Painted Hunting Dog
Lycaon pictus

• Painted Hunting Dogs are the second most endangered carnivore in Africa.
• They are not closely related to domestic dogs but represent an evolutionary line of their own unique to Africa.
• They split from their canid relatives about 3 million years ago.
• They have a larger brain than all other canids.
• Their large, rounded ears give them excellent hearing and help keep the dogs cool.
• They are the only canid with a bone tooth, so they can dispose of an entire carcass.
• They do not bark; they have high pitched chirping vocalizations.
• They can run up to 40 MPH.
• They are one of the most successful hunters in all of Africa, catching prey 70 to 90 percent of the time.
• The pack hunts cooperatively.
• They hunt in a relay form, taking turns running after the prey.
• An average pack size now is 5-20 dogs, at one time packs of up to 100 dogs were seen in the wild.
• The whole pack helps rear the pups.
• The pack takes care of their fellow sick and injured members.
• Lions kill their pups and both lions and hyenas steal their food.
• Persecution by farmers, snares, domestic dog diseases and road mortalities are huge contributors to their dramatic decline.
• In the past ten years the Painted Dog conservation project in Zimbabwe has manage to double the population there by raising awareness about this carnivore and working with the local people to find solutions for the human predator conflicts.