The African Painted Dog – Erakina

The Wild Dog Native to Sub-Saharan Africa 

This is an indigenous species with bristle hair with no under fur and colourful patchy coat.

African Wild Dog 

Classification

     Kingdom –   Animalia

     Phylum –     Chordata 

     Class –        Mammalia

     Order-         Carnivora

     Family –      Canidae

     Genus-        Lycaon 

     Species-      pictus

These have fur coated with patches but as they grow in age, fur starts to shed off, even the older species become naked. This coat colour and patches vary from black to yellow and these coat patterns are asymmetrical. They live in groups of 15-40 in numbers. These are distributed in Southern Africa and East Africa. The tail varies in colour as white at tip , black in middle and brown at base.These are diurnal specialised and efficient packs of hunters.They lack aggression between them and are ready to help the injured and unhealthy members.they keep food for larger younger members of group and don’t  fight over food. 

These also have different  taste as a carnivore for which they hunt for a wide variety of prey which also helps in excluding small and weak animals and maintains balance in nature.they can run upto 35 mph.These have a wide range of vocalizations like barking,howling which can be heard over long distances and also there are special greeting gestures including twittering and whining. 

Every hunting group has a dominant pair which remain monogamous for life.the females always disperse from the group once they are sexually mature. The dominant pair mate for life.they usually breed between april to july period.the female mate only with one male and reproduce pups in larger numbers which are taken care by the mother in the den and other group go for hunting and food.  

African dogs are one of the most endangered mammals. They have disappeared from their original habitat due to human hindrance ,disease outbreaks and competition in the ecosystem. These are classified as endangered species according to the IUCN Red List.

To conserve these governments of US and dutch has funded the african wildlife foundation to aware and educate community members.also AWF employed scouts to keep monitoring actions and wildlife.

By- Pragya Joshi

 09/12/2021