Dholes (Cuon alpinus)

[smedz]

(01-29-2019, 09:29 AM)Sanju Wrote:

(01-29-2019, 06:34 AM)smedz Wrote: So from he sounds of it, I think we can all agree that tigers do dominate Dholes even if those events happened, wouldn't you agree? But moving on to another Dhole related topic.

How in the world did Dholes manage to survive the Pleistocene? Back then, Dholes were also found in Europe and North America of all places. These continents were full of killers. Homotherium, Cave Hyenas, Cave Lions, Wolves in Europe, and American Lions, Homotherium, Smilodon, Arctodus, Dire Wolves, etc.
How did these small canids survive all this?

Well let's take a look at Dhole behaviour. We know that Dholes are mostly diurnal hunters, which helps them avoid tigers ( course this doesn't always work) so by hunting during the day, they could avoid some competitors. Another thing is the fact they lie in packs, which helps in dealing with leopards, and this also provides multiple sets of eyes, ears, and noses to detect danger, but being in packs wouldn't be too helpful when animals like he cave hyena and Homotherium where social and Arctodus were just way too big. But Dholes had another answer, habitat selection. By living in forests, they could avoid the fierce competition in the open plains, and since forest big cats are normally solitary, pack structure was and still is helpful. In fact, this method may be why we don't have accounts of Dholes interacting with Asiatic Lions. Dholes lived in the forests, Lions lived more in the grasslands and dry forests. But while this works with felines, it doesn't work with humans.

Yes, I agree completely. The reason for big clan structure (more than wolf like more social and less territorial) even in "forest type of eco regions" is to avoid competitive exclusion i.e.., aiding depredation on them by these bigger carnivores or predators like tigers, leopards, wolves, lions and cheetah (past), Black bears etc.., I use clan because...

Quote:"Pack always hunts together and waits until every member is ready for the hunt" where as "Clan refers to the meaning that the original group can be sub divided to hunt separately on their won or venture on their own for a short period but can be join at any point of time to the source group. Hence, Dhole-Clan; AWD, Wolf- Pack.

Although not as fast as jackals and foxes, they can chase their prey for many hours (pursuit predators). So there is a problem why you can't see social carnivores "more" in forests than Plains ??? coz they couldn't hunt in a co-ordinative way... "The Dhole" over came this problem in the wild dog style (AWD too).. i.e.., integrating communication between them during hunts with vocalizations or some extraordinary vocal calls such as - it can whistle, Howling, Bark, sequel, whine, squeak, staccato, Gramble,  scream, mew- and even cluck like a chicken, and high-frequency and biphonic calls in dog-like canids can be produced without specific anatomical adaptations of the sound-producing structures.

It can pee while doing a handstand on its front two legs

Other predators like tiger tend to enhance their size as a defensive strategy in forest environments competition and bigger prey adaptation...

Thanks for the agreement, and is it also for tiger domination over the Dhole? But anyways, you're right with the growth in tiger size when bigger prey and more competition is around. In our time, Dholes do avoid tigers for the reason that a tiger can kill many pack members, allowing tigers to frequently catch and eat Dholes. Which is likely why Dholes chose the day to hunt. But I do think Dholes have quite the defense stratedgy when they do cross paths with a tiger. There is one account from a study done years ago where a tiger approached a Dhole pack, but the Dholes saw the tiger and the tiger left. That makes me believe the Dholes main defense is for one to spot a tiger stalking them, sound the alarm, the Dholes look at the tiger, and the tiger, knowing that he hunt is now over, moves on. Reply