African Hunting Dog

The African Dog is a carnivore and is considered a canid.

The African dog is found, coincidentally, only in Africa, particularly on the savannah and in areas of light woods or forest.

The wild dogs name in Greek means painted wolf and this is bourne out by the fact that no two animals have the same pattern on their fur, much like a tigers stripes are individual.

African Dog

They can be recognized by humans or each other by the pattern of their coat.

The wild dog is the only species of canid that has no dew claw present at birth.

Adult wild dogs will weigh between 35 and 75 pounds and are about thirty inches tall at the shoulder. They are about 40 inches long from nose to back end.

The animals of southern Africa are usually larger than those in the east or west.
The male of the species is about 5 % larger than the female.

The female will reproduce any time of the year, and will do so most often between march and June. She can have as few as two or as many as fifteen babies, although ten is the normal. They will nurse for about ten week prior to weaning.

The mother most often has them in a den which was left by another animal, such as an aardvark.

At the end of three months the den will be left for another animal and the babies will begin to run with the pack. Around 8 months they can kill small prey animals, but aren’t really good at it till over a year.

African Dogs Hunting

Females will usually leave the pack they are born to at about 2 years, while the males pups will probably stay with their own pack.