencia de Áreas Silvestres Protegidas del Estado, Corporación Nacional Forestal, Paseo Bulnes 285, Santiago, Chile c Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 550N Park, Box 47, Madison, Wisconsin 53706 USA, USA d Departamento de Ecología y Biodiversidad, Facultad de Ecología y Recursos Naturales, Universidad Andres Bello, República 440, Santiago, Chile a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 19 May 2016 Received in revised form 27 October 2016 Accepted 6 November 2016 Keywords: Immigration Dog population Dog management Human-mediated dog movement Population dynamics a b s t r a c t Management strategies for dog populations and their diseases include reproductive control, euthanasia and vaccination, among others. However, the effectiveness of these strategies can be severely affected by human-mediated dog movement. If immigration is important, then the location of origin of dogs imported by humans will be fundamental to define the spatial scales over which population manage- ment and research should apply. In this context, the main objective of our study was to determine the spatial extent of dog demographic processes in rural areas and the proportion of dogs that could be labeled as immigrants at multiple spatial scales. To address our objective we conducted surveys in households located in a rural landscape in southern Chile. Interviews allowed us to obtain information on the demo- graphic characteristics of dogs in these rural settings, human influence on dog mortality and births, the localities of origin of dogs living in rural areas, and the spatial extent of human-mediated dog movement. We found that most rural dogs (64.1%) were either urban dogs that had been brought to rural areas (40.0%), or adopted dogs that had been previously abandoned in rural roads (24.1%). Some dogs were brought from areas located as far as ∼700 km away from the study area. Human-mediated movement of dogs, especially from urban areas, seems to play a fundamental role in the population dynamics of dogs in rural areas. Consequently, local scale efforts to manage dog populations or their diseases are unlikely to succeed if implemented in isolation, simply because dogs can be brought from surrounding urban areas or even distant locations. We suggest that efforts to manage or study dog populations and related diseases should be implemented using a multi-scale approach. © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Domestic dogs are both beneficial (Serpell, 1995; Raina et al., 1999; Wells, 2007) and problematic not only for human societies (Hampson et al., 2009; Acosta-Jamett et al., 2010a; Dalla Villa et al., 2010; Overall and Love, 2011) but also for wild vertebrates (Knobel et al., 2014; Ritchie et al., 2014; Vanak et al., 2014). Problems related ∗ Corresponding authors. E-mail addresses: f.villatoropaz@uandresbello.edu (F.J. Villatoro), eduardo.silva@unab.cl (E.A. Silva-Rodríguez). 1 Present address: Juan Fernández Island Restoration Project, Island Conservation, Las Urbinas 53, Office 42, Santiago, Chile. to dogs are often associated to free-roaming animals (Vanak and Gompper, 2009; Dalla Villa et al., 2010). However, free roaming animals are frequently owned (Ibarra et al., 2006; Morters et al., 2014; Sepúlveda et al., 2014a). As a result, the reduction of the incidence of dog-caused problems requires managing owned ani- mals. Dog management includes efforts to reduce population size as well as disease prevention. Attempts to control dog population size often consider surgical sterilization, lethal management and/or contraception (Dalla Villa et al., 2010). However, population mod- eling suggests that the effectiveness of both lethal and reproductive control strategies on stray domestic animals depend on immigra- tion (Amaku et al., 2010; Lohr et al., 2013). Similarly, vaccination is the most effective alternative to prevent some infectious diseases http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.prevetmed.2016.11.004 0167-5877/© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.