Wild Dogs
Lowveld Wild Dog Project
The Macaulay Land Use Research Institute and SCRI joined forces on 1 April 2011 to create The James Hutton Institute. It is the first Institute of its type in Europe and will make major, new contributions to the understanding of key global issues such as food, energy and environmental security.
This page has been mothballed.
It is no longer being updated but we've left it here for reference.
MOVEMENTS
- A pack of wild dogs are capable of covering large distances within a 'home range'. A home range is different from a territory in that it has no defined boundary that is marked and defended against intrusion from other members of the same species. Wild dog pack home ranges vary considerably and recorded home ranges vary from 180 to 1500 km2. The average home range size is about 600km2
- Home range size varies considerably from region to region. The size of a pack's home range probably depends upon such factors as prey density, habitat types, the density of wild dog in the area and the density of competitors such as lion and hyaena.
- The daily movements of a pack of dogs can vary considerably from less than 1 km to over 25km. Again this is likely to be affected by how successful their hunting is and the presence of lion and hyaena in the area.
- A wild dog pack's movements become restricted once a year when the pups are born, this is called the 'denning season'. The denning season lasts for about two and a half to three months, until the pups are old enough to run with the adults. During this period the home range size is drastically reduced being about 25% of the normal home range area.
