The African wild dog is known by many names, including Cape hunting dog or painted dog. Its scientific name, Lycaon pictus, means“painted wolf,” referring to the animal's irregular, mottled coat, which features patches of red, black, brown, white, and yellow fur. Each animal has its own unique coat pattern, and all have big, rounded ears.
These long-legged canines have only four toes per foot, unlike other dogs, which have five toes on their forefeet.
Close Social Structures and Strong Pack Hierarchy
The social structure of a painted wolf pack is a fascinating, almost altruistic system. Like other pack animals, there is a strict hierarchy – the pack is dominated by the matriarch, and usually, the alpha pair are the only ones to breed. When a litter of pups is born, they take priority over even the alphas. At first, pups are fed by pack members that regurgitate fresh meat after returning from a hunt, but once old enough, they are taken to the kill and given the first choice over the spoils. Adult pack members patiently wait on the sidelines, standing guard until their turn to feed. They almost never fight amongst themselves over food due to this ranking system. When a pack member becomes ill, injured or elderly restricting or even incapacitating their effectiveness as a hunter, the rest of the pack cares for and feeds them. An alpha female of a pack in Botswana who lost one of her forelegs during a hunt, remained as alpha female for a few years afterwards, continuing to breed and raise pups while being looked after by the pack. For other predators, this level of injury would be a death sentence.
Females Rule
The alpha female is the core of the pack – leading her pack from its formation until she dies. She is the leader, general, decision-maker and caring mother. Once she dies the pack splits, with the males and females heading in different directions to form new packs.
Nomadic Nature
Painted wolves are nomadic animals and can traverse 50km in a single day. As a result, their territories can range between 400 and 1500 square kilometres. They only remain in one area when denning.
Coordinated When Hunting
The 80% success rate in painted wolf hunts can be attributed mainly to the coordinated nature of the pack. Communication is key and the pack members constantly let one another know both their location and that of the prey. Their high intelligence and teamwork allows them to adapt to changing scenarios during a hunt,
Most predators rely on stealth to hunt their prey, but painted wolves rarely require such tactics. They are built for high stamina chases. A typical hunt will involve the pack spreading out in a line to cover more ground and give each member space to manoeuvre. Upon finding prey the pack will immediately approach and test the animals’ defences, probing a herd for any weak members. Once a target is selected, the pack attempts to panic and separate the herd. The pack then gives chase to the selected individual, with some members performing flanking movements to cut off any avenues of escape. Like an Olympic cycling team, pack members at the head of the chase will pull back as they tire and others will take their place. Eventually, after a few kilometres, the prey becomes exhausted and weak, making for an easy takedown by the pack.
Another favourite tactic of painted wolves is to herd their prey towards rivers, lakes and other bodies of water. Most animals are afraid of deep water due to the risk of crocodiles, and so when an animal is chased towards water it will usually turn back and be quickly dispatched. Painted wolves have also been observed using pack members to flush prey, driving the target animal towards other pack members waiting in ambush. This tactic is frequently used by lions.
Relationship Values
The dominant pair is monogamous and would usually be the only ones in the pack to breed, though a beta pair does sometimes produce pups as well, which are then either killed or adopted by the alpha pair. Each litter can have between four and 12 pups. Unlike most other pack animals, male painted wolves tend to stay within their pack’s territory once reaching sexual maturity, whereas the females will travel long distances to find a mate and start or join a new pack. This behaviour is a good countermeasure against inbreeding.
Interesting Genetics
Painted wolves used to be found across the African continent, but are now limited to countries in the south and east of Africa, the main strongholds being in Botswana’s Okavango Delta and Tanzania’s Selous Game Reserve. East African painted wolves are slightly smaller than their counterparts in the south. There are five subspecies of the painted wolf; the Cape, East African, West African, Chadian and Somali, though the genetic diversity of these subdivisions is under debate. Although painted wolves do share a common ancestor with wolves from a few million years ago, they are not genetically compatible, so interbreeding with any other canids isn’t possible. The selective breeding applied to domesticated dogs which formed the different breeds could never work with painted wolves.
They Cannot be Domesticated
People have attempted to tame painted wolves, but never successfully. They are naturally distrusting of humans or indeed any animal outside of their own pack. When humans have domesticated dogs in the past, it was due to certain character traits prevalent in canines that could be amplified through breeding. One of these traits was a willingness to be touched by humans. This, combined with traits of curiosity and opportunism, paved the way for humanity’s greatest symbiotic relationship with an animal affectionately named “man’s best friend.” Painted wolves have never displayed these traits and it is unlikely they ever will.
Compiled by Godfrey E.T