Wild Dogs (Dholes)
19, Jul 2018

Prelims level : Environment
Mains level :
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.