Last week a friend of mine was telling me about the plight of the African Wild Dog which I will be discussing soon enough.  She also mentioned that they were incredibly cool so that was all I needed to be sold on completing a Wild Fact on this African dog also known as the Painted Dog.  As well, I have just decided to take a trip to South Africa this fall so I may be subconsciously writing about more African animals than usual for the next few months.  All right, let’s learn about this amazing animal shall we?

Unfortunately, the population of African Wild Dogs have been dwindling for quite sometime.  In fact it is estimated that there are only about 3000 to 5500 animals remaining and possibly as few as 2000.  You have to love the accurate estimates! Regardless of the numbers, this animal is endangered and once again human interactions are causing problems.  We will get back to their population status shortly but first let’s learn a little more about this intriguing dog.

In my opinion the greatest feature of the Painted Dog is how successful they are at hunting.  Trust me when I say you would not want a pack of these guys chasing you down.  Some estimates put their success rate at 85% which is incredible.  Heck, this would even get them on the honour roll at school.  The African Wild Dog lives in packs ranging from 6 to 20 individuals and are usually a pretty close family.  They have been known to share their food as well as assist with injured or sick members of their pack.  I know this may sound normal for humans but this type of behaviour isn’t very common in the wild.  The simple fact that there is little aggression over a meal is impressive. The pack will be lead by a dominant mating pair.  The female will give birth to as many as 20 pups which will be taken care of by the pack.  The great thing about having a large family is the fact that you will always have a babysitter.

Usually if an animal is successful in the wild then they will not only survive but flourish.  These dogs are some of the most proficient hunters found in Africa yet they are listed as endangered due to human involvement.  So how are humans making life difficult for these beautiful creatures? Well, habitat destruction is always a big one (and seems to be a common trend among most endangered animals) but is not the only cause for the decline.  Farmers will often shoot or poison these dogs since packs of Painted Dogs have been known to take down livestock. If all this weren’t bad enough, these “Wild” dogs are also fighting domestic dog diseases such as rabies and canine distemper.  In the past we have tried inoculating the wild dogs in order to protect them.  In some cases the vaccination actually made the disease worse for these animals or was completely ineffective.  Studies are still ongoing to try and determine a proper vaccination strategy. With all of these factors against them it is no surprise that the African Wild Dog may be on their way to extinction.

If you would like to help then I suggest checking out the African Wildlife Foundation located at http://www.awf.org/section/engaging_you/donate/donors/adoption_center

I know this is a longer fact but I seem to have a soft spot for these incredible creatures and wanted to get the message out.  Thanks for reading and please seriously contemplate donating to a worthwhile cause today.

Have a great day everyone!  Oh by the way, did you know that no two African Wild Dogs are marked the exact same.  How this helps serve the hunting dog has long intrigued scientists.  Maybe you can figure out why?

Sources:

http://www.canids.org/PUBLICAT/AWDACTPL/8research.htm#disease

http://jvdi.org/cgi/reprint/8/4/420.pdf