Featured image: Large trucks provided the primary transport for pastoralists and villagers within the Central Rangelands. Boards resting on the upright sides of the truck separated people (above) from small stock and other cargo (below).
A fourth set of free downloads of hard-to-find documents on the Central Rangelands of Somalia’s is now available. This installment includes eleven extension leaflets (five written in Somali) and nine monitoring and evaluation documents by the Central Rangelands Development Project. The period covered is from 1979 to 1988. https://storiesofeastafrica.com/?page_id=4229
A third set of free downloads on the rangelands of Central Somalia is now available. This installment includes five reports, ten maps, and seven published papers on rangeland ecology and development https://storiesofeastafrica.com/?page_id=4116
Featured image: Iain Douglas-Hamilton with Save the Elephants Foundation’s Cessna in Samburu National Park, Kenya. (File: Iain Douglas-Hamilton.jpg-Wikipedia Commons)
By Ted Schmitt
Senior Director, Conservation at Allen Institute for AI (Ai2)
Editor’s note: Over the years I’ve known a number of individuals who became “movers and shakers” in understanding and conserving Africa’s wildlife. One was Iain Douglas-Hamilton, whom I met at the Serengeti Research Institute in the early 1970’s. But then our careers went in different directions and it was fifty years before I saw him again. In contrast, Ted Schmitt has worked closely with Iain since 2014, when Paul Allen Philanthropic Ventures and Iain began a cooperative program resulting in an Africa-wide census of elephants and on-going development of technologies to support conservation and management of Africa’s wildlife resources(See Ted’s links in the text to EarthRanger and Ecoscope).
Iain Douglas-Hamilton has passed. He was a giant of conservation, a true visionary who, among so many things, saw the potential for technology to help us conserve wildlife. I had the great good fortune to get to know Iain well.
Me posing with Iain and the Save The Elephants Cessna in Samburu Reserve, Kenya
Dennis Herlocker met Iain when they were both young researchers in Tanzania. This excerpt from an October 1966 New Yorker article written by the famous author, Allen Moorehead, gives a fair impression of who Iain was:
“I thought I knew elephants fairly well before this trip, but at Manyara Mr. Iain Douglas-Hamilton was able to show me a good deal more. He is a young Oxford zoologist who is making a study of the elephants in the park… his method of doing this is to live with them day by day, and to approach them so closely that he can identify every animal not only by its tusks and its shape but also by its moods and idiosyncrasies. He declares—and one hopes he is right—that they are also beginning to recognize him. You need faith for this close-up work. On my first evening with Douglas-Hamilton, he surprised me very much by turning our Land-Rover off the track and driving straight into the middle of a herd of females and their young that were grazing in thick scrub. As he turned off the engine, he explained that these particular animals were old friends. It did not seem to me to be entirely so. A half-grown beast about ten yards away ceased its grazing and…went through the full repertoire of its intimidations in order to drive us away… “A dummy rush,” Douglas-Hamilton explained. I have no experience in estimating rushes, but this one seemed very real. When the animal, with its uplifted trunk, was some four yards away, I found I could look right down into its pink gullet, and its quivering tricorne lip was very hairy. And then, I am bound to admit, it stopped short. It uttered a piercing scream, wheeled about, and vanished into the bushes with its companions at its heels.”
I’m sure Dennis recognizes in this description the brash young elephant scientist he knew. look (Note by Dennis–Iain did have a reputation for putting himself into potentially dangerous situations. For instance, accompanied by a friend of mine, Iain, just as he did with Allen Moorehead, drove right up to a group of supposedly “safe” elephants. This time, however, the large animals turned on him, bashing and tusking his Land Rover, giving Iain’s passenger the scare of her life. Iain’s colleagues frequently advised him to be more careful, but to little avail. He was either extremely brave or defined “danger” differently than most people.)
I met Iain a full 48 years later in Kasane, Botswana at the kick-off meeting of the Great Elephant Census in late January 2014.
Cohort of Scientists and aerial wildlife surveyors in Kasane, Botswana, January 2014
You can hear Iain elegantly explain in this video just why the Great Elephant Census was important. I remember Iain saying “Information is power. If you have the information, then you have the power to move mountains.” And we did. The results of Great Elephant Census was a key piece in ending the ivory crisis that occurred between 2009 and 2014 in which 30% of all African elephants were killed. The population in one park in Tanzania, the Selous Game Reserve, dropped from over 100,000 to just 17,000. Just one year after the Census results were published in 2016 China, the largest market for ivory, banned ivory trade.
