Did You Know?: African Wild Dogs

African Wild dogs are some of my favorite creatures. I found this on National Geographic Wild's page, and that it was just too cool not to share.

Did you know that African Wild Dogs are extremely social animals? They have been documented to have packs of 40 - 60 members and even up to 100 members in some cases.


Credit to National Geographic Wild's page for the picture. I could not find the original photographer, but it's a beautiful picture. If I ever find who it was, I will credit them.

The African Wild dog, or Lycaon Pictus, is known by many other names, such as African hunting dog, Cape hunting dog, African painted dog, painted wolf, painted hunting dog, spotted dog, or ornate wolf. Unfortunately, the African Wild Dog is endangered and its numbers are decreasing quickly. Once, about 500,000 African wild dogs existed in 39 countries, and packs of 100 or more were not uncommon. This range once included Egypt and parts of the Sahara Desert. Now, only about 7000 are found in fewer than 25 countries, or perhaps only 14 countries. They are primarily found in eastern and southern Africa, mostly in the two remaining large populations associated with the Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania and the population centered in northern Botswana and eastern Namibia. Smaller but apparently secure populations of several hundred individuals are found in Zimbabwe (Hwange National Park), South Africa (Kruger National Park), and in the Ruaha/Rungwa/Kisigo complex of Tanzania. Isolated populations persist in Zambia, Kenya, and Mozambique.
The African wild dog is an endangered species due to habitat loss and poaching. It uses very large territories (so can persist only in large wildlife protected areas), and it is strongly affected by competition with larger carnivores that rely on the same prey base, particularly the lion and the spotted hyena. While the adult wild dogs can usually outrun the larger predators, lions often will kill as many wild dogs and cubs at the brooding site as they can, but do not eat them. One-to-one, the hyena is much more powerful than the wild dog, but a large group of wild dogs can successfully chase off a small number of hyenas because of their teamwork. It is also killed by livestock herders and game hunters, though it is typically no more (perhaps less) persecuted than other carnivores that pose more threat to livestock. Most of Africa's national parks are too small for a pack of wild dogs, so the packs expand to the unprotected areas, which tend to be ranch or farm land. Ranchers and farmers protect their domestic animals by killing the wild dogs. Like other carnivores, the African wild dog is sometimes affected by outbreaks of viral diseases such as rabies, distemper, and parvo. Although these diseases are not more pathogenic or virulent for wild dogs, the small size of most wild dog populations makes them vulnerable to local extinction due to diseases or other problems.

Credit to the second paragraph is from National Geographic Wild's page and Wikipedia for the information under the picture.