Dholes (Cuon alpinus)

[Shadow]

(02-07-2019, 08:38 PM)Wolverine Wrote:

(01-30-2019, 06:44 PM)Shadow Wrote: I have been reading the book: Tiger! The Story of the Indian Tiger (published 1977) from Kailash Sankhala. 

He also say, that there is no other predator like dhole (in India), what comes to teamwork, relentlessness and brutality in hunting. 
He writes, that always when packs of dholes appeared to fields of Kanha, Sankhala noticed, that his chances to see tigers decreased and he had to wait for weeks until dholes left the area.

Shadow, the observations of Dr Kailash Sankhala are quite interesting. Obviously the result of the panic caused to herbivores when big pack of dholes is hunting in particular area lead to temporary lack of prey in this area so tigers are sometimes also enforced to leave temporary the area because there is almost nothing to hunt. That doesnt mean that tiger afraid of dholes but obviosly as Sankhala said scarcity of prey could indirectly cause tiger to leave temporarily a particular area and to return only when the panic among the herbivores is gone and they return to previous grazing grounds. So, again Kipling was right in some way.

Well, Kipling as far as I know and as some information in your postings have showed, didn´t make up stories from nothing, but dicussed with people who had been in India and observed animals there. Of course his books aren´t documentaries as everyone understand, but still in many ways going side by side with reality having naturally some freedom to make a good and entertaining strory :)

So far I haven´t seen anything indicating, that tigers would be afraid of dholes. That would be odd if so in normal conditions. Then again while dholes are more cautious with tigers than with leopards, it has been interesting to see, that they aren´t in panic when meeting tigers. Not even then,when making room for tiger to pass them. Those some videos, where dholes circle tiger and keep that terrible noise are interesting to watch, it is after all tiger leaving the area there in some, not dholes always and they look like to follow up the tiger and maybe keeping those high-pitched voices until "danger is over"(?). 

It is interesting to look at that video with leopard on tree, there dhole voices are very different. Have to look more information about it what kind of voices dholes keep in different situations, then maybe some videos tell more than now. Actually have to look again some videos and listen more carefully what kind of voices they keep there.

Btw Peter might have that book of Sankhala in english, if so maybe he could put here pictures with original text what comes to that part concerning dholes. That was interesting to read because Sankhala writes mostly about his own observations, not about something heard from someone else.

What comes overall to dholes and to discussion about their reputation etc. there seems to be at least about ten different sources starting from about year 1800 telling about this wild dog, which is extremely efficient predator and spreading terror in prey animals. Kipling is not source of that reputation, just a sideline in story of dholes :) Reply