Dholes (Cuon alpinus)

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In thread "ON THE EDGE OF EXTINCTION-A-TIGER (panthera tigris)" has been mentioned pack sizes of dholes. I suggest, that discussion about pack sizes and how people maybe have had effect on that, would be discussed here, because that for sure fits better to this thread. It can possibly be a little bit longer discussion alone, after all. 

I noticed watching documentary which I linked here, that narrator mentioned, that dholes were at one point hunted almost to extinction before someone "waked up" and they got protection. Before that they were total outlaws and money was paid for killed ones. If I understood right, there were less than a hundred left at that point (?). I feel, that when some species is forced to so bad condition, it could cause changes in behavior and what Jimmy was wondering about pack size reduction actually sounds like one serious possibility to at least think about. We are talking about one quite smart species showing ability to adapt behavior.

Even though Corbett and Anderson are for me at least partially more like storytellers than solid reliable sources, maybe they had some reason to describe huge packs. Maybe somewhat exaggerated numbers, but still it is easy to think, that packs could have been at least about 20 individuals. If there are other sources to use, than Corbett and Anderson, it for sure would give more credibility to such hypothesis. After I have seen some of their stories, I just can´t take them too seriously. And when I saw how Sunquist and Suinquist used for instance Corbett as a sourse in their texts, also those swedish got in my thoughts a little bit questionable label :)

Anyway it would be interesting to see what sources can be found and what kind of observations. Luckily dholes are recovering and with time there can be some new information too, but that can take still quite some time, there are not that many even today as there once in time was... :/ Reply