Wild dog!

Why do I have a life-sized wild dog paw print tattooed on my right shoulder blade? Some of my close mates joke that it’s a reminder to myself (or a warning to others) that I’m a bit of a dog ... Whatever! I get super excited whenever I see them in the wilds; they’re high energy and socially inspiring. But maybe it’s a kinship with wide open spaces and the feeling of running free. The truth is I’m simply captivated by them, and have been for a long while.

The African wild dog (Lycaon pictus), previously known as Cape hunting dogs and more recently as painted dogs – because of their unique markings, once ranged widely throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Over the past 120 years their range has been reduced to relatively few small populations, mostly in isolated protected areas in east and southern Africa. Only three populations estimated to contain more than 350 adults in each are known to remain: one in Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania, one in the Kruger Nation Park in South Africa, and the third population in northern Botswana.

As the result of a widespread and deeply rooted predisposition among people almost everywhere in the world to vilify wild large canids wild dogs have suffered at the losing end of numerous myths and inaccuracies. Earlier natural-history reports quote that “they kill wantonly far more than they need for food, and by methods of the utmost cruelty”, blame them for “disturbing the natural balance in areas they enter, driving all antelope out”, and state “they will without hesitation turn on any pack member that falls by the way through wound or sickness and show no reluctance to consume their own kind”.

Running Wild – Dispelling the Myths of the African Wild Dog, a book written back in 1996 by John McNutt and Lesley Boggs and photographically illustrated by Helene Helding and Dave Hamman, after six years of studying and researching the wild dog packs in the Botswana Moremi and Okavango Delta regions, sets out to scientifically discern the origins of these myths based on the wild dog behaviour they witnessed and to dispel those that have no place in the current day understanding of this unique species. In spite of being published 21 years ago their conclusions found under chapter headings Pack, Play, Predator, Prey, Pressure and Prescription still hold largely true today and it is a book I would absolutely recommend to anyone wishing to obtain a deeper insight into the lives of the wild dog. It is also the book to which I owe enormous gratitude for igniting a more serious interest and from which I’ve taken most of my understanding and the information I share here with you.

Wild dog tend to spread out when hunting and as a result on occasion multiple dogs will bring down multiple prey species, sometimes more than they can consume. Could this be the ‘killing wantonly’ referred to?

As for their ‘cruel killing methods’, I have personally witnessed a single wild dog dispatch a fully grown impala ram within three seconds. Way quicker than for example the strangulation technique of the large cats.

As a species found in the wild areas in which they would naturally occur they form part of the natural balance in nature; breeding and growing in numbers when there is an abundance of prey species and being restricted when prey species are scarce.

Unlike almost any other predator wild dogs live in extraordinary co-operation with one another and this is nowhere better demonstrated than when feeding - the young and ill are given first access to food after a successful hunt – nothing like their incorrectly assigned ‘vicious, cannibalistic killers’ label.

Sadly the status quo of the wild dog today is not a great story. They need large areas to hunt, breed and successfully grow the population – one study example in the Kruger National Park documented a pack ranging over 80 square kilometres (50 sq. miles) while denning and 885 square kilometres (550 sq. miles) after denning. Therefore habitat loss and fragmentation through human encroachment in the forms of farming, land clearance and urbanization has drastically reduced their range and their numbers. Add to this they have been ruthlessly hunted and exterminated in the past when considered vermin (in places they still are), together with their susceptibility to domestic dog diseases such as distemper and rabies - the latter spreading like wildfire through a pack due to their very close social interaction / behaviour – and the results are very worrying indeed.

• The Wild Dog is now the second most endangered large carnivore (after the Ethiopian wolf) on the African continent.

• The total Wild Dog population in Africa is only somewhere between 3000 – 5000 individuals.

• Wild Dogs are considered to be extinct in over 23 countries in Africa.

• A Wild Dog uses up twice as much energy as a working Border Collie … just an interesting add.

Across various study sites in truly wild areas it has also been observed that wild dog density is negatively correlated with that of lions and hyenas. Predation by lions and hyenas account for around 50% of mortalities in wild dog populations; probably why wild dogs avoid areas of high lion density, which often are those areas sustaining the highest biomass of prey.

Being territorial there are naturally occasions for intra-pack fights – something I have also personally witnessed - which often result in serious injury and/or the death of pack members.

Considering the alarming statistics above, any time spent in the company of wild dogs in true wilderness areas should be carefully cherished. I most certainly regard my own brief, yet personal, encounters and interactions with them while working over a period of seven years within Botswana’s Okavango Delta and Linyanti regions an enormous privilege.

Surely logic indicates that if we succeed in saving the wild dog populations it will mean large areas of land are being looked after properly and as a consequence all other species living alongside should in theory also be doing okay.

As such I figure it an essential ambassador species for us to adopt as a constant reminder of how fragile the environment can be and that we as the dominant species on this planet have the very serious stewardship responsibility of ensuring that life as we found it and have grown alongside perpetuates into the future.

And so, many years ago in a moment of fuzzy solidarity of sorts while contemplating all of this I was struck by what appeared to be a good idea, so rushed out and had an indelible footprint of this iconic species etched onto my person … and why not? No regrets.

Will you be seeing more of the ‘wild dog’ here? …

I certainly hope so.