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Parental care is an indispensable part of mammalian development where parents, especially the mothers, invest their time, energy and resources to provide care to their offspring, enhancing the offspring’s chances of survival. We used free-ranging dogs to study parental care and associated behaviours in a group living, facultatively social system. We found interesting cooperation- conflict dynamics within dog groups, during the early stages of pup development. Mothers provided extensive care but balanced time and energy investments to maximize their lifetime reproductive success. We were also able to provide support for parent-offspring theory using both field based observations and manipulative experiments. Pups also received additional care from putative fathers and related allomothers. While mothers mostly nursed them, fathers mostly played. Allomothers offered care voluntarily while becoming victims of milk-theft by non-filial pups. Pups showed sibling rivalry over maternal care, but showed high degree of socialization through play among themselves. In spite of the care received by pups, they faced high mortality in the post weaning stage mostly due to humans. Hence in spite of increased chances of competition living in groups comprised of relatives provides kin selection benefits through fitness returns in the free-ranging dogs. |