Dhole
The Dhole also called the Asiatic wild dog or Indian wild dog, is a species of canid native to South and Southeast Asia. The Dholes are classed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, due to ongoing habitat loss, depletion of its prey base, competition from other predators, persecution and possibly diseases from domestic and feral dogs.
The Dhole is a highly social animal, living in large clans which occasionally split up into small packs to hunt. It primarily preys on medium-sized ungulates, which it hunts by tiring them out in long chases, and kills by disemboweling them. Unlike most social canids but similar to African wild dogs, Dholes let their pups eat first at a kill. Though fearful of humans, Dhole packs are bold enough to attack large and dangerous animals such as wild boar, water buffalo, and even tigers.
Since these canids are called Dholes only in English, the etymology remains unclear, but it may have come from Kannada word tola, which means wolf. It is called lal rakshasa (red devil) and rakshur kukur (devil dog) in India, and jangli rakshasa (jungle devil) or hounds of Kali in Assam. In Bangla they are known as “ram kutta”, “jongli kukur”, “buno kukur”.
Dholes are more closely related to jackals than they are to wolves. Dholes more closely resembled canids of the genus Canis, than to African wild dogs and bush dogs.
The general tone of the fur is reddish, with the brightest hues occurring in winter. When in their winter fur, the back is clothed in a saturated rusty-red to reddish color with brownish highlights along the top of the head, neck and shoulders. The throat, chest, flanks, belly and the upper parts of the limbs are less brightly colored, and are more yellowish in tone. The lower parts of the limbs are whitish, with dark brownish bands on the anterior sides of the forelimbs. The muzzle and forehead are grayish-reddish. The tail is very luxuriant and fluffy, and is mainly of a reddish-ocherous color, with a dark brown tip. The summer coat is shorter, coarser and darker. The dorsal and lateral guard hairs in adults measure 20–30 mm in length.
The Dhole is a highly social animal, living in large clans which occasionally split up into small packs to hunt. It primarily preys on medium-sized ungulates, which it hunts by tiring them out in long chases, and kills by disemboweling them. Unlike most social canids but similar to African wild dogs, Dholes let their pups eat first at a kill. Though fearful of humans, Dhole packs are bold enough to attack large and dangerous animals such as wild boar, water buffalo, and even tigers.
Since these canids are called Dholes only in English, the etymology remains unclear, but it may have come from Kannada word tola, which means wolf. It is called lal rakshasa (red devil) and rakshur kukur (devil dog) in India, and jangli rakshasa (jungle devil) or hounds of Kali in Assam. In Bangla they are known as “ram kutta”, “jongli kukur”, “buno kukur”.
Dholes are more closely related to jackals than they are to wolves. Dholes more closely resembled canids of the genus Canis, than to African wild dogs and bush dogs.
The general tone of the fur is reddish, with the brightest hues occurring in winter. When in their winter fur, the back is clothed in a saturated rusty-red to reddish color with brownish highlights along the top of the head, neck and shoulders. The throat, chest, flanks, belly and the upper parts of the limbs are less brightly colored, and are more yellowish in tone. The lower parts of the limbs are whitish, with dark brownish bands on the anterior sides of the forelimbs. The muzzle and forehead are grayish-reddish. The tail is very luxuriant and fluffy, and is mainly of a reddish-ocherous color, with a dark brown tip. The summer coat is shorter, coarser and darker. The dorsal and lateral guard hairs in adults measure 20–30 mm in length.
Dholes are more social than wolves, and have less of a dominance hierarchy, as seasonal scarcity of food is not a serious concern for them as it is with wolves. In this sense, they closely resemble African wild dogs in social structure. Dominant Dholes are hard to identify, as they do not engage in dominance displays as wolves do, though other clan members will show submissive behavior toward them. They live in clans rather than packs, as the latter term refers to a group of animals that always hunt together. In contrast, Dhole clans frequently break into small packs of 3-5 animals, particularly during the spring season, as this is the optimal number for catching fawns. Dholes are far less territorial than wolves, with pups from one clan often joining another without trouble once they mature sexually. Clans typically number 5-12 individuals in India, though clans of 40 have been reported. In Thailand, clans rarely exceed three individuals.
