Endangered
Dhole
Cuon alpinus
Such clans usually consist of about 12 individuals, but groups of over 40 are known.
Appearance
The general tone of the Dhole's fur is reddish, with the brightest hues appearing in winter. During the winter coat phase, the back is covered in a saturated rusty-red to reddish color, featuring brownish highlights along the top of the head, neck, and shoulders. The throat, chest, flanks, belly, and upper parts of the limbs are less vividly colored, exhibiting a more yellowish tone.
The dorsal and lateral guard hairs in adults measure 20–30 mm (0.79–1.18 in) in length.
Range and habitat
Historical record in South Korea from the Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty also indicate that the Dhole once inhabited Yangju in Gyeonggi Province, but it is now also extinct in South Korea, with the last known capture reports in 1909 and 1921 from Yeoncheon of Gyeonggi Province. The dholes also once inhabited the alpine steppes extending into Kashmir to the Ladakh area, though they disappeared from 60% of their historic range in India during the past century. In India, Myanmar, Indochina, Indonesia and China, it prefers forested areas in alpine zones and is occasionally sighted in plains regions.
The creation of reserves under Project Tiger provided some protection for Dhole populations sympatric with tigers.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
When attacking prey, they emit screaming KaKaKaKAA sounds. In India, the mating season occurs between mid-October and January, while captive dholes in the Moscow Zoo breed mostly in February.
Unlike wolf packs, Dhole clans may contain more than one breeding female. The breeding males showed an increased level of testosterone from October to January.
In crisis
It is now extinct in Central Asia, parts of Southeast Asia, and possibly the Korean peninsula and Russia. Such clans usually consist of about 12 individuals, but groups of over 40 are known. It is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List, as populations are decreasing and estimated to comprise fewer than 2,500 mature individuals.
Factors contributing to this decline include habitat loss, loss of prey, competition with other species, persecution due to livestock predation, and disease transfer from domestic dogs. The fragmentation and isolation of Dhole populations has resulted in inbreeding and the Allee effect, that threaten its long-term viability.
CITES lists this taxon on Appendix II. Confirm the current appendix on the CITES checklist.
Dhole 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 Dhole, Wikidata item Q132585. 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.
