Carnivores: Aardwolf African Wild Cat African Wild Dog Banded Mongoose Bat Eared Fox Black-backed Jackal Brown Hyena Cape Clawless Otter Cape Fox Caracal Cheetah Civet Dhole Ethiopian Wolf Large Spotted Genet Golden Jackal Honey badger Jaguar Leopard African Lion Asiatic Lion Sand Cat Serval Side Striped Jackal Snow Leopard Spotted Hyena Striped Hyena Suricate (Meercat) Tiger White Tailed Mongoose Yellow Mongoose
also known as Cape Hunting Dog also known as African Painted Dog also known as African Wolves
Wild Dogs are in a genus of their own and are instantly recognisable with their mottled coat patterns and large ears. They are medium sized carnivore that can weigh up to 30 kg, with the males very slightly larger than the females. Wild Dogs stand at 60-75cm at the shoulder. Every African Wild Dog has a unique pattern of markings on its coat.
Wild Dogs are very proficient hunters and prey on a variety of medium sized antelope like springbok and kudu, but are able to take much larger animals. They are capable of speeds up to 40 miles per hour (64Km/hour) and although their quarry can reach higher speeds the key to the wild dogs' success is their endurance. They can pursue their prey for a long period at speed making them very effective predators. A chase can last for 2 or 3 miles with the dogs maintaining speeds of 30 miles/hour (48Km/hour) or faster for the entire chase. When being chased, the prey will often make sharp turns to try and throw off the pursuing wild dogs, but when this happens, the leading dog in the pack may lose a bit of ground, but the dogs behind him are able to see the turn and effectively cut off the corner thus gaining ground. In this way the dog at the front of the pack may change several times during the course of the chase. Once the prey is caught, rather than clamping their jaws on the victims throat to suffocate it in the way that Lion or Cheetah for do, African wild dogs disembowel and tear their prey apart while it is still alive. While this may sound a cruel method of killing (and indeed has resulted in many people taking a dislike to wild dogs over the years), it is actually a quick death (generally much quicker than the death of a lions prey), and may be quicker than throttling the prey, and it has been suggested that the animal goes into a deep shock almost instantly and thus feels little or no pain. The painted hunting dogs group hunting enables them to bring down and kill prey many times their size.
African Wild Dogs have large stomachs and a very long large intestine which lets them absorb a lot of moisture from their food and reduces their dependency on water sources as they can go long periods without drinking.
Before setting out on a hunt, the wild dog pack takes part in a greeting ceremony, with all the dogs nosing each other, licking each others lips and wagging their tails as well as making loud high pitched twittering sounds, before they finally set off in search of prey to begin the hunt.
Wild Dogs are very social and live in packs. The packs can be as small as a pair or
as large as 30 adults and their pups. The most high ranking female of the pack
is normally the only member of the pack to have pups although 2 or 3 other
females may breed if conditions are right. The other members of the group assist
with the rearing of the young by bring food back to the mother and her pups once
they are weaned.
Male and female siblings may remain in the pack but they often leave to form a
pack of their own with an unrelated group. Normally in mammals it is the
males that leave the family group (e.g. Lions), but with Wild Dogs it is usually
the females who leave to find another pack or form a new one as this is their
best chance to breed (usually only the dominant female in a pack is allowed to
breed). Wild dogs have a distinct
hierarchy in the group, and from a very early age, they vie for status - pups
playing will attempt to demonstrate to the rest of their litter that they are
the strongest or fastest, in an attempt to demonstrate their superiority and
thus gain a higher status within the pack. If a high ranking dog confronts
a lower ranking dog then the lower one is expected to demonstrate submission to
acknowledge the other dogs superiority. One way that wild dogs demonstrate
submissiveness is to turn the head away from the other dog, thus presenting an
exposed neck, and another is licking the lips of the superior dog, or lowering
the head.
A female can produce a litter of up to 21 pups, but average size is 10 or 11 after a gestation period of approximately 70 days. The mother is confined to the den with her pups for the first few weeks and relies on the other members of the pack to bring her food. The pups stay in the den for further 2 months. The more pack members to assist in the rearing of the pups the higher the chance of survival. As well as bringing back food the other members also "baby sit" and chase away other predators. The more pack members to assist in the rearing of the pups the higher the chance of survival. Painted Hunting Dogs do not carry back pieces of meat for the young pups once they start eating meat (at around one month old), but instead eat the meat then return to the den and regurgitate it for the mother or pups. This is easier than carrying chunks of meat as it avoids them dropping it, or being attacked by other predators attracted by the fresh meat they are carrying. Once the pups are old enough to join the hunt, then at first they will lag behind the adults and will arrive last at the kill, at which point the adults will usually stand aside to let the pups feed.
The sound console below includes a sound sample of Wild Dogs. The sound playing console may take a short time to load, particularly if you have a slow internet connection. You will need the macromedia flash plugin to listen to the sound file.
Wild Dog spoor - front and back paws. Painted Dogs differ from other dogs as they have 4 toes on their front paws whereas other dogs have 5.
Once wild dogs were widespread over much of Africa. Wild Dogs have always been
found in low numbers but they are down to 3,000-5,500 left in the wild.
Most populations are restricted to national parks and so wild dogs become
isolated. They need enormous areas of several hundred square kilometres to live,
and if
they venture out of protected areas, they often come into conflict with people.
The following books relating to the African wild dog are out of print, but they are often available from Amazon - please use the search boxes below to check for availability.
Solo - the story of an African wild dog - Hugo van Lawick
Innocent Killers - Hugo Van Lawick & Jane Goodall
Running Wild: Dispelling the Myths of the African Wild Dog - J.McNutt
Painted Wolves - Jonathon Scott
Foxes, Wolves and Wild Dogs of the world - David Alderton
Wild dogs in life and legend - Maxwell Riddle
Wild Dogs can still be found in Namibia where they are a protected species. There are populations in the Caprivi, Kavango, Bushmanland and Kaudom Game Reserve. Between 250 and 1000 wild dogs remain in Namibia. Wild Dogs are only found in a few countries in southern Africa, with Botswana and Zimbabwe being home to the largest populations.
In the past, Painted Dogs were persecuted throughout Africa as they were regarded as vermin and were regularly killed in large numbers - even within the National Parks ! Thankfully today they are no longer persecuted within the national parks and in some countries they receive full legal protection, but there is still conflict with farmers - many of whom view wild dogs as cruel killers of livestock and who will kill them if given the chance.
Wild Dogs are
legally protected in Namibia and Zimbabwe although they are still
sometimes shot when they move from
their protected areas and come in to conflict with people. Wild dogs are not
trophy hunted in Namibia. They are the second most endangered large carnivore in
Africa.
African wild dogs are not listed on CITES, despite being
critically endangered.
© Predator Conservation Trust.