Painted dogs depend on their ability to run for a long time without getting tired so they can outlast their prey. Instead, they hunt in a relay form, taking turns running after the prey. The dogs do not hunt in the same manner as lions do. Unlike wolves and domestic dogs, African painted dogs do not howl. They can also signal pack mates by moving their very large ears to show what direction to go or what to do. They communicate within the pack by making high-pitched vocalizations or squeaks, which sound like a tennis shoe rubbing on a gymnasium floor! If a dog gets lost or separated from the group, it makes a sound, like a bell, called a "hoo" call. Painted dogs owe part of their success to the way they hunt: they work as a group to catch their prey. A painted dog pack can finish a full-grown gazelle in as little as eight minutes! The dogs have to eat their kill quickly, before the competition-lions, hyenas, and vultures-get to it. (In contrast, lions are only successful 30 to 40 percent of the time.) Thomson's gazelles, impalas, and puku antelope are the main items on the dogs' menu. In fact, African painted dogs are one of the most successful hunters in all of Africa, catching prey 70 to 90 percent of the time. This confuses prey and helps the dogs hunt with more success than other African predators. Their disruptive coloration makes the pack look much larger than it really is. From there, excitement begins to overcome the entire pack until all the dogs are jumping and play fighting with each other, increasing their energy as they prepare to go on the hunt!Īfrican painted dogs hunt twice a day, usually at dawn and dusk. The dogs appear to "kiss" one another, licking and poking at the corners of each other's mouth.īut this is really a food-begging behavior that plays an important role in social bonding within the pack. Pack members run shoulder to shoulder and then pause to leap over and dive under each other. Sounding like a flock of songbirds, the dogs fill the morning air with excited chirps and twitters as the family group, called a pack, gears up for the first hunt of the day. For painted dogs, each day begins with a greeting ceremony. The leopard then came down the tree and followed the hyenas to see if he could pick up any scraps but ended up with nothing, just watching from a distance.Found in the open plains and savannas of Africa, painted dogs can also live and thrive in thicker bush and forest areas. The largest female then made off with the head to a nearby open field. The hyenas finished off every shred of the impala except the head, only stopping to fight with each other. There were nine hyenas in total which have been tracking the dogs all week. “We only found out afterwards that the dogs were about to bring the pups to the kill after dealing with the leopard, but stopped on the road not far away (out of shot) once the hyenas arrived. The wild dogs returned every so often to see if they could win the meal back, but, as the minutes past, there was less and less left of the carcass. “The wild dogs moved off into the bush for a while as a fourth hyena also made its way to the meal but was chased off. One hyena kept the wild dogs at bay while the other was enjoying the impala all to itself until a third hyena also joined. This is when it all went quiet for a while as the wild dogs feasted on the leopards’ well-earned meal, just before two hungry hyenas burst onto the scene as well, quickly making their way through the wild dogs, and to the meal. The dogs quickly started making work of eating the meal while two others kept the leopard in the tree by jumping up and snarling at the leopard from below. The impala saw the opportunity and tried to make a run for it, just before it was brought down again by the wild dogs!” “And just before the leopard reached the tree to get its meal up to safety, away from the scavengers, the pack of wild dogs ran onto the scene and scared the leopard into the tree, leaving the impala on the ground.
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