Without Iain, there would be no EarthRanger. He was innovating at an age when most people have long retired. Iain and the Save The Elephants team came to Vulcan to talk about the importance of animal tracking and the potential for technology to do so much more than it was. One of those team members, Jake Wall, then a PhD candidate, was using tracking data and Google Earth Engine to understand in new ways how elephants used their landscape. His work built on the pioneering work Iain had done to use collars to track elephants to understand how they used the landscapes they lived in. As result of that meeting and discussions with park managers across Africa led directly to the development of EarthRanger, a tool which built on Jake’s work to understand and protect elephants and other wildlife. EarthRanger has revolutionized how parks are managed globally with close to 1,000 parks using it in nearly 90 countries. You can read a tribute to Iain from the EarthRanger team. Ten years on, Jake is now the leader of EcoScope, a free and open-source data analytics and reporting platform that is part of the EarthRanger family of products, designed to turn conservation data into action. EarthRanger, EcoScope, and so many other innovations are a direct outgrowth of Iain’s 50 plus years of work…and they represent only a fraction of his impact. It is no exaggeration to say that Iain directly inspired and informed the work of hundreds if not thousands of us working to protect wildlife.
Iain looking on as Chris Thouless of Save The Elephants describes the potential meaning of elephant tracks in the precursor to EarthRanger at Lewa Conservancy in Kenya, February 2015
Iain’s passion was infectious. You could not meet him and not feel driven to do all you could and more than you thought possible to protect wildlife. He told many people about the time an elephant he knew well chased him round a tree and could have driven its tusk through him, but it walked away instead. He had many such stories, each reinforcing his wonder of other species. Once, when he and I were out in Samburu doing I don’t remember what, we watched a giraffe giving birth. With the joy of a child, he told me, “I’ve never seen this before”. It was a moment that captured everything for me about who Iain was, ever curious, ever learning, ever sharing, and ever loving the wonder of the other species we share the planet with.
A giraffe giving birth in Samburu Reserve, Kenya, August 2016
I have so many memories of Iain I will always cherish. I can imagine him now flying his beloved airplane using the Save The Elephants app as his compass to the nearest elephant and shouting out sitings to me, Jake, and Chris Jones, each with our assignments. And me doing my best to take photos while he spun a tight circle, so we didn’t miss anything.
Flying with Iain, Jake Wall, and Chis Jones to spot elephants using the Save The Elephants app, February 2016
You will be missed, Iain, but you will not be forgotten. Your legacy lives on in each of us touched by your science, innovations, passion, and belief, from those early days in Tanzania in the 1960’s, to the 2020’s in Kenya, across Africa and beyond, that anything, however difficult, is possible if we keep at it.
A second set of free downloads of hard-to-obtain documents on the rangelands of Central Somalia is now available. This installment includes survey and research results produced by the Central Rangelands Development Project https://storiesofeastafrica.com/reports-by-somalia-crdp/. Reports by other agencies will follow in future texts.
This post includes surveys and maps carried out in 1979 by Resource Management and Research (RMR), London. Reports by other agencies will follow in future posts.
(Featured image: Dr. Tom Thurow and Somalia National University students collecting rangeland composition data on the coastal plains of Central Somalia.)
Because Its rangelands are Somalia’s primary natural resource, a considerable amount of research has been carried out over the last several decades to determine their productive potential and how they may best be managed. Unfortunately, much of the resulting information was not widely published and is, therefore, now difficult to obtain. This post is the first of several to at least partially remedy this situation by making available digital copies of relevant publications and reports for free downloads
Featured image: Eleusine jaegeri, a large tussock grass, dominates the highland grasslands of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. It is unpalatable except when young. Consequently, grazing pressure is confined to an underlying mat of palatable grasses (Andropogon, Cynodon, Digitaria, Sporobolus) which is kept low by constant usage.
Several months ago I made digital copies of the Range Management Handbook of Kenya available online. The response was so positive that I’ve decided to continue with other difficult-to-obtain publications on eastern Africa’s rangelands. Today I’m happy to announce the online availability of several digitized publications on the rangelands of Tanzania!
