African Wild Dog
Scientific name: Lycaon pictus
Swahili name [1]: Mbwa mwitu za kiafrika; Mbwa koko
IUCN status: Endangered
Threats and impacts:
African Wild Dog populations have declined or disappeared across their former range as a result of habitat fragmentation, human-wildlife conflict and infectious disease. Habitat fragmentation increases incidences of conflict and the potential for disease. Even large park or reserve areas have areas well within the scope of Wild Dog ranging behavior, leading to further potential for conflicts as they approach the edges of the reserve or leave it. [2]Human-wildlife conflict is further exacerbated when wild prey densities are very low, forcing wild dogs to seek out small livestock, which is not normally part of their prey base. [3]
Conservation:
Painted Dog Conservation, Zimbabwe, is working with local communities through conservation, education and outreach. [4]
Interesting information:
African Wild Dogs are called Painted Dogs because of the color pattern on their bodies, unique to each individual, but with commonalities across families. [7]
Wild Dogs have been shown to avoid all other large carnivores [8]and human areas [9], restricting their access to resources. (Vanak et al., 2013)
In the news:
Wild Pups Romp Again in an African Paradise (Aug 3, 2019)
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/03/science/african-dogs-pups-gorongosa.html
[1] http://mpalalive.org/field_guide/african_wild_dog
[2] Woodroffe, R. & Sillero-Zubiri, C. 2012. Lycaon pictus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2012: e.T12436A16711116. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2012.RLTS.T12436A16711116.en. Downloaded on 10 August 2019.
[3] http://mpalalive.org/field_guide/african_wild_dog
[4] https://www.painteddog.org/
[5] https://www.cites.org/eng/node/48659
[6] https://www.cites.org/eng/node/48661
[7] Estes, R. (2012). The Behavior Guide to African Mammals(20th Anniversary). Los Angeles, California: University of California Press.
[8] Vanak, A., Fortin, D., Thaker, M., Ogden, M., Owen, C., Greatwood, S., & Slotow, R. (2013). Moving to stay in place: Behavioral mechanisms for coexistence of African large carnivores. Ecology, 94(11), 2619. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-0217.1
[9] Pretorius, M. E., Seoraj-Pillai, N., & Pillay, N. (2019). Landscape correlates of space use in the critically endangered African wild dog Lycaon pictus. PLOS ONE, 14(3),e0212621. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0212621
Photo credit: Aaron Ng