Dhole | The dhole (also known as the Asiatic Wild Dog, Indian Wild Dog and the Red Dog) is an endangered wild dog native
to the jungles of Asia. Although the dhole is very similar in
appearance to the African Wild dog and the Bush dog, the dhole is the
only member of it's genus. Historically, the dhole was found
though East and Southern Asia, from the Russian far east right down to
Sumatra, and although today the range of the dhole has been
significantly reduced, the dhole inhabits a wide variety of habitats
including thick, deciduous woodlands to jungles and tropical
rainforests.
There are three different species of dhole that
are very similar in characteristics and only really differ in location
and fur colour. Although a dominant predator within their environment,
the dhole populations have been heavily affected by disease introduced
by domesticated animals such as cats and dogs. Like other medium-sized canines, the dhole is a highly sociable animal that
spends it's life as part of a pack. The dhole is well-known for the
vocal calls that it uses to communicate with it's pack. It is said that
the repetitive whistles of the dhole are so distinctive that individuals
animals can be easily identified by their calls.
The dhole is a carnivorous and fairly dominant predator within it's natural environment, working as part of a pack to try and bring down larger prey to feed the whole group. The majority of the dhole's diet
however is made of smaller animals including lizards, frogs and
rodents. Due to the dominant nature of the dhole and the fact that it
often has protection from it's pack, there are few animals that are of
any threat to the dhole in the wild. Large wild cats such as tigers and
leopards are the only natural predators of the dhole, as the biggest
threat to the world's dhole populations has been from humans.
After breeding, female dholes give birth to between 5 and 12 pups
after a two month long gestation period. Dhole pups grow rapidly and
are cared for by both their parents, and by other adult dholes in the pack.
The dhole pups begin to hunt when they are a few months old and reach
adult size by the time they are about a year and a half old. Today, the
dhole is endangered in the wild as populations have been reduced to less
than 2,000 individuals across their native territories. The main reason
for the severe decline in the dhole population numbers is thought to be
through habitat loss and hunting from humans.
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