During the mid 1960’s and 70’s I was involved in, among other things, surveys of vegetation in Tanzania. Whenever possible, I also obtained copies of other surveys and studies, six of which I have digitized. Published between 1967 and 1978, they are now out of print and hard to obtain. Nonetheless, they may still have some value, be that for planning, instructional, research, or historical purposes.
Also, if you have paper copies of additional publications on the rangelands of Tanzania and would like me to digitize them and make them available, please send me an email.
Outside the house a prowling hyena whooped mournfully, waking me from my reverie. The fire which, last time I noticed, had been burning merrily away in the fireplace, was now.a bed of glowing coals. The short wave radio, having wandered off frequency, was whining and crackling with static. The feeble, slowly pulsating light from the Petromax lantern showed that it needed pumping. Again, the hyena whooped, but farther away this time. I looked at my watch and realized the lateness of the hour . . .
Buffaloes by My Bedroom: Tales of Tanganyika
Many years later, when I think about my nights at Ngorongoro, whether in the Crater Highlands, on the floor of Ngorongoro Crater, or somewhere on the Serengeti Plains, the first thing that comes to mind is the querulous oooo-WHUP (I am here) of a prowling spotted hyena.
The spotted hyena only occurs in Africa. (Graphic: Ngorongoro Hyena Project)
At the time I gave this little thought. But now, having investigated the matter, I know it was because the spotted hyena is not only Africa’s most abundant large carnivore, but also mostly hunts at night.
Something I did know, however, even then, was that the spotted hyena had an image problem. Less than handsome (although its small black cubs are cute), it has long been regarded as a skulking, slinking, nocturnal, weird-sounding, odd-looking, unclean scavenger too cowardly to prey on any but the weak and young. Furthermore, its role in disposing of human corpses encouraged the feeling that the animal is something of a living mausoleum. (Many East African tribes placed their dead, and in some cases, near-dead, in the bush for just this purpose.) Thus, it’s not surprising that the spotted hyena, whose behavior sometimes seems to verge on the demonic, also is associated with death and witchcraft. Consequently, it plays a more important role in African witchcraft than any other animal. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_depictions_of_spotted_hyenas#:~:text=In%20the%20culture%20of%20the,branded%20with%20an%20invisible%20mark.)
“Where’s my public relations person?“
(Photo: David Bygott)
That said, any spotted hyenas worried about their poor fan base can take heart from the fact that scientific research is casting them in a more positive light. Two attributes stand out: (a) high intelligence, and (b) speed and efficiency in utilizing prey carcasses. Together, these traits have made the spotted hyena a very successful carnivore. Details follow.
But first, two interesting spotted hyena facts.
Spotted hyenas look like dogs but are taxonomically more closely related to cats (most closely to genets and mongooses).
Hyenas are more closely related to mongooses than foxes, which, like dogs, are in the Suborder Caniformia.
(Graphic: Ngorongoro Hyena Project)
Dwarf mongooses.
(Photo: David Bygott)
Also interesting, and rather strange, is that males and females look so alike (females have a pseudopenis and false scrotum), that spotted hyenas were long thought to be hermaphrodites.
Female? Male?
(Photo by David Bygott)
Now, down to business:
Contrary to their reputation, spotted hyenas are highly intelligent, capable of outsmarting chimpanzees in laboratory problem-solving tests. Some everyday examples of this intelligence include (a) exceedingly cunning and suspicious behavior after escaping from traps, (b) use of deceptive behavior, and (c) an ability to plan for hunts of certain prey species in advance.
Regarding (b) and (c) above, Hans Kruuk, who studied spotted hyenas in Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti in the 1960’s, once observed a spotted hyena which upon finding a carcass, sounded the alarm call to keep other hyenas away, allowing it to keep the carcass for itself (Spotted hyena mothers sometimes show similar behavior by sounding alarm calls when other hyenas attempt ro kill their cubs). Hans also could often tell, from their behavior, when a group of hyenas had decided to hunt zebras, even when none were in sight and other prey were more easily available.
Other examples of spotted hyena intelligence occur throughout this report.
Complex behaviors reflect high intelligence, and spotted hyena behavior is the most complex of all African carnivores. An aspect to this is a high degree of behavioral flexibility. For instance, hyenas don’t always stick together, They may act communally, as when hunting dangerous prey, and defending clan territories, or individualistically (and highly competitively) as when caring for their young, foraging, and hunting smaller prey. This allows the species to exploit many different resources efficiently.
