tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/african-wild-dogs-43339/articlesAfrican wild dogs – The Conversation2024-01-17T15:41:29Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2196642024-01-17T15:41:29Z2024-01-17T15:41:29ZMozambique’s cyclone flooding was devastating to animals – we studied how body size affected survival<p>Anyone who watches the news will have seen the devastation that tropical cyclones can cause when they reach land, with very strong winds, high rainfall and flooding. A cyclone like this, <a href="https://theconversation.com/tropical-cyclone-idai-the-storm-that-knew-no-boundaries-113931">Idai</a>, moved over Gorongosa National Park in central Mozambique in March 2019. At that time, it was the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00981-6">deadliest storm in Africa</a>.</p>
<p>Rainfall at Gorongosa averages about <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06722-0#Sec2">850mm per year</a>. When Idai passed over, more than <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06722-0#Sec2">200mm of rain fell</a> in less than 24 hours. Over the following week, the depth of flood waters increased from 2 metres to 5.9 metres and the flood zone increased from 24.1km² to 117.7km². Only by late May did conditions return to normal.</p>
<p>Gorongosa protects 3,674km² of savanna ecosystem. Much of the park’s wildlife was decimated by the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/place/mozambique">Mozambican Civil War</a> (1977-1992). Since then, scientists have <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0212864">studied</a> the recovery of wildlife populations and changes in the park ecosystem.</p>
<p>When it comes to natural hazards, scientists think that traits such as body size, dispersal ability and habitat preference may be important in determining how vulnerable animals are. But it’s seldom possible to test these ideas. The <a href="https://gorongosa.org/princeton-at-gorongosa/">research</a> that was taking place in <a href="https://gorongosa.org/">Gorongosa National Park</a> at the time of Cyclone Idai provided the perfect opportunity to investigate this.</p>
<p>We were part of an international research team which drew on existing data about wildlife in Gorongosa and compared it with data after the cyclone. We <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06722-0#Sec1">found</a> that overall, the effect of Idai was to push animals out of lower-lying, inundated areas and crowd them into higher regions. The shift in distribution, combined with the reduction in flood zone plant productivity, affected what herbivores had available for food. Larger herbivores were better able to move in response to the flooding and to cope with food shortage. Large carnivores had a more easily accessible food supply.</p>
<p>Our results identify general traits that govern animal responses to severe weather, which may help to inform wildlife conservation in a volatile climate.</p>
<p>This effect of animal size on responses to catastrophic storms is similar to that found for island systems affected by <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.281.5377.695">hurricanes in the Bahamas</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-indian-ocean-is-spawning-strong-and-deadly-tropical-cyclones-116559">Why the Indian Ocean is spawning strong and deadly tropical cyclones</a>
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<h2>Measuring the impact of Idai on animals</h2>
<p>We integrated data from multiple research projects for which animal GPS locations were available to capture the responses of animals to the flooding.</p>
<p>The individual movement of 48 GPS-collared animals from seven species was measured. Changes in distribution of animals were measured over three years with 30 camera traps covering an area of 300km². Satellite imagery allowed us to assess changes in forage availability, and dung samples provided a picture of dietary changes. The body condition of animals captured for GPS collaring was assessed. We estimated changes in abundance from aerial survey counts covering years 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2020.</p>
<h2>Herbivore responses</h2>
<p>Among the species monitored at the time of the cyclone were small antelopes such as the oribi (17kg) and bushbuck (49kg), and large animals like buffaloes (550kg) and elephants (4,000kg).</p>
<p>The bushbuck that survived did so by perching on patches of high ground, like the tops of termite mounds within the flood zone. Locations from the GPS collars showed that they camped out on these temporary little islands or moved quickly between them, hopping from one island to the next.</p>
<p>Larger antelopes like nyala, kudu and sable were able to move long distances towards higher ground. </p>
<p>In addition to the sheer volume of water entering the Gorongosa system, the timing of the flood was also a disturbance. Because the cyclone occurred in March, foraging areas normally open to grazing were covered with water and unproductive.</p>
<p>Herbivore diet in the months following the cyclone shifted to taller, more woody plants, which are harder to digest and have less protein. Plant species eaten showed less overlap between herbivores than in normal years, a strategy that likely reduced competition. Compared to larger herbivores, smaller herbivores experienced a larger change in diet, a greater expansion in the number of plant species eaten to cope with the loss of preferred plants, and a larger decrease in diet quality.</p>
