A team of wildlife scientists from the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) have collared a Dhole, the Indian wild dog, with a satellite transmitter. It is a measure taken to study and track the habits of the endangered species.

Background:

• The dhole is native to Central, South and Southeast Asia.
• Other English names for the species include Asiatic wild dog, Indian wild dog, whistling dog, red dog, and mountain wolf.
• During the Pleistocene, the dhole ranged throughout Asia, Europe and North America but became restricted to its historical range 12,000–18,000 years ago.
• The dhole is a highly social animal, living in large clans without rigid dominance hierarchies and containing multiple breeding females.
• It is a diurnal pack hunter which preferentially targets medium and large sized mammals.
• In tropical forests, the dhole competes with tigers and leopard, targeting somewhat different prey species, but still with substantial dietary overlap.
• It is listed as Endangered by the IUCN as populations are decreasing and are estimated at fewer than 2,500 adults.
• The dhole is already extinct in about 10 Asian countries.

Threat:

• Habitat loss,
• Loss of prey,
• Competition with other species
• Persecution due to livestock predation,
• Disease transfer from other domestic dogs.