Do Animals Commute?

When you hear about animal commuters, you might be inclined to think about stray cows that cause traffic or a mother duck and her ducklings crossing the highway. However, certain animals have adapted to maneuver and take advantage of the urbanscapes that traverse their natural habitats. Many domesticated animals like cats, dogs, and the odd reptile around someone's neck have found their way around public transportation. This doesn't surprise one as much as individual wild animals that take commuting to the next level.

The Rhesus monkey population of Indian cities has been on the rise in recent times, so it is not uncommon to see a monkey riding on a bus or a train. Isolated incidents include a monkey riding in the Delhi metro holding onto the banister, shaming the other passengers, and the monkey who preferred the same window seat on a particular bus, made the bus its home from morning to evening, and one can guess what happened when he found a human commuter in his seat one day. Long story short, the monkey got its seat back. A lone monkey on a bus might be a fun sight, but you wouldn't want to stand too close to a troop of them because even though monkeys are shy creatures in the wild, in cities, they are known to become aggressive. Thankfully, driving monkeys are not a norm yet(we are not going to talk about the monkey who rode a bus and rammed it into two other vehicles).

Considering pigeons are everywhere, it is not surprising to see them riding the metro. In New York, pigeons are regular commuters. But unlike us, they are not en route to schools or offices. They enter, search for food crumbs, and exit as soon as the doors open for the next stop. But, they are not total bird-brains either. Some of them re-visit particular stations that are known to have pigeon-buffets.

Recent estimates suggest that up to 4000 coyotes live in the Chicago area, and hence it's not surprising that some of them have learned to commute, and strangely enough, they seem to be willingly moving to Chicago. These diurnal animals have even adapted their schedules to suit the nightlife in the city. Their increasing numbers in cities can be attributed to lack of hunting in cities, prey availability, and anthropogenic habitat destruction. City coyotes are more wily and adaptable than their non-urban counterparts. Many of them have even memorized the traffic patterns. Hence, it's not uncommon to see a coyote waiting for the red light to turn green. There have also been isolated incidents of coyotes riding the bus, like the light trail incident in Portland, Oregon.

Domestic animals like dogs, cats, and goats are regular commuters in certain parts of the world. Portland in 2008 witnessed a goat hitching a ride in a school bus. The Portland news station reported that 'the goat was taken into custody due to lack of proper fare.' Funnily enough, the owners did not realize that their goat was missing until they saw him on TV. The first feline that made headlines by riding a bus was Casper the commuting cat (also a book). Before his demise in 2010 by a freak motor accident, he was a regular commuter in Plymouth's city center bus.

England has its fair share of pubs and also pub frequenting pups. Ratty, a Jack Russel terrier, regularly took the local bus to get to the black bull pub, where he freely dined on sausages and other snacks. Unfortunately, he succumbed to the same fate as Casper.

Most of these animals take public transport looking for food and security, but none have learned to navigate human spaces as efficiently as the Moscow metro dogs. Unlike other critters, Moscow's strays have taken to riding the city's underground railway network. Although loud noises and crowded spaces are distracting and stressful for most pet dogs, Moscow's strays have adapted to the activity and noise of the metro. Of the 1000s of strays, about 20 are regularly seen to band together and roam the metros. These canines are adept at identifying particular stations and board and alight at regular intervals, which is remarkable considering that most humans would stumble in this underground labyrinth. For this, they need to recognize the station names announced over the loudspeakers, judge the time-interval between different stations, detect passenger movement and recognize specific lighting and scent, which requires flexible, open-ended reasoning and conscious thought. These dogs can also recognize humans that treat them nicely compared to those that do not and are capable of recognizing and responding to our physical and emotional cues, which can be attributed to our co-evolution. These dogs probably learned to associate the subway with food, warmth, and shelter and hence became regular commuters even with the risks involved. (Malchik, a stray, was stabbed to death at the metro by a woman because he barked at her dog). How these dogs mastered the metro without maps is still a mystery.

Coming back to the question of the chicken crossing the road, I believe we live in a world where chickens can freely cross roads without their motives being questioned.