<p>Because food following Idai was scarce, and competition among crowded herbivores was stronger, there was a reduction in body condition for smaller species like bushbuck and nyala. For the larger, more wide-ranging kudu, body condition showed little change.</p>
<p>Crowding and food quality and availability had an impact on numbers of herbivores in the park.</p>
<p>Regular aerial surveys have shown consistent growth in herbivore numbers since the end of the civil war. The survey following Idai, however, showed the first population decreases for many species in the last 30 years. The strongest decreases (47%-53%) were for the small antelopes, oribi and bushbuck. Numbers of larger herbivores (wildebeest, buffalo and elephant) also decreased, but not as severely (27%).</p>
<h2>Carnivore responses</h2>
<p>The effects of Idai on lions and wild dogs were not nearly as strong as for the herbivores. GPS-collared animals moved away from the expanding flood zone. Diets of lions did not change much, but wild dogs began to eat more waterbuck, especially after the cyclone pushed many waterbuck into areas used by wild dogs.</p>
<p>Lion and wild dog populations both increased in numbers following the cyclone. Prey animals consisting of weaker and more food-stressed herbivores became easier to catch and a more abundant food supply for the large carnivores.</p>
<h2>Size matters</h2>
<p>Among the lessons learned from the disturbance caused by Cyclone Idai are that larger species tend to be more resilient to disturbances through their ability to move longer distances and their greater stores of body resources to survive when forage is unavailable. Smaller species were more strongly affected, but they also have the potential to recover more quickly.</p>
<p>Knowledge of how different wildlife species respond to and recover from climatic disturbances will be increasingly important for the conservation of protected areas like Gorongosa National Park. For instance, knowing the different roles species play in a natural system can help wildlife managers to focus conservation efforts on vulnerable species and habitats according to their likely contributions to system recovery following a disturbance.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219664/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Cyclone Idai in Mozambique was an opportunity to test ideas about traits that help animals survive natural hazards.Jason P. Marshal, Associate Professor of Ecology, University of the WitwatersrandFrancesca Parrini, Associate Professor in Animal Ecology, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1760562022-02-17T13:59:38Z2022-02-17T13:59:38ZAfrican wild dogs have a feeding queue: why it makes sense<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443419/original/file-20220131-23-1svmn6c.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Megan Claase</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Whether it’s a fancy dinner party or a routine family lunch, meals can be highly social affairs. And patterns of food sharing – or otherwise – can shape or describe relationships. </p>
<p>But this is not unique to humans. From the “finders keepers” approach of <a href="https://www.publish.csiro.au/zo/zo9930507">Tasmanian devils on small carcasses</a>, to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0162309594900388">female bonobos trading food for sex</a>, animals acquire and distribute food in various ways, with diverse social consequences. Despite its importance in shaping social systems, food-sharing by animals that hunt in groups is not well understood. </p>
<p>We set out to fill some of this knowledge gap by <a href="https://rdcu.be/cEvjF">recording</a> social aspects of feeding behaviour in endangered African wild dogs in Botswana. African wild dog packs revolve around a dominant pair and their offspring that remain in their pack and support their parents in rearing subsequent litters. </p>
<p>Much is known about the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0003347295800484">costs and benefits of hunting</a> from the pack perspective but individual feeding patterns and their consequences are not well understood. Quantifying these feeding patterns is key to understanding the origin and implications of many aspects of animal social lives, and for African wild dogs the results were intriguing. </p>
<h2>Feeding structure and hunting habits</h2>
<p>First we <a href="https://rdcu.be/cEvjF">confirmed</a> the presence and basic structure of the feeding queue confirming that the youngest feed first and are given uncontested access to kills they did not catch themselves. When packs arrive at a kill that one or more of their pack-mates have made, the pups are immediately given access to the spoils, while others fall back. </p>
