african wild dog

African Wild Dog | Lycaon pictus

Conservation Status	Endangered (IUCN 3.1) http://www.cites.org/eng/app/appendices.shtml
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Family:	Canidae
Species:	L. pictus

facts

Shoulder height	65 – 75cm
Mass	24 - 34kg
Body length (head and body)	100cm
Body length (head, body and tail)	145cm
Gestation period	70 days
Breeding season	March - June
Litter size	2- 19 but an average of 10

Lycaon pictus is a large canid found only in Africa, especially in savannas and other lightly wooded areas. It is commonly called the African wild dog, African hunting dog, Cape hunting dog, Painted dog, Painted wolf, Painted hunting dog, Spotted dog, or Ornate wolf.

A Group of Wild dogs was released on Klasserie Private Nature Reserve close to HESC. Wild dogs inhabit a big area, which becomes a problem when they start to trespass onto private property. The Wild dogs started to hunt Sable and Roan antelope on the neighbouring private game farms. Parties involved contacted Mpumalanga Nature Conservation, who in turn contacted Lente Roode, with the hope that HESC could assist with the pack of Wild dogs. HESC built a camp of 8 hectares, which is where the pack of dogs is currently roaming. Wild dogs are not endangered due to their inability to mate in captivity, but rather because of their method of inhabitation. There are currently 30 Wild dogs at HESC.

Wild dogs hunt by sight and are therefore active during the day time, although they sometimes make use of the bright moonlight to hunt at night. They tend to rest in the shade during the hottest part of the day.

The African Wild dog hunts in packs and is purely carnivorous. They are specialized hunters of medium-sized antelope such as springbok, impala, blue wildebeest, but will occasionally take on animals as large as kudu and zebra. Like most members of the dog family they are cursorial hunter, which means that they pursue their prey in a long, open chase. They hunt by sight, usually in the early mornings or evenings, and alter their hunting behaviour to suit the prey, season and the local availability. Wild dogs have nearly an 80% success rate when hunting. The dogs supplement their diet with rodents and birds.

In wide open areas a pack will approach potential prey openly at a trot, or by walking careful with their heads low and ears back. Only when the prey flees will they start running. Sometimes they will rush the herd to panic it, and see if there is a member of the herd that is slower than the rest. The alpha male or female will be the leader most of the time when hunting, and will single-mindedly pursue a particular target. The rest of the pack strings out behind the leader, although occasionally one of the dogs will choose a victim and lead some of the dogs on another chase.

Wild dogs can reach a speed of 65 – 70 km/h and they depend on their stamina in long pursuits to wear down the prey. Chases cover 1,3 – 3 km, but could reach 4 – 5km if necessary. The dog that catches up with the prey first will grab it and pull it down, or it runs alongside and slashes at the prey's rump or shoulder to slow it down until the other dogs catch up. They kill the prey by biting chunks out of it and disemboweling it. The technique is rapid, but has caused this species to have a negative, ferocious reputation. Members of a pack vocalize in order to coordinate their movements. When they are excited, such as just before or after a kill, Wild dogs give off a high-pitched giggly twitter. Their long-range contact call carries for 2-3 km and is a tuneful “hoo-hoo”. When threatened they will growl and bark, and whine when begging. Their alarm call is a deep, gruff bark.

When a kill has been made the juveniles are allowed to feed first. Carcasses are consumed quickly, without snarling and bickering, to reduce the risk of the carcass been stolen by larger predators.

The most important part of the Wild dog’s hunting and feeding behaviour is the division of the spoils after a carcass has been eaten. A dog that has remained behind at the den to guard puppies, lost the trail of the hunt, or stood guard at a kill, begs food from other members by whining, nudging and nibbling their lips and licking their faces. In response, dogs that have fed regurgitate lumps of meat, sometimes directly into the supplicant’s mouth. Pack members also feed weaning puppies in this way. Sick or injured Wild dogs also receive a share of meat for as long as they remain in the pack.

Some hunting techniques appear to be learned, passed down from generation to generation within  hunting packs. Some studies have also shown that other information, such as the location of watering holes, may be passed on in a similar fashion.

The scientific name "Lycaon pictus" is derived from the Greek for "wolf" and the Latin for "painted". This refers to the animal's irregular, mottled coat, which features patches of red, black, brown, white, and yellow fur. Each animal has its own unique coat pattern, and all have big, rounded ears. Animals in southern Africa are generally larger than those in eastern or western Africa.

It is the only canid species to lack declaws on the forelimbs. These long-legged canines have only four toes per foot, unlike other dogs that have five toes on their forefeet.

