17 comments

  • UI_at_80x24 2 hours ago ago

    This information may have been supplanted but newer studies, but one study determined that African Wild Dogs were the most successful pack hunters on the planet with a ~92% success rate. (success being defined as 'eating' after a hunt.

    Edit: Opening line from the article - Wild dogs are the most successful hunters in Africa, with a kill rate of 80 percent.

    And my favorite story about these animals is that they vote! https://www.science.org/content/article/wild-dogs-vote-initi...

  • bryanlarsen 3 hours ago ago

    For those who didn't know, to save you the search I just performed: the African Wild Dog is not literally a wild dog. It's not even a Canid, it's a separate genus (Lycaon) from dogs, wolves & coyotes.

    • Scarblac 3 hours ago ago

      That genus is part of the Canidae family though. Dogs and wolves are in the Canis genus in the Canidae group.

      Jackals and foxes are also each their own genus, and there are a number more genuses.

    • jjtheblunt 39 minutes ago ago

      i think the wolves/dogs/coyotes and african wild dogs all have 78 chromosomes, but it's unclear if the african painted dogs have been diverged so long as to have incompatible chromosome gene layouts despite matching chromosome counts.

      i tried looking for any examples of hybrids but did not find any. they'd be pretty ridiculously cute though for sure.

      supposedly hybrids of african painted dogs and domestic dogs happens, albeit rarely, in South Africa

      https://mykingsgate.co.za/info/african-wild-dog-hybrid-12023...

  • ptsneves 2 hours ago ago

    It is amazing the failure rate and how people working in these endeavours keep on working and do not step in to intervene deeper. The statistics are what matters even if whole days are wasted because some leopard or lion ate the work done. These are not cute animal lovers, they are the real deal. Much luck!

    • therealdrag0 18 minutes ago ago

      Ya I’m so impressed by people who just go and work on problems like this and get their hands dirty.

  • everyday7732 4 hours ago ago

    They look so similar to hyenas. Maybe they fit the same evolutionary niche.

    While the article claims that wild dogs are the most successful predator in Africa, I found a national geographic article which claims the same for hyenas: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/hyenas-my...

    • colechristensen 2 hours ago ago

      There are several technical and nontechnical definitions of "successful" making it a pretty meaningless statement

  • nozzlegear 4 hours ago ago

    There's a group of these dogs at the zoo in Sioux Falls, SD. Like all dogs, I think my wife and I were predispositioned to like them. It didn't help that they all started howling when a police car drove by with its sirens on, which was cute.

    • seunosewa an hour ago ago

      They are cute but nasty. They eat their prey alive in the most painful way.

  • lolpython 4 hours ago ago

    Casualty of HN title mangling again. Original title: Africa’s Wild Dogs Are the Most Hated Carnivores on the Continent. Here’s Why Some Conservationists Are Saving Them Anyway

    • WalterGR 4 hours ago ago

      It’s not mangling. The article’s subtitle doesn’t fit within the character limit.

      • lightedman 3 hours ago ago

        We're in the era of 4k and 8k monitors. That character limit only occupies a tiny fraction of any modern screen.

        So odd a site dedicated to future technology companies isn't even caught up with modern display techniques, let alone ones that existed some 2 decades ago.

        • lolpython 3 hours ago ago

          To be fair, on mobile the title lengths staying reasonable really helps HN homepage readability.

          • kakacik 3 hours ago ago

            Also even though new such hardware is cheap for our western standards, its a mistake to think this is valid for entire world for various reasons

        • micromacrofoot 2 hours ago ago

          the site is intentionally anachronistic precisely because the people here understand technology

    • upupupandaway 3 hours ago ago

      I wish we could get rid of the "Here's why" and similar clickbait fragments in titles.