African Wild Dog

[Deleted]

The African Wild Dog (Lycaon pictus) is a canid that lives in tightly knit groups built on support and structure. They previously lived in large packs. However due to hunting it now lives in smaller groups and is subject to death by lions and leopards along with getting their kills stolen by hyenas.
They weigh 45-75lbs. Their prey includes but is not limited to impala, kudu, wildebeest and bushbuck. They kill prey by dropping their entrails out with their scissor teeth.

[oldgreengrolar]

African wild dogs are really good at working together just like wolves and dholes. Spotted hyenas are not as good in terms of teamwork.

[Hardcastle]

I would also argue wolves are not as good in terms of team work. AWDs and Dholes are a different level. They are extremely in synch with one another and the pack works as one super organism. Wolves are a little different. It's loose and sloppy. 1 dominant male and maybe his female are in charge and kind of dealing with idiots, which they could take or leave as assistance. The best evidence for this, and the best evidence to use when understanding extinct historical canines as well, is looking at the sexual dimorphism. In AWDs and Dholes(and dire wolves, and xenocyon) there is practically no sexual dimorphism. This actually says alot, it means they are all equals on the same page working together. Wolves have a massive amount of sexual dimorphism and it's because males need to fight their own kind, their own sons and brothers and nephews and etc etc in order to control a pack, and then they're kind of all somewhat independent in the pack. Kind of "uncivilised" you could say. They descend from jackal-like canines which were largely solitary, and wolves are trying their hand at forming big social units but actually aren't very sophisticated with it. Similar actually to spotted hyenas and lions. It doesn't come so naturally and they aren't that galvanised. AWDs and dholes are different, almost on the path towards being ants their social unit is everything and they selflessly serve their social unit. The down side is, when the pack breaks down and they have few numbers, they can't really operate how they are supposed to. Their success as a species relies on the idea of their pack being fruitful, abundant and strong. When it isn't, they struggle and suffer. Both AWDs and Dholes actually both are very endangered and can't easily rebuild because their packs are depleted, humans can prevent humans from continuing to persecute them but because they are weakened by decades/centuries of human persecution their packs aren't healthy, and then when their packs aren't healthy they actually become vulnerable to lions and tigers and leopards and etc. So they can't even recover despite human protection. They grew accustomed to their packs. Wolves are more versatile. They can go totally solo and still survive fine, they can revert to the jackal they used to be (and some grey wolf populations are still jackal-like). Dogs are the same. Packs are nice, but not necessary. For dholes and AWDs they are totally necessary, their evolution is totally attuned to tight-knit highly organised in-synch large packs.

[Deleted]

Dec 20, 2022 8:20:48 GMT oldgreengrolar said:

African wild dogs are really good at working together just like wolves and dholes. Spotted hyenas are not as good in terms of teamwork.

Spotted hyenas aren't good pack animals, they kill each other more than they help each other. They gallop around sloppily dropping the entrails of things but are perfectly comfortable solo and hunting solo. One always comes out to catch its own food and steal it from leopards and wild dogs. They gang up on lions but it truly is not necessary for anything else on the savannah. Lions might've been the reason spotted hyenas decided to pack up. Lions are better pack animals but they are still ''meh'', both lions and hyenas are just trying it out but lions are more sophisticated and have been doing it longer I'd suggest. Lions probably descend from jaguar coalitions. Felines have weirdly good teamwork. Hyenas don't and frankly there isn't a huge difference between 100 striped hyenas being let out of a cage on the savannah and a spotted hyena clan.

[Deleted]

Dec 20, 2022 16:10:08 GMT Hardcastle said:

I would also argue wolves are not as good in terms of team work. AWDs and Dholes are a different level. They are extremely in synch with one another and the pack works as one super organism. Wolves are a little different. It's loose and sloppy. 1 dominant male and maybe his female are in charge and kind of dealing with idiots, which they could take or leave as assistance. The best evidence for this, and the best evidence to use when understanding extinct historical canines as well, is looking at the sexual dimorphism. In AWDs and Dholes(and dire wolves, and xenocyon) there is practically no sexual dimorphism. This actually says alot, it means they are all equals on the same page working together. Wolves have a massive amount of sexual dimorphism and it's because males need to fight their own kind, their own sons and brothers and nephews and etc etc in order to control a pack, and then they're kind of all somewhat independent in the pack. Kind of "uncivilised" you could say. They descend from jackal-like canines which were largely solitary, and wolves are trying their hand at forming big social units but actually aren't very sophisticated with it. Similar actually to spotted hyenas and lions. It doesn't come so naturally and they aren't that galvanised. AWDs and dholes are different, almost on the path towards being ants their social unit is everything and they selflessly serve their social unit. The down side is, when the pack breaks down and they have few numbers, they can't really operate how they are supposed to. Their success as a species relies on the idea of their pack being fruitful, abundant and strong. When it isn't, they struggle and suffer. Both AWDs and Dholes actually both are very endangered and can't easily rebuild because their packs are depleted, humans can prevent humans from continuing to persecute them but because they are weakened by decades/centuries of human persecution their packs aren't healthy, and then when their packs aren't healthy they actually become vulnerable to lions and tigers and leopards and etc. So they can't even recover despite human protection. They grew accustomed to their packs. Wolves are more versatile. They can go totally solo and still survive fine, they can revert to the jackal they used to be (and some grey wolf populations are still jackal-like). Dogs are the same. Packs are nice, but not necessary. For dholes and AWDs they are totally necessary, their evolution is totally attuned to tight-knit highly organised in-synch large packs.

I’d agree 100%. The wolf and the dog have very sloppy and are not tight-knit. Evolution wanted to make a big game pack hunter, and which they did. But it ended up becoming a sloppy pack instead of a tight-knit pack. There are still packs but its mostly filled with mates, pups, their children and any lone wolves tossed in there if needed. AWD’s and Dholes frequently will accept any pack member, and don’t really have any strict rules or regulations. They just want a pack so they can survive and function properly. Wolves and dogs on the other hand, extremely strict. I.E if one wolf being examined by the pack does as much as jump up, its a death sentence. In fact, several studies have shown wolves (and even dogs surprisingly) killing a packmate because they couldn’t contribute enough to the packs needs. Like if that wolf wasn’t strong enough to hunt anymore or protect the territory its death. 

[Hardcastle]

Wyatt
Well when you really dig into the evolution of canids it's interesting that wolves actually descend from a long line of jackals, essentially, and recently learned to be social. Kind of like how spotted hyenas and lions only recently learned to be social. AWDs and Dholes (and dire wolves, not close to the grey wolf at all) come from a long line of highly social canines going back millions of years. This explains why it comes so much more naturally to them and they don't fight and have no sexual dimorphism.