Endangered
African wild dog
Lycaon pictus
An estimated 6,600 adults (among them 1,400 mature individuals) live in 39 subpopulations, all threatened by habitat fragmentation, human persecution, and outbreaks of disease.
Appearance
The fur of the African wild dog differs significantly from that of other canids, consisting entirely of stiff bristle-hairs with no underfur. Colour variation is extreme, and may serve in visual identification, as African wild dogs can recognise each other at distances of 50–100 m (160–330 ft).
The species stands 60 to 75 cm (24 to 30 in) at the shoulders, measures 71 to 112 cm (28 to 44 in) in head-and-body length, and has a tail length of 29 to 41 cm (11 to 16 in). Adults have a weight range of 18 to 36 kg (40 to 79 lb).
Range and habitat
The African wild dog occurs foremost in Southern and East Africa. It is rare in North Africa and mostly absent in West Africa, with the only potentially viable population occurring in Senegal's Niokolo-Koba National Park. It inhabits mostly savannas and arid zones, generally avoiding forested areas.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
It is a primarily diurnal predator and hunts by approaching prey silently, then chasing it in a pursuit clocking at up to 66 km/h (41 mph) for 10–60 minutes. The average chase covers some 2 km (1.2 mi), during that the prey animal, if large, is repeatedly bitten on the legs, belly, and rump until it stops running, while smaller prey is simply pulled down and torn apart.
African wild dogs adjust their hunting strategy to the particular prey species. Medium-sized prey is often killed in 2–5 minutes, whereas larger prey such as wildebeest may take half an hour to pull down. The dominant pair typically monopolises breeding.
In crisis
An estimated 6,600 adults (among them 1,400 mature individuals) live in 39 subpopulations, all threatened by habitat fragmentation, human persecution, and outbreaks of disease. As the largest subpopulation probably consists of fewer than 250 individuals, the African wild dog has been listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List since 1990. The African wild dog is primarily threatened by habitat fragmentation, that results from human–wildlife conflict, transmission of infectious diseases and high mortality rates. It has been exterminated in large parts of North and West Africa, and its population has greatly reduced in Central Africa, Uganda and much of Kenya.
Surveys in the Central African Republic's Chinko area revealed that the African wild dog population decreased from 160 individuals in 2012 to 26 individuals in 2017. With the help of local people, a pilot study was launched confirming the presence of a population of wild dogs largely unknown to conservationists.
African wild dog is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on African wild dog, Wikidata item Q173651. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