The spotted hyena social system differs from other social carnivores in that there is no communal sharing of food (or care of the young, each female caring only for her own).
(Photo: Bernard Dupont. CCAS 2.0 A license*)
Females rule. Larger than males (unusual in mammals), they take the lead in territorial marking exercises, group hunts, and battles with other packs. Females also remain in the clan / pack while males emigrate (at about two years of age). Males not only defer to females, but also play no parental role, and are often not even allowed near the otherwise communal dens, Less closely knit than wild dogs, spotted hyenas more often forage and hunt alone.
“Darn females won’t let me in the house! “
(Photo: David Bygott.)
Complex behavior requires good communication. Spotted hyenas are excellent communicators. This is because every individual is, to another hyena, a potential competitor (even dangerous enemy) or collaborator, which makes the signaling of moods and intentions very important. Thus, the spotted hyena has an enormous array of calls (whoops, moans, grunts, giggles, whines, yells, growls), expressions, postures, and attitudes. This can lead to a massive amount of noise when they compete with one another over a carcass. Consequently,the spotted hyena is one of Africa’s noisiest animals.
Highly gregarious, the spotted hyena is the most social of all carnivore species, with the largest social groups. For instance, a spotted hyena clan may comprise 35 to 80 adults. (In contrast, the largest recorded pride of lions, the other major social large carnivore, is 30 animals, including cubs.)
Social group size, however, varies with the availability of food, as does the size of spotted hyena territories, and the degree to which the group (clan / pack) defends them. For instance, in the Kalahari Desert spotted hyena densities are so low that they forage and hunt within territories too large (500-2,000 sq. km / 193-772 sq. miles) to defend against other hyenas. In contrast, where wild ungulate prey is most abundant, as in Tanzania’s Ngorongoro Crater, hyenas are numerous, forming large social groups and aggressively defending territories less than 40 sq. km (15 sq. miles) in area. (The much larger Serengeti-Mara ecosystem, which includes the crater, is home to 7,200-7,000 animals, the largest spotted hyena population in Africa.)
Ngorongoro Crater’s large resident population of 25,000 ungulates supports high densities of from 380-470 spotted hyenas.
(Photo: David Bygott.)
One night in the Serengeti, two friends of mine, staying in a guest house, experienced at close hand the aggressive defense of a spotted hyena clan territory. Hearing hyenas, they went outside and played a recording of spotted hyena calls from another area. Minutes later they had to scramble atop a nearby Land Rover to escape a crowd of angry spotted hyenas. Hearing hyenas from another clan in their territory, they had rushed over to expel them.
Another example of the spotted hyena’s complex behavior is a greater plasticity in foraging and hunting behavior than exhibited by other African carnivores. for instance, spotted hyenas both scavenge and hunt, the former usually during the day because they use vultures as indicators of kills, and the vultures only fly during the day.
A spotted hyena waits for lions to finish eating before scavenging the remains.
(Photo: David Bygott)
However, when carcasses are scarce, spotted hyenas also hunt, usually at night, and, depending on the circumstances, either alone, in small parties, or in large groups. A common technique is to lope toward a herd or flock, forcing its members to flee, revealing easy to catch stragglers (weak, young, sick).
Wildebeest calves in Ngorongoro Crater and on the Serengeti Plains are a favorite prey of spotted hyenas. As they are easy to catch, they are hunted by single hyenas.
(Photo: David Bygott)
Like wild dogs, spotted hyenas simply run their prey to exhaustion, usually within 1.5-5 km (1-3 miles). A single hyena can catch and kill healthy prey the size of a bull gnu, but only as a last resort. When hyenas are numerous, other pack members may join in near the end of a chase to help pull down larger animals like wildebeests. However, usually led by a female, they also stage deliberate pack hunts of dangerous prey, such as zebra families guarded by sharp-hoofed stallions.
Zebras fight back, so spotted hyenas must hunt them in groups.
(Photo: David Bygott)
Often eating their prey alive, spotted hyenas, unlike wild dogs (https://storiesofeastafrica.com/2023/09/13/wild-dogs-wildlife-of-ngorongoro/), compete with other pack members by eating as much and as fast as they can, with individuals swallowing up to a third of their weight (A lion can only swallow a fourth of its weight). Twenty hyenas, and another group of 35, were recorded finishing off carcasses weighing 100 kg (220 lbs.) and 220 kg (485 lbs.) respectively, in 13 minutes. And they do this with remarkably little fighting. Instead, there’s lots of noise, which attracts other clan members (up to 65 seen on a kill in Ngorongoro Crater). Only then do all clan members ever come together. (These competitive scrambles are less common in the Serengeti where there is a better ratio of prey to hyena.)
