African Wild Dogs

Though for reasons purely normal, African wild dogs are hunted, persecuted, poisoned, and exterminated whenever there are signs of them. They are seen as a voracious and indiscriminate predator that –uncontrolled could tip the ecological balance of an environment. Because of this, many have come up on a crusade against African wild dogs, herdsman, ranch owners, farmers, shepherds, and even households whose rapid expansion of settlements have pushed back shrinking African wild dogs’ habitat. And consequently, the numbers of African wild dogs’ population are slowly dying out, only an approximate 5,600 or less worldwide.

Are we seeing the ultimate end of this now severely endangered species?

African wild dogs are medium size dogs related to domesticated dogs native only to Africa. They are pack animals like hyenas and somewhat like wolves that hunt, live and travel together, more often relied on each other and living alone. That aspect allowed them to survive and adapt to certain situations, against fiercer and more aggressive predators like lions and tiger, and distant relatives like hyenas.

But obviously not with humans

It is the African wild dogs’ undeserved reputation that made it into one of the most endangered species. They live on the widest assortment of prey, even carcasses. They are seen as a voracious and indiscriminate predator -killer that uncontrolled can tip the ecological scale of environmental consequence. They take several preys at once, taking down several antelopes, zebras, wildebeest, springboks, gazelles and impalas before settling down to feed as pack. And many at a time ecologists have rationale that with their voracious feeding they can eradicate a certain species to extinction, forgetting that African wild dogs were living in the plains of the savannas long before humans have taken up mantles as ecological conservationists.

Another fact that causes their near eradication is their constant foray to human communities -which also led to losses of livestock and even domesticated animals such as pet cats and dogs. But in truth, they are as much a nuisance to human communities as lions, tigers, hyenas and even bears. And to think that humans have too much expanded to territories that clearly are habitats to these animals.

Perhaps that is also because like hyenas, African wild dogs aren’t pretty to look at, as lions and tigers. And they smell bad, characteristic typical of canine predators which is necessary counterbalance to their prey, notifying these of the dogs’ presence before they can get close for a kill.

All in all, African wild dogs deserve the savannas and the plains as much as the regal lions and distasteful hyenas do. Yes, they are voracious feeders, but that is compounded of the fact that they multiply poorly and selectively, thus creating less numbers of them than ecological could count on the numbers of prey animals.