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Pack Attack
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Text by Tim Jackson
First published by Africa Geographic www.africageographic.com
The African wild dog is in peril. Persecuted by humans, decimated by infectious diseases and confined by the relentless fragmentation of its habitat, it has disappeared from much of its former range. There are estimated to be up to 5 500 wild dogs left in Africa today, mostly in southern Africa and southern East Africa. By hunting in packs they are able to bring down prey much larger than themselves, including greater kudu and blue wildebeest, but once a kill has been made they often have to defend it from one of their fiercest rivals, the spotted hyaena. Tim Jackson looks at the relationship between the two predators and reports on exciting news of African wild dogs in Mozambique.
Wild dogs are among the most efficient hunters on the African plains, relying on their phenomenal stamina to tire their prey and the combined strength of the pack to bring it down. Once they have made the kill, they quickly begin to feed and can consume an animal the size of a common duiker within a matter of minutes.
 © Marius Coetzee |
Speed is of the essence, for they face intense competition from spotted hyaenas. These regular and unwelcome guests at kills team up with one another – the more there are, the more quickly the dogs are pushed aside. But, just as they hunt in packs, the dogs will gang up to drive their rivals away from their meal, the larger the pack of wild dogs, the better its chance of keeping spotted hyaenas at bay. Unusually, however, in Tanzania’s Serengeti (where wild dogs are now locally extinct) relatively small packs of up to six dogs fared best in fending off hyaenas while grabbing as large a share of the spoils as possible.
‘Wild dogs are very aggressive towards spotted hyaenas at their kill,’ observes Harriet Davies-Mostert, the manager of the Endangered Wildlife Trust’s (EWT) Carnivore Conservation Group and an expert on the species. ‘It’s incredibly impressive to watch them mob the larger hyaenas – they are so determined. But their attitude to brown hyaenas is different. I’ve seen wild dogs feeding on the same carcass as a brown hyaena, which suggests that they consider it less of a threat than its spotted cousin.’ Away from a kill, and when there are no pups around, wild dogs tend to be more tolerant of spotted hyaenas too, and they even appear to show curiosity, especially if a lone animal is encountered.
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The knock-on effect of hyaenas feasting on wild dog kills is thought to be considerable. Scientists estimate that instead of hunting for 3.5 hours a day as the dogs typically do, they would have to increase the time to about 12 hours if a quarter of their prey were stolen by hyaenas – a figure well beyond their capabilities. This could explain why wild dog populations are relatively sparse in areas where food theft by hyaenas is high, and why they seldom recover in hyaena-ridden areas once the population size has fallen below a certain point.
Little was known about African wild dogs in Limpopo National Park, Mozambique, until researchers from EWT’s Carnivore Conservation Group embarked on a search for them early last year. The park borders the eastern flank of South Africa’s Kruger National Park – which has a small, well-documented population of wild dogs – and together they form the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park. Knowing whether wild dogs also range through Limpopo is crucial for conservation planning.
‘We suspected that wild dogs have always been in the area, but no one has tried to get a handle on numbers before,’ says Harriet Davies-Mostert.
 © Marius Coetzee |
The chances of catching sight of wild dogs during the trip were slim, so the team concentrated instead on asking local people whether they had seen the elusive canids. ‘The results were quite encouraging,’ reports Davies-Mostert. ‘We were pleased to find that most respondents were able to identify these carnivores correctly and that there had been several confirmed sightings in the past year.’ Relatively large packs were seen in the southern part of the park, and overall the observations seemed to be more common there too. Further north, the packs were small, comprising four or five individuals. Tour operators in the area also reported seeing wild dogs.
It’s not yet known whether the dogs have dispersed from the Kruger National Park or represent a resident breeding population. ‘Limpopo National Park has the potential to become a carnivore stronghold in the years to come,’ concludes Davies-Mostert.