When many spotted hyenas are on a kill, some quickly eat what they can before taking a chunk of meat and bone elsewhere for a quiet meal.
(Photo: David Bygott)
Spotted hyenas also excel in that they eat almost the entire carcass of their prey. They can, for instance, crack quite large bones, such as those of buffaloes and giraffes, noisily splintering them before they are swallowed. Furthermore, their digestive system can dissolve bones, and even teeth, within hours. (Dry hyena scats, composed of ground up bones, are a chalky white.). Thus, virtually everything is eaten except the rumen contents (Grass! Yuck!), and horn bosses of larger antelopes. The hair, and hooves, which cannot be digested, are disgorged. Probably no other carnivore utilizes vertebrate prey so efficiently. Other species waste up to 40% of their kills.
“The good stuff’s finished; time to eat the hide.”
(Photo: David Bygott)
Hans Kruuk found the spotted hyena to be a formidable predator. This to the extent that lions often scavenge hyena kills. Direct competitors with lions for food, spotted hyenas, unless present in large groups, generally give way to the larger carnivores, allowing them to appropriate their kills. In turn, spotted hyenas frequently steal kills made by cheetahs and wild dogs (although the latter, being more socially cooperative, are sometimes able to successfully defend themselves) and, given the opportunity, also kill their cubs, as do lions. In the Serengeti, lions and hyenas have exerted such pressure on wild dogs that they have pushed them into outlying parts of the greater Serengeti ecosystem.
A single hyena being harassed by a pack of wild dogs.
(Photo: Kruger sightings HD. CCA 3.0 U**)
Furthermore, spotted hyenas can be dangerous to livestock and people, especially when other food is scarce, but also when an opportunity arises for an easy meal, such as encountering an unattended child, or someone sleeping in the open. A relevant example (see below) recently appeared in my local newspaper.
Furthermore, spotted hyenas are easily kept and trained. Witch doctors sometimes add to their persona by keep them as pets. Hans Kruuk and his wife, Jane, successfully raised a young hyena as a family pet in the Serengeti National Park, although they eventually put it in a zoo when it learned how to open doors and steal bacon from the chief park warden’s breakfast table.
Spotted hyenas: Complicated creatures. Just like us.
REFERENCES
Estes, R.D. 1992. The Behavior Guide to African Mammals: Including Hoofed Mammals, Carnivores, Primates. The University of California Press.
Fosbrooke, H. 1972. Ngorongoro–The Eighth Wonder. Andre Deutsch.
Herlocker, D.J. 2009. Buffaloes by My Bedroom: Tales of Tanganyika. iUniverse.
Featured image: Production risk due to lack of rainfall in Marsabit District
Now available for free downloads: digitized copies of the 22 reports (3 volumes) comprising the Range Management Handbook of Kenya.
For information on rangeland resources, climatology, livestock diseases, constraints facing range development, and much more, go to the sidebar and click on Range Management Handbook of Kenya. Alternatively, click on storiesofeastafrica.com/range-management-handbook-of-kenya/
Some examples of newly available reports / maps appear below.
District-wide maps provide inventories of natural resources and their ecological status
Environmental degradation is ongoing in the rangelands of East Africa. This guide shows how to identify and monitor soil erosion in arid and semi-arid lands.
Camels, which typify arid rangelands, have, in recent years, also become a presence in semi-arid rangelands. See this report for tips on how to manage them.
Featured image: African wild dog pack, Kruger National Park, South Africa. Bart Swanson. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 unsorted license
“Wild dogs!” John yelped. Pointing out the right window of his Land Rover, he exclaimed “Over there–ten of them.” Then he really got excited: “And they’re chasing something! See how they’re trotting, strung out in a long line? Fantastic!” Abandoning our search for rhinos, we promptly sped off to follow the hunt.
