African wild dog (Lycaon pictus)
African wild dogs have markings that are unique to each individual, like fingerprints, and help the pack identify each other. The markings may also help the dogs to blend in with the pack, so that prey species cannot determine how many dogs are present.
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Wild dog hunt
Planet Earth
An aerial perspective gives insight into the technique of African hunting dogs.
About the African wild dog
The African Wild Dog is a carnivore mammal. Found only in Africa, especially in savannas and other lightly wooded areas. It is also called the Painted Hunting Dog, African Hunting Dog, the Cape Hunting Dog, the Spotted Dog, or the Painted Wolf in English, Wildehond in Afrikaans, and Mbwa mwitu in Swahili. It is the only species in the genus Lycaon.
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Common Names
- African hunting dog
- Cape hunting dog
- Painted hunting dog
- Painted wolf
- Spotted dog
The African wild dog is
Adaptation data provided by Animal Diversity Web
Where can I see them?
This region contains the following habitats:
Species range provided by WWF's Wildfinder
Conservation Status
The African wild dog is Endangered (IUCN 3.1)
- EX - Extinct
- EW
- CR - Threatened
- EN - Threatened
- VU - Threatened
- NT
- LC - Least concern
Population trend: Decreasing
Year assessed: 2008
Elsewhere on the web
- African wild dog - Lycaon pictus (arkive.org)
- Lycaon (animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu)
- DigiMorph: digital images of an African wild dog skull (digimorph.org)
- IUCN Red List information (iucnredlist.org)
- Painted dog conservation and fact file (painteddog.org)
- African Wild Dog (wikipedia.org)
Site links
BBC links
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