African wild dog

Animals in Africa

African wild dog

The African wild dog's latin name is Lycaon pictus which means "colored wolf". The wild dogs coat is a play of different colors like brown, black, white. Its snout is mostly black and the tip of their tales are white. The ears are big and round and the body is slender with long and powerful legs. Wild dogs live in packs, just like wolves. They are very social animals, since they hunt together and even have their own language in form of high frequent squeaking noises, body language and scents.
Wild dogs are related to wolves and jackals. They evolved as an independent species 3 million years ago, which makes their genes quite precious and interesting for scientists to preserve.

In comparison to cheetahs, wild dogs are marathon runners not sprinters. They can run 60 km/h and hold that speed an hour long. They will hunt their prey until it is exhausted for then to catch easily. Once caught, the wild dog will rip its preys thorax open, which kills it instantly. Since this method looks quite brutal, the wild dogs has been hunted and killed by the African people. Because of its bad reputation, wild dogs are on the edge of extinction. Another reason for the falling numbers are encounters between common dogs and wild dogs. Here the wild dogs will often be infected with diseases.