A healthy-looking, adult African Wild Dog in the early morning sunlight
Photographed in South Africa from a safari vehicle
Please click twice on the image to view at the largest size
While not as obviously capable of immediate damage as a lion or leopard, wild dogs are particularly scary, IMO. When they're in pursuit of prey, sometimes with a pack as large as 10-20 others, they're absolutely relentless. In this non-hunting situation, this individual looks almost like a healthy domestic dog to me.
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From Wikipedia: The African wild dog (Lycaon pictus), also called the painted dog or Cape hunting dog, is a wild canine which is a native species to sub-Saharan Africa. It is the largest wild canine in Africa, and the only extant member of the genus Lycaon, which is distinguished from Canis by dentition highly specialised for a hypercarnivorous diet, and by a lack of dewclaws. It is estimated that about 6,600 adults (including 1,400 mature individuals) live in 39 subpopulations that are all threatened by habitat fragmentation, human persecution, and outbreaks of disease. As the largest subpopulation probably comprises fewer than 250 individuals, the African wild dog has been listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List since 1990.
The species is a specialised diurnal hunter of antelopes, which it catches by chasing them to exhaustion. Its natural enemies are lions and spotted hyenas: the former will kill the dogs where possible, whilst hyenas are frequent kleptoparasites.
Like other canids, the African wild dog regurgitates food for its young, but also extends this action to adults, as a central part of the pack's social life. The young are allowed to feed first on carcasses.
The African wild dog has been respected in several hunter-gatherer societies, particularly those of the San people and Prehistoric Egypt.
0I7A6607fFlkr
A healthy-looking, adult African Wild Dog in the early morning sunlight
Photographed in South Africa from a safari vehicle
Please click twice on the image to view at the largest size
While not as obviously capable of immediate damage as a lion or leopard, wild dogs are particularly scary, IMO. When they're in pursuit of prey, sometimes with a pack as large as 10-20 others, they're absolutely relentless. In this non-hunting situation, this individual looks almost like a healthy domestic dog to me.
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From Wikipedia: The African wild dog (Lycaon pictus), also called the painted dog or Cape hunting dog, is a wild canine which is a native species to sub-Saharan Africa. It is the largest wild canine in Africa, and the only extant member of the genus Lycaon, which is distinguished from Canis by dentition highly specialised for a hypercarnivorous diet, and by a lack of dewclaws. It is estimated that about 6,600 adults (including 1,400 mature individuals) live in 39 subpopulations that are all threatened by habitat fragmentation, human persecution, and outbreaks of disease. As the largest subpopulation probably comprises fewer than 250 individuals, the African wild dog has been listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List since 1990.
The species is a specialised diurnal hunter of antelopes, which it catches by chasing them to exhaustion. Its natural enemies are lions and spotted hyenas: the former will kill the dogs where possible, whilst hyenas are frequent kleptoparasites.
Like other canids, the African wild dog regurgitates food for its young, but also extends this action to adults, as a central part of the pack's social life. The young are allowed to feed first on carcasses.
The African wild dog has been respected in several hunter-gatherer societies, particularly those of the San people and Prehistoric Egypt.
0I7A6607fFlkr