African Wild Dog (Lycaon pictus)

[Spalea]

Jens Cullmann: " Shake off the dirt and continue as if nothing had happened. It's nearly Friday ... "

Marlon du Toit: " #WildDogDay. Apparently it’s a thing? Regardless, love painted wolves just too much & thought I’d share a pic from one of my favourite encounters with them.

These animals have been on the brink of collapse for some time & deserve far more recognition & help from us all! "

Robbyne Kotze: " Happy #worldwilddogday !

Wild dogs are endangered, and only around 5000 are believed to be left on the African continent. They are extremely efficient predators, and while they prefer wild prey, in many places they have been eradicated for the perceived risk they pose to livestock. On top of this, they are also vulnerable to diseases such as rabies and canine distemper, which is increasingly problematic as human populations expand and there is more interaction between people and wildlife. Wild dog packs can cover thousands of kilometers, which means they require safe ranges outside of protected areas and tolerance across a range of land use types to support their survival, which makes their conservation a challenge. Luckily, large protected area networks like those across northern Botswana and neighboring KAZA states are making this a possibility!
Today is a good day to reshare this video, which we took of a pack of wild dogs in the Okavango during our PhD field work. They are not very fond of deeper water, and it took quite some time for the pack to rally the courage to cross, with hilarious results when the eventually did. Peer pressure won over in the end and within a minute of the first dog crossing the whole pack had crossed and was happily reunited on the other side. We decided to try and follow but the Land Rover liked the channel even less and we spent the following hour digging the car back out and dodging larger than life leeches ?"

Reply