<p>After the pups have had their fill, next in line are the dominant pair. Access then cascades through the pack in increasing age order, with older dogs having least access to carcasses.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446782/original/file-20220216-16-hp1k0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A running African wild dog" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446782/original/file-20220216-16-hp1k0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446782/original/file-20220216-16-hp1k0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446782/original/file-20220216-16-hp1k0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446782/original/file-20220216-16-hp1k0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446782/original/file-20220216-16-hp1k0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446782/original/file-20220216-16-hp1k0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446782/original/file-20220216-16-hp1k0g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A successful hunter, with blood marks on its legs, leaves the kill to recruit the rest of the pack to join it there.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bobby Jo Vial</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This age-based system of food-sharing is extremely unusual in animal societies. In fact, it has previously only been anecdotally described in <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00296390">African</a> and <a href="https://www.ias.ac.in/public/Volumes/reso/001/02/0074-0079.pdf">Asiatic wild dogs</a>. </p>
<p>This made us wonder why an African wild dog’s breakfast look so different, and what are the implications for this endangered pack-living animal?</p>
<p>It is possible that allowing pack-mates uncontested access to food they have not caught themselves may be an extension of other helping behaviour, prioritising those least able to catch food themselves. </p>
<p>While young pups still at the den are <a href="https://journals.co.za/doi/abs/10.3957/056.048.013005">fed regurgitated meat</a>, older pups tagging along on hunting trips are allowed to feed directly. In this context, it’s probably much more efficient to allow the pups to feed themselves than to eat and regurgitate for them. </p>
<p>Additionally, this unusual system may also protect African wild dogs from their competitors. Packs are highly cohesive and begin <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms11033?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_profile_view_base%3BJSOInzqETp6cCHBt5QiV3Q%3D%3D">hunting together</a> but it is common for one or a few dogs to become separated during the chase. Successful hunters can thus find themselves away from the rest of the pack on a kill leaving them exposed to their competitors. </p>
<p>The dogs are also said to be on an <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/35131">an energetic knife-edge</a> due to the impacts of losing their kills to spotted hyenas in some areas. They also live alongside lions, which are a major cause of <a href="https://zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/acv.12328">African wild dog mortality</a>. </p>
<p>In this context, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-zoology/article/abs/feeding-success-of-african-wild-dogs-lycaon-pictus-in-the-serengeti-the-effects-of-group-size-and-kleptoparasitism/FA81CBA6EBC63289D91119D7C2231813">pack size</a> is key to defending themselves and their food. We argue that the age-based feeding structure promotes full and fast attendance of the pack at the dinner table. </p>
<p>After a quick feed on high value organs, successful hunters will return to recruit the rest of the pack to the kill-site. This provides safety in numbers, and due to their size and speed advantage, adult recruits can arrive quickly. This increases their chances of getting a meal. </p>
<p>Smaller pups and younger yearlings also benefit by arriving promptly. Priority of access guarantees them food on arrival, and an early arrival increases their share of the spoils. </p>
<p>The speedy arrival of all provides <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/animal-conservation-forum/article/abs/crucial-importance-of-pack-size-in-the-african-wild-dog-lycaon-pictus/41FE7F620BBAE117137EC0688DF51868">safety in numbers</a>, and structured access means cohorts waiting their turn can watch the surroundings for incoming threats. </p>
<p>This system is a neat solution to competition with lions and hyenas. It also has interesting social consequences for the dogs themselves. In particular, we discovered that it affects which individual dogs invest in hunting.</p>
<p>All pack members may benefit to some extent when prey is captured. But to get to that point some individuals must undertake the risky business of tackling potentially dangerous prey. Which individuals step up? </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446781/original/file-20220216-14-1yvdmt2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="African wild dog with a bone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446781/original/file-20220216-14-1yvdmt2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446781/original/file-20220216-14-1yvdmt2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446781/original/file-20220216-14-1yvdmt2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446781/original/file-20220216-14-1yvdmt2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446781/original/file-20220216-14-1yvdmt2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446781/original/file-20220216-14-1yvdmt2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446781/original/file-20220216-14-1yvdmt2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Old subdominant feeds on skin and bone.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bobby Jo Vial</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our study showed that the older subdominants in the pack were more likely to participate in killing prey. Being low in the feeding queue seems to motivate hunting – hunters gaining early access to the choicest bits of meat before the carcass is turned over as soon as the youngsters arrive. </p>
