The African Wild Dog
Hunting, Diet, Nutrition, & Digestion
The wild dogs hunt in packs of 6 to 20 individuals. They hunt in a cursorial manner, meaning they track their prey over long distances wearing them out. They are crepuscular hunters, where they will hunt mainly in the early morning and evening when the climate is cooler and they are less likely to encounter other predators. Their hunting is well-organized, where some members will run alongside prey while others trail behind at slower paces and act as replacements when the leaders tire. This technique is what gives them a highly successful hunting rate of about 80%.
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Their hunting success rate is one of the highest among predators; where, comparatively, lions and hyenas are only around 30% successful. Their methods of hunting include a silent pursuit to sneak up on prey and run them down. They can reach speeds up to 44 mph for a range of 10 to 60 minutes and can track down prey for miles.
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Average prey size ranges between 33 to 441 pounds showing that their diet consists of things as small as hares to as large as ungulates. What size and type of prey being caught ultimately rely on food availability along with the size of the pack. Packs have been recorded to take down even larger prey, like zebras weighing over 500 lbs in Serengeti.
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In the midst of pursuit for large prey (i.e. antelope, wildebeest, livestock), the dogs will run along side the prey and begin to bite them all over their bodies and altogether pull them down. They will then strip the meat, organs, intestines and guts of these large animals (as these have the most necessary moisture and proteins) and discard the rest. African wild dogs always eat fresh kills and don't try to scavenge for food. The dogs don't tend to stick around after a kill for too long due to other predators (i.e. lions, hyenas, leopards, cheetahs) ready to scavenge and take their kills, known as kleptoparasitism, or even fear of becoming prey themselves.
When it comes to smaller prey (i.e. birds, hares, rodents) the dogs will typically handle these pursuits solo and consume them in its entirety, unlike with how they discard parts of the larger prey.
Like domestic dogs or wolves, the wild dogs are from the family 'Canidae' (i.e. dog-like carnivores), and the order 'Carnivora' (i.e. mammals that eat flesh and meat).
This species (L. pictus) are hypercarnivores where their diet consists mainly of meat (over 70%). They don't typically eat plants or insects, except grass at times. Their digestive systems are designed to handle meat, which is not as difficult to break down as plant material. Because the food they consume doesn't need much gut bacteria or fermentation to break down, there isn't much need for their large intestine to be large. Therefore, they have a monogastric (single-chambered) stomach, a short colon and hindgut, and a small cecum, if at all present.
The cecum is a pouch within the abdominal lining (i.e. peritoneum) that is a component of the large intestine. The canine cecum is a blind sac that is medial to the descending duodenum (part of the small intestine). Due to the layering of gas-filled intestinal segments, the cecum is not always identifiable.
The cecum typically plays a major role in small endothermic mammalian herbivores, because its capable of microbial fermentation for bacterial retention for low gut capacity and high metabolic rates. Therefore, digestion in the African wild dog doesn't have much use for it.
Figure.
Digestive tract of the dog (Canis familiaris).
(Modified from de Lahunta and Habel, 1986)
Figure.
Dog (Canis familiaris) digestive tract
(Stevens & Hume, 1995)
scat, poop
Food moves through the esophagus to a large stomach and long intestine. Because of the long length, animals are able to absorb as much moisture as possible from their food. As a beneficial result, the wild dogs can survive for longer periods than other mammals without a regular water supply.
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It is noted that African wild dogs are quick to feast, it's been recorded that packs can devour a Thomson's gazelle in 15 minutes. In the wild, the species' consumption rate is 1.2–5.9 kg (2.6–13.0 lb) per African wild dog a day, with a pack of 17–43 individuals in East Africa having been recorded to kill three animals per day on average.