THE AFRICAN WILD DOG: GOOD NEWS!

A Rare Reason For (Cautious) Celebration On The Endangered Species Front. Photo: Michael Gabler

The Population Is Up For This Colorful Endangered Dog Of The African Plains

The African wild dog is the most colorful member of the canid family in more ways than one. Lycaon pictus is also called the painted dog because of it’s beautiful, multicolored coat. But this endangered animal’s family life also comprises a fascinating picture.

Like wolves, wild dogs live in packs in which an alpha male and an alpha female—usually the parents of most of the other dogs—are the only animals that breed. All the other pack members help care for the alpha pair’s young. In order to avoid being detected by hyenas and lions, which are larger than wild dogs and like to steal their kills and kill their young, pack members communicate through a series of soft squeaking sounds that larger predators have a hard time hearing.

When one of the alpha animals dies, the pack often breaks up as individual dogs set out in search of mates who are not their brothers and sisters.

The wild dog’s favorite prey animals are antelope, wildebeest, zebras, and warthogs.

Until the 20th Century, wild dogs were common throughout most of Africa. In fact, author Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen), who wrote a book called Out of Africa, claimed to have seen 500 wild dogs traveling together on Kenya’s Serengeti Plain in the early 1900’s.

But shrinking habitat, conflicts with humans, and diseases such as distemper that they contracted from domesticated dogs all took their toll, and by the 1990’s scientists were estimating that there were 5,000 or fewer of them living in scattered areas, mostly in the southern half of the continent. Wild dogs were—and still are—considered to be among the most endangered of Africa’s mammals. However, according to a recent report in the The New York Times the painted dog’s population numbers recently have begun to recover.

Zoologists say that there may now be as many as 7,000 wild dogs in Africa, and that packs have been observed in places where they were once thought to have been extirpated, such as northern Kenya. According to scientists, the comeback of the wild dogs has been due to a combination of conservation efforts and the fact that the animals seem to be adapting to having humans in their environment. In addition, the numbers of hyenas and lions have plummeted over the last several decades, leaving more habitat and prey for the dogs.