Pic of Skull of an African wild dog

The African Wild dog may reproduce at any time of year, although mating peaks between March and June. Litters contain 2- 19 pups, although 10 is the most common. The time between births is usually 2–14 months, though it can also be as short as 6 months if all of the previous young die. The typical gestation period is approximately 70 days. Pups are usually born in an abandoned den dug by other animals such as. Normally only the alpha female breeds and if another female also has babies, the alpha female will harass her and kill the puppies.

Weaning starts at 2 weeks - when all the pack members regurgitate meat for them - and is completed at about 10 weeks. After 3 months the cubs are old enough to leave the den and travel with the pack. At the age of 8–11 months they can kill small prey, but they are not proficient until about 12–14 months, at which time they can fend for themselves. Pups reach sexual maturity at the age of 12–18 months.

Females will disperse from their birth pack at 14–30 months of age and join other packs that lack sexually mature females. Males typically do not leave the pack they were born to. This is the opposite situation to most other social mammals, where a group of related females forms the core of the pack or similar group. With African wild dogs, the females compete for access to males that will help rear their offspring. In a typical pack, males outnumber females two to one. This unusual situation may have evolved to ensure that packs do not over-extend themselves by attempting to rear too many litters at the same time. The species is also unusual in that other members of the pack - including males - may be left to guard the pups while the mother joins the hunting group. The requirement to leave adults behind to guard the pups may decrease hunting efficiency in smaller packs.

The African wild dog lives and hunts in packs, and their close-knit social structure is one of the peaks of the social organization in mammals.  A pack can consist from 2 to 50 dogs, however most packs have about a dozen adult members. Each pack occupies an enormous home range. In the Kruger National Park they occupy areas of about 450km, but in East Africa this extends to up to 4 000 km.

Their movement in this area is governed by the location of prey. The pack operates from a fixed base, while the puppies are too young to travel. The area is scent-marked to signal neighbouring packs to avoid the area. Should the occasional meeting occur, they range from friendly to aggressive, though actual fighting is very rare.

A pack of Wild dogs is headed by the alpha male and female. They account for most of the breeding activity. Below the alpha pair there is no specific hierarchy – submission, not aggression, is the deciding factor in Wild dog competitive interactions. A Wild dog that wants a piece of meat will beg for it with head and forequarters flat to the ground, hindquarters raised, tail arched and wagging, ears flattened to the head and lips drawn back.

It uses similar gestures as a friendly greeting when the pack sets out to hunt. Wild dogs communicate by tail position and body posture. A slinking posture with the tail tucked between the legs signals fear and submissiveness. An aggressive dog is rigidly upright with its tail stuck out behind. A friendly Wild dog has an upright posture, with the tail curled over its back.
Urine is used to scent mark an area, and the alpha female also uses it to advertise her sexual receptiveness. The alpha male will then urinate on top of her scent marks. Only the dominant male and female cock a leg when urinating. A Wild dog can track the pack by its notoriously strong smell.

There are separate male and female hierarchies within the pack that will split up if either one of the alphas dies. In the female group the oldest will have alpha status over the others, so a mother will retain her alpha status over her daughters. With the males the youngest male or the father of the other males will be dominant. When two such loner separate-gender groups meet and are unrelated, they can form a pack together. Dominance is established without bloodshed, as most dogs within a group tend to be related to one another in some way. When this is not the case they observe a submission-based hierarchy, instead of a dominance based one. Submission and non-aggression is emphasized heavily, even over food which they will beg for energetically instead of fighting. This is probably because of their manner of raising huge litters of dependent pups. If one individual is injured the entire pack would not be able to provide as much.

The African wild dog is endangered due to human overpopulation, habitat loss and hunting. Faced with shrinking territory in which to roam, it is strongly affected by competition with larger carnivores that rely on the same prey base.

The dogs have developed an occasional taste for livestock as a result of human settlements expanding, although significant damage is rare. Unfortunately Wild dogs are often hunted and killed by farmers, livestock herders and game hunters, who fear for their livestock or domestic animals. 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.

Wild dogs are also quite susceptible to diseases spread by domestic animals. Like other carnivores, the African wild dog is sometimes affected by outbreaks of viral diseases such as rabies, distemper, and parvovirus. 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.

Suggested change in the English common name

In the late 1990's some conservationists working to protect Lycaon pictus suggested that their most common English name, "African Wild Dog", was a source of confusion and prejudice. Conservationist Greg Rasmussen and his organization have worked to "rebrand" wild dogs to “painted dogs”. He calls them painted dogs because their distinctive coats make them look like they've just run through an artist's studio.