THE AFRICAN WILD DOG

The African Wild Dog - the most commonly used name for this charismatic animal is somewhat misleading. It is not a domestic dog 'gone wild' but is only found in Africa and  is classified by scientists as being   member of  the family Canidae but is not in the genus Canis  (to which the domestic dog belongs) and cannot   interbreed with the domestic dog or any other members of the genus Canis.

The Wild Dog and the wolf did have a common ancestor more than  2  million years ago after  which the animals that we now  call the Wild Dog and the  Grey Wolf  followed different genetic/ evolutionary  pathways

Wild Dogs are thought to have first appeared about 2-3 million years ago in Africa to which they were and still are confined.  

 SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR 

In each litter of wild dog pups, the dominant or ‘alpha’ male and female pup in each litter is soon identifiable by their dominant behavior when feeding - either when suckling or feeding from regurgitated food brought to the den by other pack members for the first 3-4 months of their life, or   when older  and taken to  a kill made by the adults. 

All female pups accept their mother as their alpha as long as she is present in their pack or group.  If the pack splits following the death of the alpha male or if the alpha female in the pack is deposed and expelled from her pack  by unrelated immigrant females, she and her female relatives will leave their former pack as a single sex group leaving behind any pups .

         

HOME- RANGE

Packs do not  actively defend a well defined area of land i.e. they are  not strictly 'territorial' if defined as defending a fixed area  which is scent marked  against intrusion from other members of the same species. If this were the case there would be little chance of  any individual or small group of dispersing  wild dogs joining existing packs as is often observed

HUNTING

Young wild dogs start to hunt when they are about 12 months old but do not become expert hunters until they are about 18 months old. It is soon after this that they will need to leave their natal pack to find breeding opportunities of their own.. A single wild dog, even a lactating female , can kill prey up to the size of a male Grant’s gazelle on it’s own but for larger prey (e.g. wildebeest, zebra. giraffe) they usually hunt co-operatively. 

Wild dogs can chase at speeds of up to 60 k.p.h.. Hunting usually takes place early in the morning and late in the afternoon when it is cool and they also hunt at night when there is good moonlight. Wild dogs are able to eat their prey immediately even after a long chase because they have the ability to allow their body temperature to rise and do not need time to recover before they start eating. This ability differs from some  other  predators (e.g. cheetah).which need a recovery period, during which they ‘pant’ to reduce their body temperature before  being able to feed and by so doing, may lose their kill to scavengers.

    WHY ARE WILD  DOGS SO RARE ?

1)  Loss of habitat:- they naturally live at low densities and  need large home ranges and in recent times they have lost large areas of their former habitats as have the local Maasai pastoralists with whom the wild dogs formerly shared the  Serengeti plains. 

2)  Persecution :- until the 1970s they were considered as vermin and persecuted by hunters and even by rangers in  Serengeti and  some ‘conservationists’ who carried out extermination campaigns  in some National Parks ( e.g.. Queen Elizabeth N.P. Uganda).  Today they may be persecuted when they go outside the protected areas, especially when they are seen as a threat to domestic livestock .

3)  Known causes of significant wild dog mortality are:-

i. Road kills by tourist and other vehicles driven at high speed on main and bush roads particularly after nightfall.