It was 1965 and I, the assistant conservator (forests) for the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA), was temporarily without official transport because the NCA had prematurely exhausted its government-imposed monthly fuel allowance. For the time-being I would be unable to supervise the crew constricting a road around the western and northern rim of Ngorongoro crater or visit forest guards patrolling the Northern Highlands Forest Reserve; they were all too far away. What I could do, however, was accompany my neighbor, John Goddard, a Canadian biologist studying black rhinos, into the Crater. John had his own source of funding, which meant he was unhampered by government fuel allowances.
Rattling across the crater floor in John’s Land Rover, we followed the pack for about a mile before it brought down its prey, an adult Grant’s gazelle. Then, instead of resting from their exertions, the wild dogs immediately started ripping it apart; John and I arrived to find one dog pulling on a foreleg of the gazelle, another yanking the other direction on a hind leg, and two others tugging at its stomach while the rest of the pack danced about uttering excited twitters and whines. John quickly took several photographs, but then surprised me by leaving the vehicle to approach the frenzied melee taking place only thirty feet away. What was he thinking? They’ll eat him for dessert! But then another surprise: instead of aggressively defending their kill, the wild dogs warily backed away, allowing John to walk right up to it.
Wild dog pack tearing into a Grant’s gazelle in Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania.
In his 1972 book, Ngorongoro: The Eighth Wonder, Henry Fosbrooke remarks on how wild dogs in the crater always gave way when John approached. He did this, Henry said, to collect the prey’s mandibles–aging its teeth showed an animal’s age at death. John wanted undamaged specimens so he collected them as soon as possible after the wild dogs made their kill. However, in this case at least, there also was a fringe benefit: Returning with both the gazelle’s head and part of one of its hindquarters, John announced, “This takes care of dinner, tonight!”
My three years (1964-1967) at Ngorongoro exactly coincided with the presence of a wild dog pack in Ngorongoro Crater. Few were seen prior to this time and the pack left the crater in 1967. But then African wild dogs have a reputation for being rare and elusive. For instance, Henry Fosbrooke saw a wild dog only once during his 30 years of on and off acquaintance with Ngorongoro. George and Lory Frame, who studied cheetahs and wild dogs on the Serengeti Plains in the 1970’s, often spent days or weeks searching for dogs to study, then, having found a pack and studied it for a few days, woke up the next morning to find the dogs had vanished.
“Where’d they go?”
Being rare and elusive makes the African wild dog difficult to study. Nonetheless, it’s worth the effort, and not just because the wild dog occupies its own taxonomic genus (Lyacon) differing from the genus Canis (jackals, wolves, coyotes, domestic dogs) by dentition highly specialized for a hyper-carnivorous diet, and in having four toes on each foot. Both attributes support survival, the first by enhancing the shearing of meat, which increases the speed at which prey is consumed (thereby lessening the chance that lions and hyenas can steal the kill), and the second increases an animal’s stride and speed, allowing long distance pursuit of prey.
To the average viewer, however, the African wild dog’s most distinctive features are its large, round ears, and a splotchy black, white, and brown (sometimes verging on yellow) body–hence its other name, the painted dog. Happily for those who study this species, each animal has its own unique, readily distinguishable coat color pattern. African wild dogs also apparently really stink, although, unlike John Goddard, I never got close enough to tell.
Painted dogs, Kruger National Park, South Africa. Unlike those pictured here, the wild dog in East Africa generally has a white-tipped tail. (The Maasai call it Oloibor kidongoi, the white-tipped one.)
Bernard Dupont. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic License.
The African wild dog is a habitat generalist able to survive in a wide range of environments (An extreme, although undoubtedly short-lived, example is the sighting of a pack near the summit of Tanzania’s 19,341 ft Mt. Kilimanjaro). However, wild dogs are most commonly found in relatively open habitats which provide good views and running conditions.
Almost exclusively carnivorous, killing most of what it eats, the species is specialized as a pack hunter, concentrating on whatever medium-sized antelopes are most abundant. More enduring than its prey, it pursues the latter at up to 35 m/h (56 km/h), one dog leading , and the rest strung out behind, until the prey is exhausted, usually within 3 miles (5 km). Their ability to run their prey down without having to conceal their approach allows African wild dogs to be conspicuously colored, and like cheetahs, hunt only during the day.
African wild dogs chasing prey in Botswana’s Okavango Swamp.
