(dog)spired

In Moscow, stray dogs commute to and from a city center on underground trains in search of food scraps. The clever canines board the Tube each morning. After a hard day of scavenging and begging on the streets, they hop back on the train and return to the suburbs where they spend the night.

Experts who are 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 dogs choose the quietest carriages at the front and back of the train.

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 center, the dogs had to learn how to travel on the subway to get to it in the morning, and then back home in the evening, just like people.

Dr. Poiarkov told how the dogs like to play during their daily commute. He added that they “jump on the train only 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 food. They sneak up behind people eating snacks, and then bark loudly to shock them into dropping their food.

With children, the dogs play cute by putting their heads on youngsters’ knees, and then stare pleadingly into their eyes to win their sympathy and scraps. Dr. Poiarkov added, “Dogs are surprisingly good psychologists.”