Wild Dog

 
Setswana Name:  Lethalerwa
 
Scientific Name: 

(Lycaon pictus)
 

Lycaon pictus (Latin for "painted wolf") is an apt name for the African Wild Dog.
It is also called the Painted Hunting Dog, African Hunting Dog and the Spotted Dog.
 
Their body is similar to that of a wolf but the ears are larger and more rounded: they help keep them cool and allow them to hear very well.. Each dog's marking is unique - splotches of black, pale yellow-brown, blonde and white. The muzzle is black and the tip of the tail is always white. The fur is short but shaggy and is a little longer at the end of the tail and around the throat. There is a dark stripe of fur on the forehead. They have four digits on each foot and are extremely lean, muscular animals with long slender legs.
 
Once common in all areas of Africa, except rain forest and deserts, African Wild Dogs are extinct or nearly extinct in nearly 32 countries of their former range. Of the six countries where they still exist, only three (Botswana, Tanzania and South Africa) have populations of more than 300 dogs

 
Reproduction
The African Wild Dog reproduces at any time of year, although mating peaks between March and June. Litters can contain two and nineteen pups, though ten is the most usual number. The time between births is usually twelve to fourteen months, though it can also be as short as six 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 i.e. Aardvark. Weaning takes place at about ten weeks. After three months, the den is abandoned and the pups begin to run with the pack. At the age of eight to eleven months they can kill small prey, but they are not proficient until about twelve to fourteen months, at which time they can fend for themselves. Pups reach sexual maturity at the age of twelve to eighteen months.
 
Habitat
Wild Dogs live mostly in arid zones and in the savanna. They also are found in woodland and mountain habitats where their prey lives.
 
Diet
The African Wild Dog's main prey centers on antelope, such as the Impala. While the vast majority of its diet is made up of mammal prey, it sometimes hunts large birds, especially Ostriches.
 
A few packs will also include large animals in their prey, such as wildebeest and zebras. Hunting larger prey requires a closely coordinated attack, beginning with a rapid charge to stampede the herd. One African Wild Dog then grabs the victim's tail, while another attack the upper lip, and the remainder disembowel the animal while it is immobilized.
 
Wild Dogs have a peculiar, playful ceremony that initiates each hunt: they circulate among themselves, vocalizing and touching until they get excited. Nearly 80% of all hunts end in a kill. Members of a pack vocalize to help coordinate their movements. Its voice is characterized by an unusual chirping or squeaking sound, similar to a bird.
After a successful hunt, hunters regurgitate meat for those that remained at the den during the hunt, such as the dominant female and the pups. They will also feed other pack members, such as the sick, injured, or very old that cannot keep up.
 
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 that in most other social mammals, where a group of related females forms the core of the pack. In the African Wild Dog, the females compete for access to males that will help to rear their offspring. In a typical pack, males outnumber females by a factor of two to one, and only the dominant female is usually able to rear pups. 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 whilst the mother joins the hunting group; the requirement to leave adults behind to guard the pups may decrease hunting efficiency in smaller packs.
 
Wild Dogs have a submission based hierarchy, instead of a dominance based one. Submission and nonaggression is emphasised heavily, even over food they will beg energetically instead of fight. This is likely because of their manner of raising huge litters of dependant pups, so if one individual is injured the entire pack would not be able to provide as much.
 
The African Wild Dog is endangered by human overpopulation, habitat loss and hunting. It uses very large territories and it is strongly affected by competition with larger carnivores that rely on the same prey base, particularly the lion and the hyena. Lions often will kill as many wild dogs as they can but do not eat them. Hyenas usually follow them to steal their kills.
 
Like other carnivores, the African Wild Dog is sometimes affected by outbreaks of viral diseases such as rabies and distemper.  Although these diseases are not more pathogenic for wild dogs, the small size of most wild dog populations makes them vulnerable to local extinction due to diseases or other problems.
 
Founded as the Botswana Wild Dog Research Project in 1989, the Botswana Predator Conservation Trust (BPCT) has expanded to cover all the large carnivore species in Botswana. It is one of the longest running large predator research projects in Africa and one of only a handful of its caliber worldwide. BPCT research on wild dogs has made it abundantly clear that the health and welfare of the entire predator population is a key indication of overall health of the ecosystem. The Government of Botswana, also acknowledging that appropriate and necessary resource management cannot be undertaken in the absence of accurate information about its natural resources, has entrusted BPCT with the task of leading northern Botswana’s conservation and research initiatives on all large carnivores and their associated habitats.
 
Under the leadership of Dr JW "Tico" McNutt, a number of international graduate students, Botswana national students, and local staff make up a strong field team that work on African Wild Dogs.