African Wild Dog

This alert and agile hunter, with its companionable social network, promises a fascinating encounter.

African Wild Dogs used to live throughout sub-Saharan Africa but now are mostly limited to southern Africa and the southern part of East Africa. Populations have diminished in the face of human activity and habitat loss as well as infectious disease. There may be no more than 5,500 African Wild Dogs remaining in the wild. They are classed as ‘endangered’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (on the IUCN ‘red list’).

The zoo has plans to breed from the largely female group, to assist in slowing the worrying loss of these animals in the wild.

The African Wild Dog has many aliases, including the ‘Hunting Dog’ and ‘Cape Hunting Dog’ and is also known as the ‘Painted Dog’, due to the unique patterns along their body. Their scientific name, Lycaon pictus, is Latin, meaning painted wolf.

The African Wild Dog is not closely related to other canids such as the jackal, wolf or domestic dog. They are not scavengers; rather they are voracious, relentless hunters with an acute sense of smell.

Preferring to use sight to hunt prey, their menu frequently includes small and medium antelope, warthog, zebra and ostrich. African Wild Dogs are endurance runners, able to pursue prey for many kilometres until eventually the target is overcome with exhaustion and wrestled to the ground.

To increase speed and agility, African Wild Dogs run on their toes. The four toes on each foot have strong, non-retractable claws that increase grip and allow for quick turns.

The African Wild Dog possesses large bowl-shaped ears and a long tasselled tail with a white tip. Both ears and tail are used to communicate to other pack members from long distances, such as when they are hunting.

At no stage of their life do African Wild Dogs choose to live alone. They live as a pack, which is highly organised and tightly knit, making them one of the most social of all mammals.