Among Indian Dholes, the mating season occurs between mid-October and January. Unlike wolf packs, Dhole clans may contain more than one breeding female. During mating, the female assumes a crouched, cat-like position. There is no "tug of war" characteristic of other canids when the male dismounts. Instead, the pair lie on their sides facing each other in a semicircular formation. The gestation period lasts 60–63 days, with litter sizes averaging four to six pups. Their growth rate is much faster than that of wolves, being similar in rate to that of coyotes. Pups are suckled at least 58 days. During this time, the pack feeds the mother at the den site. Once weaning begins, the adults of the clan will regurgitate food for the pups until they are old enough to join in hunting. They remain at the den site 70–80 days. By the age of six months, pups accompany the adults on hunts, and will assist in killing large prey such as sambar by the age of eight month.
Like African wild dogs and dingoes, Dholes will avoid killing prey close to their dens. Prey animals that Dholes hunt in India include chital, sambar, muntjac, mouse deer, swamp deer, wild boar, gaur, water buffalo, banteng , cattle, nilgai, goats,Indian hares, Himalayan field rats and langurs. There is one record of a pack bringing down an Indian elephant calf in Assam, despite desperate defense of the mother resulting in numerous losses to the pack. In Kashmir, they may hunt markhor, and thamin in Burma. Javan rusas are hunted in Java. In the Tien Shan and Tarbagatai Mountains, Dholes prey on Siberian ibexes, arkhar, roe deer, maral and wild boar. In the Altai and Sayan Mountains, they prey on musk deer and reindeer. In eastern Siberia, they prey on roe deer, Manchurian wapiti, wild boar, musk deer, and reindeer, while in Primorye they feed on sika deer and goral, too. In Mongolia, they prey on argali and rarely Siberian ibex.
Like African wild dogs, but unlike wolves, Dholes are not known to attack people. Dholes eat fruit and vegetable matter more readily than other canids. In captivity, they eat various kinds of grasses, herbs and leaves, seemingly for pleasure rather than just when ill. In summertime in the Tien Shan Mountains, Dholes eat large quantities of mountain rhubarb. Bael fruits are also eaten. Although opportunistic, Dholes have a seeming aversion to hunting cattle and their calves. Livestock predation by Dholes has been a problem in Bhutan since the late 1990s, as domestic animals are often left outside to graze in the forest, sometimes for weeks at a time. Livestock stall-fed at night and grazed near homes are never attacked. Oxen are killed more often than cows are, probably because they are given less protection.
Before embarking on a hunt, clans go through elaborate prehunt social rituals involving nuzzling, body rubbing and homo- and heterosexual mounting. Dholes are primarily diurnal hunters, hunting in the early hours of the morning. They rarely hunt nocturnally, except on moonlit nights, indicating they greatly rely on sight when hunting. Though not as fast as jackals and foxes, they can chase their prey for many hours. During a pursuit, one or more Dholes may take over chasing their prey, while the rest of the pack keeps up at a steadier pace behind, taking over once the other group tires. Most chases are short, lasting only 500 m. When chasing fleet-footed prey, they run at a pace of 30 mph. Dholes frequently drive their prey into water bodies, where the targeted animal's movements are hindered.
Once large prey is caught, one Dhole will grab the prey's nose, while the rest of the pack pulls the animal down by the flanks and hindquarters. They do not use a killing bite to the throat. They occasionally blind their prey by attacking the eyes. Serows are among the only ungulate species capable of effectively defending themselves against Dhole attacks, due to their thick, protective coats and short, sharp horns capable of easily impaling Dholes. They will tear open their prey's flanks and disembowel it, eating the heart, liver, lungs and some sections of the intestines. The stomach and rumen are usually left untouched. Prey weighing less than 50 kg is usually killed within two minutes, while large stags may take 15 minutes to die. Once prey is secured, Dholes will tear off pieces of the carcass and eat in seclusion. Unlike wolf packs, in which the breeding pair monopolises food, Dholes give priority to the pups when feeding at a kill, allowing them to eat first.