<h2>Perceptions of the species</h2>
<p>Our findings have wider implications that could help perceptions and therefore conservation of the species.</p>
<p>For a long time the view that wild dogs are bloodthirsty and wanton killers <a href="http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?pid=S0075-64582017000200003&script=sci_arttext&tlng=es">persisted in some quarters</a>. As recently as the late 1970s, African wild dogs were <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/oryx/article/african-wild-dog/1B501942DC632C003E1F405BF74D7EE2">shot as vermin</a> even within some protected areas. </p>
<p>While recent work, including ours, has illuminated African wild dogs in a more positive light, promoting them emotively should be avoided. Whether species persist through means we consider admirable or unsavoury, they should not be judged on this basis. In healthy ecosystems, all species play their role and deserve a seat at the table.</p>
<p><em>Samantha Lostrom contributed to this article, and Dr J Weldon McNutt, Reena Walker and Dr Leanne van der Weyde contributed to the research described here.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176056/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Neil R Jordan is a Conservation Biologist at the Taronga Conservation Society Australia, and is an honorary research associate with Botswana Predator Conservation. He receives funding from Natural Selection Conservation Trust, The Hermon Slade Foundation, National Parks and Wildlife Service NSW, MidCoast Council, and the Taronga Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dominik M Behr, Krystyna Golabek, Laura Plimpton, and Megan Jane Claase do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Food-sharing by animals that hunt in groups is not well understood. A new study sheds light on African wild dogs.Neil R Jordan, Senior lecturer, UNSW SydneyDominik M Behr, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of ZurichKrystyna Golabek, Adjunct LecturerLaura Plimpton, PhD Student, Columbia UniversityMegan Jane Claase, Research Fellow, Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1306362022-02-16T13:15:35Z2022-02-16T13:15:35ZAfrican wild dogs cope with human development using skills they rely on to compete with other carnivores<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446628/original/file-20220215-27-1h2k3xj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=782%2C684%2C3566%2C2353&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Wild dogs are usually with their pack mates.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Scott Creel</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Large carnivores in Africa are important from ecological, economic and cultural perspectives, but human activities put them at risk. Increasingly, lions, hyenas and African wild dogs are restricted to protected areas like national parks. Within these limited areas, they must compete for the same food sources.</p>
<p>Competition is, of course, nothing new. For several million years, African wild dogs have evolved within a set of large carnivores that all prey on the same large herbivore species, like wildebeest and warthogs. Wild dogs are lanky, long-distance hunters that always live in groups, usually of eight to 10 adults. Cooperation with pack mates allows them to hunt prey much larger than themselves. Weighing in at about 40-62 pounds (18-28 kilograms), wild dogs have been shaped by the necessity to compete with larger species like the lion and spotted hyena.</p>
<p>There may be a silver lining to being the bottom dog in the competitive hierarchy. Research that my <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=IiQjBP8AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">colleagues with the Zambian Carnivore Programme</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=IBEIw1QAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">and I</a> have conducted in Zambia and Tanzania suggests why smaller, subordinate species like wild dogs are better able to move through human-modified landscapes. Understanding how is essential for their conservation.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446658/original/file-20220215-24208-dkqqwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Four African wild dogs around a kill" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446658/original/file-20220215-24208-dkqqwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446658/original/file-20220215-24208-dkqqwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446658/original/file-20220215-24208-dkqqwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446658/original/file-20220215-24208-dkqqwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446658/original/file-20220215-24208-dkqqwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446658/original/file-20220215-24208-dkqqwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446658/original/file-20220215-24208-dkqqwr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A pack of African wild dogs makes a formidable hunting team.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/african-wild-dog-lycaon-pictus-herd-on-a-kill-a-royalty-free-image/1255884159">slowmotiongli/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<h2>Meeting the African wild dog</h2>
