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The most efficient large predator in Africa, and one of its rarest.
Where lions succeed on perhaps a quarter of their attempts, wild dogs close around eighty percent of theirs. The method is not power but persistence — a sustained chase at 50 km/h, run in relay, over distances that break the prey rather than surprise it. Kills are consumed fast, because hyaenas and lions arrive quickly and the pack cannot defend a carcass.
A pack decides whether to hunt by sneezing. Individuals audibly exhale during the pre-hunt rally, and when enough have done so the group moves; when the dominant pair initiates, fewer sneezes are needed. What kills them is not competition but us — snare wire set for bushmeat, and rabies and canine distemper crossing over from village dogs into a species that lives at very low density.
The open shelf
More frames of the african wild dog
Streamed live from the Commons Quality Images archive, eighteen at a time. Tap any frame to study it — each remains its photographer’s.
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