In some areas, Dholes are sympatric to tigers and leopards. Competition between these species is mostly avoided through differences in prey selection, although there is still substantial dietary overlap. Along with leopards, Dholes typically target animals in the 30–175 kg range (mean weights of 35.3 kg for Dhole and 23.4 kg for leopard), while tigers selected for prey animals heavier than 176 kg (but their mean prey weight was 65.5 kg). Also, other characteristics of the prey, such as sex, arboreality, and aggressiveness, may play a role in prey selection. For example, Dholes preferentially select male chital, whereas leopards kill both sexes more evenly (and tigers prefer larger prey altogether), Dholes and tigers kill langurs rarely compared to leopards due to the leopards' greater arboreality, while leopards kill wild boar infrequently due to the inability of this relatively light predator to tackle aggressive prey of comparable weight. On some rare occasions, Dholes may attack tigers. When confronted by Dholes, tigers will seek refuge in trees or stand with their backs to a tree or bush, where they may be mobbed for lengthy periods before finally attempting escape. Escaping tigers are usually killed, while tigers which stand their ground have a greater chance of survival. Tigers are extremely dangerous opponents for Dholes, as they have sufficient strength to kill a single Dhole with one paw strike. Even a successful tiger kill is usually accompanied by losses to the pack. Dhole packs may steal leopard kills, while leopards may kill Dholes if they encounter them singly or in pairs. Because leopards are smaller than tigers, and are more likely to hunt Dholes, Dhole packs tend to react more aggressively toward them than they do with tigers. Dholes were once thought to be a major factor in reducing Asiatic cheetah populations, though this is doubtful, as cheetahs live in open areas as opposed to forested areas favored by Dholes. Dhole packs occasionally attack Asiatic black bears and sloth bears. When attacking bears, Dholes will attempt to prevent them from seeking refuge in caves, and lacerate their hindquarters.
Dholes are vulnerable to a number of different diseases, particularly in areas where they are sympatric with other canid species. Infectious pathogens such as Toxocara canis are present in their faeces. They may suffer from rabies, canine distemper, mange, trypanosomiasis, canine parvovirus, and endoparasites such as cestodes and roundworms.
Dholes once ranged throughout most of South, East and Southeast Asia, extending from theTien Shan and Altai Mountains and the Primorsky Krai southward through Mongolia, Korea, China, Tibet, Nepal, India, and south-eastwards into Bangladesh, Myanmar and Indochina, Thailand, Malaysia, Sumatra and Java.
During the last glacial period, they ranged across most of Eurasia, and are known to have once inhabited North America from a single fossil find in the Gulf of Mexico. A canid called the Sardinian Dhole lived on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia during the Pleistocene, but it is not as closely related to the living species as its name would imply.
Now there are only2000 Dholes in the world. Dholes have not been reported recently in Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. One capture was reported in southern China's Jiangxi province. Dholes still occur in Tibet, particularly in southeast Tibet. They may still be present in North Korea. They still occur in India south of the Ganges River, especially in the central Indian Highlands and the Western and Eastern Ghats. Dholes also occur in northeast India's states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya and West Bengal and in Ladakh. They have a precarious, fragmented distribution in Himalaya and northwest India. They are occasionally reported in the Ladakh area of Kashmir, contiguous with the Tibetan highlands and China. In Nepal, Dholes were formerly recorded in Terai, including the Royal Chitwan National Park. They were reported in the Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve in the late 1990s. In Bhutan, Dholes have since recovered from a government-sponsored poisoning campaign started in the 1970s, with reports of livestock predation occurring in the lower Kheng region. It is uncertain if they still occur in Chittagong, Chittagong Hill Tracts and Syhlet in Bangladesh. But from various sources they are still alive in Bangladesh. In Kasalong and Sangu forest their foot step have found. Camera trapping has confirmed Dholes still occur in 11 survey areas in Myanmar, where they have replaced tigers as main predators. Dhole populations are highly fragmented in Thailand and Indochina, particularly in Vietnam. They are known to occur in four sites in northern and central Malaysia. In Java, they appear to be most common in the island's protected eastern and western ends. They are also known to occur in Sumatra's protected areas in the southern, central and northern areas.
During the last glacial period, they ranged across most of Eurasia, and are known to have once inhabited North America from a single fossil find in the Gulf of Mexico. A canid called the Sardinian Dhole lived on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia during the Pleistocene, but it is not as closely related to the living species as its name would imply.