<p>In the late 1980s, I was studying dwarf mongooses in Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park when an extraordinary thing happened. While I sat on the roof of an ancient Land Rover watching mongooses on a nearby termite mound, a wild dog trotted past. And then another, and another. Wild dogs had been missing from most (perhaps all) of the Serengeti for years due to a combination of intense competition from larger carnivores and outbreaks of rabies. But here they were, back again.</p>
<p>Over the next year, I occasionally followed the dogs to watch them hunt on the shortgrass plains, where they were <a href="https://doi.org/10.1006/anbe.1993.1059">constantly shadowed by spotted hyenas</a>. Several hyenas often trailed the dogs even as they set out to hunt, and hyenas quickly aggregated when the dogs killed a gazelle or wildebeest – often alerted by the unmistakable sound of vultures plummeting through the air in their own race to the fresh carcass. </p>
<p>Although they are half the size, wild dogs do not easily give up a kill to hyenas. A pack of wild dogs making a coordinated attack on one or two hyenas can easily drive them off. But hyenas are also social animals, and researchers found that the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1006/anbe.1993.1059">dogs generally lost their kills to hyenas</a> when their numbers were equal. Given the large population of hyenas in Serengeti, they took nine out of 10 kills that the dogs made. And lions are simply too dangerous to fight, so the big cats could always take over a kill from the dogs, and kill them surprisingly often. </p>
<p>At that time, very little was known about wild dogs in places other than Serengeti and South Africa’s Kruger National Park, a more wooded ecosystem where researchers had found a flourishing population that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1644/05-MAMM-A-304R2.1">often hunted impala</a>. Biologists started to rethink the prevailing view that wild dogs were specialized to live and hunt in open grasslands.</p>
<p>My colleagues and I spent six years in the 1990s observing wild dogs in the Selous Game Reserve, confirming the Tanzania Wildlife Department’s belief that this large ecosystem was a major stronghold for the species. We found that the density of wild dogs in Selous was very good, at least partly because <a href="https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1523-1739.1996.10020526.x">wild dogs were better able to avoid problems</a> with lions and spotted hyenas in the miombo woodland of Selous than in plains of the Serengeti. It was more evidence that not only could they survive outside of grasslands like in the Serengeti, but African wild dogs found advantages to other kinds of environments.</p>
<p>By the mid-1990s, a scientific consensus was emerging that the persistence of wild dogs in an area depends at least partly on their ability to avoid losing food to hyenas or being killed by lions.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446660/original/file-20220215-13-1cwgtpf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="African wild dog pack on the edge of a paved road" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446660/original/file-20220215-13-1cwgtpf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446660/original/file-20220215-13-1cwgtpf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446660/original/file-20220215-13-1cwgtpf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446660/original/file-20220215-13-1cwgtpf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446660/original/file-20220215-13-1cwgtpf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446660/original/file-20220215-13-1cwgtpf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446660/original/file-20220215-13-1cwgtpf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">African wild dogs have been less separated by human development, like roads, than some other large carnivores.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/pack-of-african-wild-dogs-on-the-road-royalty-free-image/669588630">Simoneemanphotography/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Being bottom dog can pay off</h2>
<p>Many studies, including our current research in Zambia, have confirmed that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.12231">wild dogs are adapted to “live in the cracks”</a> of a landscape where they are outnumbered and outsized by spotted hyenas and lions.</p>
<p>In the short term, wild dogs move quickly away from an encounter with lions – or an experimental playback of their roars over a loudspeaker – in a straight line that would be unusual under other circumstances. Over the long term, wild dogs avoid areas that are heavily used by larger competitors, even though this requires them to <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1046/j.1523-1739.1997.96252.x">hunt in areas with fewer prey</a>.</p>
