in Moscow (The Muttscow Express) STRAY dogs are commuting to and from a city centre on underground trains in
>> search of food scraps.
>> The clever canines board the Tube each morning. After a hard day
>> scavenging
>> and begging on the streets, they hop back on the train and return to the
>> suburbs where they spend the night. Experts studying the dogs say they
>> even
>> work together to make sure they get off at the right stop - after
>> learning
>> to
>> judge the length of time they need to spend on the train. The mutts
>> choose
>> the
>> quietest carriages at the front and back of the train.
>> They have also developed tactics to hustle humans into giving them more
>> food
>> on the streets of Moscow .
>> Scientists believe the phenomenon began after the Soviet Union collapsed
>> in
>> the 1990s, and Russia 's new capitalists moved industrial complexes from
>> the
>> city centre to the suburbs. Dr Andrei Poiarkov, of the Moscow Ecology and
>> Evolution Institute, said: "These complexes were used by homeless dogs as
>> shelters, so the dogs had to move together with their houses. Because the
>> best
>> scavenging for food is in the city centre, the dogs had to learn how to
>> travel
>> on the subway - to get to the centre in the morning, then back home in
>> the
>> evening, just like people."
>>
>> Dr. Poiarkov told how the dogs like to play during their daily commute.
>> He
>> said: "They jump on the train seconds before the doors shut, risking
>> their
>> tails getting jammed. They do it for fun. And sometimes they fall asleep and
>> get off at the wrong stop."
>> The dogs have learned to use traffic lights to cross the road safely,
>> said
>> Dr
>> Poiarkov. And they use cunning tactics to obtain tasty morsels of
>> shawarma, a
>> kebab-like snack popular in Moscow . They sneak up behind people eating
>> shawarmas - then bark loudly to shock them into dropping their food. With
>> children the dogs "play cute" by putting their heads on youngsters' knees
>> and
>> staring pleadingly into their eyes to win sympathy - and scraps. Dr
>> Poiarkov
>> added: "Dogs are surprisingly good psychologists."
>> The Moscow mutts are not the first animals to use public transport. In
>> 2006 a
>> Jack Russell in Dunnington, North Yorks , began taking the bus to his
>> local
>> pub in search of sausages. And two years ago passengers in Wolverhampton
>> were
>> stunned when a white cat called Macavity started catching the 331 bus to
>> a
>> fish and chip shop.
No comments:
Post a Comment