Now there are only2000 Dholes in the world. Dholes have not been reported recently in Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. One capture was reported in southern China's Jiangxi province. Dholes still occur in Tibet, particularly in southeast Tibet. They may still be present in North Korea. They still occur in India south of the Ganges River, especially in the central Indian Highlands and the Western and Eastern Ghats. Dholes also occur in northeast India's states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya and West Bengal and in Ladakh. They have a precarious, fragmented distribution in Himalaya and northwest India. They are occasionally reported in the Ladakh area of Kashmir, contiguous with the Tibetan highlands and China. In Nepal, Dholes were formerly recorded in Terai, including the Royal Chitwan National Park. They were reported in the Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve in the late 1990s. In Bhutan, Dholes have since recovered from a government-sponsored poisoning campaign started in the 1970s, with reports of livestock predation occurring in the lower Kheng region. It is uncertain if they still occur in Chittagong, Chittagong Hill Tracts and Syhlet in Bangladesh. But from various sources they are still alive in Bangladesh. In Kasalong and Sangu forest their foot step have found. Camera trapping has confirmed Dholes still occur in 11 survey areas in Myanmar, where they have replaced tigers as main predators. Dhole populations are highly fragmented in Thailand and Indochina, particularly in Vietnam. They are known to occur in four sites in northern and central Malaysia. In Java, they appear to be most common in the island's protected eastern and western ends. They are also known to occur in Sumatra's protected areas in the southern, central and northern areas.
Certain people, such as the Kurumbas and some Mon Khmer-speaking tribes will appropriate Dhole kills. Dholes were persecuted throughout India for bounties until they were given protection by the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. Methods used for Dhole hunting included poisoning, snaring, shooting and clubbing at den sites. Native Indian people killed Dholes primarily to protect livestock, while British sport hunters during the British reign did so under the conviction that Dholes were responsible for drops in game populations. Persecution of Dholes still occurs with varying degrees of intensity according to region. Bounties paid for Dholes used to be 25rupees, though this was reduced to 20 in 1926 after the number of presented Dhole carcasses became too numerous to maintain the established reward. In Indochina, Dholes suffer heavily from nonselective hunting techniques such as snaring.
The fur trade does not pose a significant threat to Dholes. The people of India do not eat Dhole flesh, and their fur is not considered overly valuable. Due to their rarity, Dholes were never harvested for their skins in large numbers in the Soviet Union, and were sometimes accepted as dog or wolf pelts (being labeled as "half wolf"). The winter fur was prized by the Chinese, who bought Dhole pelts in Ussuriysk during the late 1860s for a few silver rubles. In the early 20th century, Dhole pelts reached eight rubles in Manchuria. In Semirechye, fur coats made from Dhole skin were considered the warmest, but were very costly.
The fur trade does not pose a significant threat to Dholes. The people of India do not eat Dhole flesh, and their fur is not considered overly valuable. Due to their rarity, Dholes were never harvested for their skins in large numbers in the Soviet Union, and were sometimes accepted as dog or wolf pelts (being labeled as "half wolf"). The winter fur was prized by the Chinese, who bought Dhole pelts in Ussuriysk during the late 1860s for a few silver rubles. In the early 20th century, Dhole pelts reached eight rubles in Manchuria. In Semirechye, fur coats made from Dhole skin were considered the warmest, but were very costly.
Although genetic distance and mitochondrial DNA studies have proven dogs descended from wolves, the Dhole is still put forward by some researchers as a more likely candidate. Points raised in favor of the Dhole ancestry cite the general domestic dog-like passiveness of the Dhole in having its kills taken by humans, which contrasts with the behavior of sympatric wolves, which will defend their prey aggressively against humans. It is also claimed that Dhole skulls bear more similarities to dog skulls than wolves do, with the glaring exception of the dentition. Dhole aren't domestic animal, but they aren't dangerous. They don't attack people. they love to live in surrounded area with forest. This dog is a wealth to us. But there population number is reducing day by day. Now they are found very rarely in very few areas of south-east Asia of the world. An action must be taken by us and also Government to save our pride of the country.