Dholes (Cuon alpinus)

[GuateGojira]

(01-28-2019, 12:16 PM)Wolverine Wrote: If we put aside the question of dhole-tiger relations (I'm a bit tired by this topic) it was noticed by scientists that when pack of dholes hunts in the jungle their movements cause extreme panic among herbivores and sometimes the whole area became empty of animals.
Here is citate from the Swedish naturalist Jan Linblad in his book "The world of the Jungle Book, 1972", the book I have is translated to other European language and I'll retranslate it to English:

"We even saw red wolves. Four of those rear and rearily observed animals suddenly appeared in the front of our eyes... But their appearance created a big panic, langurs started terrible noise, watching the pack, which was running quickly on the dry leaves and all herbivores as fast streams spreaded out on the woody slopes.  Huge space in the front of the dholes got totally empty."

https://litlife.club/br/?b=133908&p=14

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

Similar description has R.Pockock in Mammalia, vol II, p.178:
"Their depradations will soon clear out large areas of forest of game compelling the pack to go elsewhere, sometimes far afield, for food, and the place could be free for weaks or months, so there is no certanty of finding them in any particcular spott."

https://archive.org/details/PocockMammalia2/page/n177

This remind me even Kipling  :

“The dhole, the dhole of the Dekkan — Red Dog, the Killer! They came north from the south saying the Dekkan was empty and killing out by the way."

That is just Mythology. Check this from Richard Perry (1965) in the book "The World of the Tiger":
"It has often been claimed that the mere presence of ta pack of dogs clears all game out of a jungle, as the precense of a tiger  or tigers never does, and Fletcher stated that he had frequently seen sambar in his preserve emigrating because of the presence of dogs. But one suspects this to be the exception rather than the rule, beacuse deer are terrotorially conservative, except during drought, and difficult to drive from their traditional feeding grounds, and most packs of dogs are continually on the move - a few weeks hunting in one jungle, and they are on to the next. Indeed, according to Champion, dogs are most numerous in those jungles containing most deer, and there is a record of one pack, vaying in numbers from twelve to twenty dogs, lining permanently for several years in one forest track, which was not only the best in the district for deer and pig, but also held a number of tigers and leopards. Nor are deer entirely without protection from dogs. Heavy jungle, with tall grass that cuts the dog's pad, and also prohibits sight hunting, provides a refuge for chital, and in such a jungle deer may be seen grazing every day, even though dos are persisntently hunting in the track. Moreover deer are, as has already been noted, able to distinguish between a full-fed predator and one that is hunitng. A herd of sambar hinds will feed close by a pack of indling dogs, and the presence of another pack, trotting along a fire-line, will be ignored alike by a sounder of pigs on one side of teh fire-line and by some sambar on the other." page 146 - 147.

All this, and the fact that dholes will starve to death if there is no prey, put in question all those old myths regarding the dhole. The more that I investigate the dholes, the more I see that the old stories are just cultural perceptions of this animal, that although bold, is no different from other canids like wolves or lycaons. Reply