Painted Hunting Dog
Lycaon pictus
- Class
- Mammal
- Rarity
- Epic
- Observations
- 1,840
- Most observed in
- 🇿🇦 South Africa
- Conservation
- Endangered
Description
The African wild dog (Lycaon pictus), also called painted dog and Cape hunting dog, is a wild canine native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is the largest wild canine in Africa and the only extant member of the genus Lycaon, which is distinguished from Canis by dentition highly specialised for a hypercarnivorous diet and by a lack of dewclaws. An estimated 6,600 adults (including 1,400 mature individuals) live in 39 subpopulations, all threatened by habitat fragmentation, human persecution, and outbreaks of disease.
Summary adapted from the Wikipedia article “African wild dog”.