Lycaon pictus: African Wild Dog

African wild dogs are the most highly social of the canids. They are also known as Cape hunting dogs, but this is a misnomer since their distribution includes most of Africa. Although they occur across a vast area, there are probably fewer than 7,000 individuals left. The species is classified as vulnerable by the IUCN although the IUCN / SSC canid specialist group recommends changing the listing to endangered.

African Wild dog populations have undergone a precipitous decline due to human activities. They have been adversely affected, along with most other African wildlife, by the encroachments of human habitation on wildlands. The decline of wild ungulate populations has affected them as well. Outright killing by humans is also a key factor. Wild dogs are not particularly wary of humans, and they are often shot by hunters, farmers, and Stockgrowers.

The original range of African wild dogs encompassed an area from the southern edge of the Sahara to South Africa. Sudan is the present northern limit of their distribution, which once extended into Egypt. From the eastern coastal countries of Ethiopia, Somalia, and Sudan, the range sweeps westward through Mali, Niger, and the Ivory Coast. From there it extends to the eastern border of Guinea and Burkina Faso.

African wild dogs also exist in Kenya, Tanzania, Zaire, the Congo, Zambia, Angola, Malawi, Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa. It should be remembered that although the range is huge, the population is composed of fewer than 7,000 individuals. African wild dogs have vanished from many areas where they were once common and now exist only in remote or protected areas. There, African wild dogs occur only in protected areas. When they move out of these areas they are harassed or shot.

In one area, pack sizes have declined by 99% in the period from 1980 to 1985. These reductions in pack size, an inevitable result of overall population decline, in turn, affect population levels. Smaller packs are less efficient in defending their kills from hyenas, and fewer adult helpers at dens mean lower rates of pup survival as well. In this downward spiral, decreasing population levels result in smaller pack sizes, which then result in decreased reproductive potential.

Wild dogs are found in a wide variety of habitats, including grasslands, savannas, and open woodlands. They are seldom seen in dense forests. They are found on montane savannas, and a pack was sighted on the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro at 5,895 m. Burrows, which are used only for three months each year during the breeding season, is the abandoned holes of ant bears, aardvarks, giant pangolins, or other diggers, which are appropriated and modified by the dogs.

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