Are dogs crepuscular? Short answer: kinda, wild dogs are.

It’s interesting to note how many crepuscular animals end up being domesticated by humans, animals such as cats, dogs, rabbits, and more are all domesticated to varying degrees. Much like these other animals, feral dogs are crepuscular when they are on their own in the wild. Domesticated animals however, tend to shift their activity habits to match their human owners. Dogs are no exception.Domestic dogs will shift their sleeping patterns to whatever is most convenient for it’s social environment.

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So why are feral dogs crepuscular? It’s hard to say with scientific precision and certainty. There could be a number of reasons for these activity patterns in dogs. One reason could be the weather. Feral dogs can live in environments all over the world. They can survive in warm climates, cold climates, humid climates, dry climates, and everything in between. Regardless of where the dog is found, it’s generally a safe bet that the weather is more extreme  during the middle of the day, and the middle of the night.  The crepuscular twilight hours provide a more comfortable in-between spot for the dogs to enjoy.

Many species other than dogs may develop crepuscular activity patterns to to avoid predators or to find prey. While we can’t rule this factor out for prehistoric dogs, I personally don’t believe that this is a primary factor today due to the ubiquity of dogs all over the world. Their prey would look different depending on where in the world they are, and i’m not sure selective pressures to specific ecosystems would affect dogs so globally. But then again, it’s also possible that dogs are found all over the world because humans are found all over the world. It’s possible that dogs followed the migrating populations of people. I should stress again, this is all conjecture on my part. I’m not sure how big of a role the predatory nature of dogs played in the manifestation of crepuscular traits.

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