The African Wild Dog
Sensory Processes
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Communication
The African wild dogs navigate via trail following, where they learn routes based on continuous environmental cues and landmarks. They utilize open plains, treelines, and wildlife corridors to navigate through their environment.
Their habits aren’t suited to stay put in one place for too long, as they are nomadic hunters that are always on the prowl. They essentially track their prey down over long distances and will continue to move along until their next hunting venture. Their typical hunting range varies from 500-1000 square miles.
Habitat type is generally the dry desert and savannahs in the Saharas as well as South and East Africa, however, they can range to mountaintops (e.g. a pack observed living atop Mount Kilimanjaro).
African wild dogs will communicate through various mixtures of sounds they create. Their vocal structures allow for the large variability in communication.
A study by Robert Robbins focused on the vocal communication of the L. pictus. Results from this study reveal that the wild dogs have 11 vocal classes and 18 subclasses. Canids are a social species, with the wild dogs being one of the most vocal. Vocal classes (i.e. twitters, begging cries, and rumbles) are unique to wild dogs. They are able to use extremely high-frequency sounds, however, they are versatile in sounds of lower frequency as well. The wild dogs are capable of varying high pitch sounds from bird chirps to dolphins.
The unique manner in which the dogs can mix sounds has become a fundamental method of communication. These sound mixtures are created through succession or superimposition of multiple sounds and harmonies. Succession occurs when mixing sounds of the vocal classes, however, when the dogs yelp, squeal, whine, moan, growl, or bark they do so through superimposition.
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Additionally, the dogs communicate through their sense of sight and smell. Canids utilize olfactory cues from urine, feces, and anal. Supracaudal glands, typically located near the tail, have an important role in canid social interactions, however, it is absent in the African wild dogs. Luckily, they have various other communication methods for their socializing.