Probably one of the most successful African carnivores, African wild dogs are such effective hunters that when prey is abundant, a pack can regularly have both breakfast and dinner. For example, wild dogs in Ngorongoro Crater killed twice a day, catching 85% of the animals they chased. Even the lowest recorded success rate for this species (39%) exceeded those of all other large predators except cheetahs. Furthermore, the entire pack benefits from a kill because it is shared among them.
Wild dogs in the Serengeti primarily prey upon Thompson’s gazelles and, in season, wildebeest calves (pictured here).
One reason for their rare and elusive nature is that wild dog packs are frequently on the move, averaging 10 km (6 miles) / day, or when game is scarce, up to 40 km (25 miles) / day. In the latter case, hunting ranges can be huge, up to 1500-2000 sq. km / 580 – 770 sq. miles (The largest recorded range is greater than the total area of London), exceeding in area even those of cheetahs. However, a range can be smaller when prey is resident and numerous.
The African wild dog has specialized on an abundant food resource which it can only exploit efficiently by hunting in packs. In East Africa these typically consist of about 10 animals but can go as high as 20 or even 60. Social bonds are strong; when separated from its pack, an African wild dog becomes so depressed that it may die. Each pack has only a single breeding pair, composed of the dominant male and female, which needs assistance from the other adults to provision large litters of up to 10 pups during an extended (12-14 month) period of dependence. Food sharing, by regurgitation of meat obtained from a kill, is supported by an emphasis on submissive, begging behavior within a pack. Aggressive behavior is rare. In-breeding is prevented by the emigration of females to other packs whereas the males, related to one another but not the breeding female, remain.
Wild dog pups. Litter sizes , larger than any other canid, are enough to form a new pack every year.
David Bygott
Despite being such effective hunters, and having an exceptionally efficient reproductive system, African wild dogs are the least common large predator in Africa. Furthermore, their population is declining. With under 7,000 animals remaining in the wild (there are fewer wild dogs than cheetahs) and having disappeared from much of their former range, African wild dogs are the continent’s 2nd most endangered large carnivore, after the Ethiopian wolf. Reasons given include:
(a) infectious diseases: Wild dogs are highly susceptible to canine diseases spread by domestic dogs;
(b) competition from lions and spotted hyenas, which appropriate wild dog kills, and in the case of lions, also kill their pups and adults;
(c) habitat fragmentation and loss.
The fragmented continental habitat of African wild dogs. The full extent of the original habitat can be roughly approximated by the distribution of smaller relict ranges. (Approximately 700 wild dogs live in northern Botswana.)
IUCN. CCA-SA 4.0 International license.
The results are smaller, less efficient and viable wild dog packs. Once African wild dog packs are reduced to small sizes, and suitable habitats are fragmented and altered by humans, wild dog populations seldom recover.
Lions are bad news for wild dogs.
David Bygott
So are domestic dogs, which carry infectious diseases.
Bothar at English Wikipedia CCASA 3.0 Unported.
Thus, the most effective way to ensure the conservation of African wild dog populations is thought to be by creating and protecting areas connecting isolated habitats. A good example of the importance of extensive, connected, ecologically diverse wild dog habitats is provided by the Serengeti-Mara Ecosystem in Tanzania and Kenya. Probably due to a combination of disease and competition from lions, (the major source of wild dog mortality in the Serengeti), and from spotted hyenas, African wild dogs disappeared from the 5,700 sq. mile (14,763 km) Serengeti National Park in the early 1990’s. However, the wild dog populations survived by moving into other parts of the greater (15,444 sq. mile / 40,000 sq. km) Serengeti-Mara Ecosystem. These include Ngorongoro Crater where wild dogs have returned after a 30 year absence, but primarily the Loliondo Game Controlled Area where a more hilly habitat provides greater security from larger predators while the wild dogs are denning and raising their young. Currently, the Serengeti-Mara Ecosystem contains about 120 African wild dogs.
The Loliondo Game Controlled Area (dark green) lies east of the Serengeti National Park.
Abrah Dust. CCA-SA 4.0 International license.
REFERENCES
Estes, R.D. 1991. The Behavior Guide to African Mammals: Including Hoofed Mammals, Carnivores, Primates. The University of California Press. Fosbrooke,H. 1972.
Fosbrooke, H. 1972. Ngorongoro: The Eighth Wonder. Andre Deutsch.
Frame, G. & L. Frame. 1981. Swift & Enduring: Cheetahs and Wild Dogs of the Serengeti. E.P. Dutton.