<p>But there may be a benefit to being at the bottom of the competitive hierarchy. Compared to most species, all of the large African carnivores live in small and isolated populations that <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1046/j.1523-1739.1999.98366.x">must remain connected</a> to maintain genetic diversity. But humans have now modified <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms12558">more than half of the Earth’s terrestrial surface</a>, cutting lines of movement and increasing the isolation of protected areas. Despite this general pattern, some species are better adapted than others to maintain connections between ecosystems. </p>
<p>Our research has used advances in genetic sequencing to test how well connected wild dogs and lions are in several ecosystems across Zambia and Tanzania. The basic idea is that well-connected populations remain genetically similar, but poorly connected populations become genetically distinct from one another over time.</p>
<p>We wondered whether the adaptations of wild dogs that allow them to move through a landscape dominated by lions and hyenas might <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-52904-0">also help them move through a landscape altered by humans</a>. For example, wild dogs could move more quickly and in a straighter line after an encounter with people, just as they do after an encounter with lions. We hypothesized that genetic data would show that wild dogs have stronger connections between ecosystems than lions, and that their connections are less affected by humans.</p>
<p>And this is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-52904-0">just what the data showed</a> when we compared the genotypes of 96 wild dogs and, separately, 208 lions. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446350/original/file-20220214-25-qsmcdz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="map of where dogs were living and their genetic similarity" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446350/original/file-20220214-25-qsmcdz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446350/original/file-20220214-25-qsmcdz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446350/original/file-20220214-25-qsmcdz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446350/original/file-20220214-25-qsmcdz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446350/original/file-20220214-25-qsmcdz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446350/original/file-20220214-25-qsmcdz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446350/original/file-20220214-25-qsmcdz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Each dot represents an individual wild dog, and similarity in their color represents genetic similarity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Scott Creel</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Wild dogs in eastern, central and western Zambia were genetically quite similar, showing that these populations remain well connected. In contrast, lions were much less genetically similar, with distinct populations that were not well connected.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446351/original/file-20220214-23-6h14xf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="map of where lions were living and their genetic similarity" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446351/original/file-20220214-23-6h14xf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446351/original/file-20220214-23-6h14xf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446351/original/file-20220214-23-6h14xf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446351/original/file-20220214-23-6h14xf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446351/original/file-20220214-23-6h14xf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446351/original/file-20220214-23-6h14xf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446351/original/file-20220214-23-6h14xf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Each dot represents an individual lion, and similarity in their color represents genetic similarity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Scott Creel</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We also mapped the degree to which human effects such as land conversion, agriculture and roads hinder animal movement, differentiating between areas with relatively little resistance to animal movement and areas with strong human effects. The genetic differences between lion populations were strongly correlated with human resistance, but there was no such correlation for wild dogs. That is, places that were less hospitable to animal movement had more genetically isolated populations of lions, but didn’t affect the genetic diversity of the wild dogs in the area.</p>
<p>While it is still too early to know if this pattern will apply to other species, it suggests that eons of dealing with lions and hyenas have provided the wild dog with tools that help them maneuver through the unforgiving landscapes that humans create outside of national parks.</p>
<p>[<em>Get fascinating science, health and technology news.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?nl=science&source=inline-science-fascinating">Sign up for The Conversation’s weekly science newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/130636/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Scott Creel received funding from the US National Science Foundation and the Wallenberg Foundation.</span></em></p>African wild dogs are used to evading hyenas and lions. Genetic research suggests they are using the same strengths to get around human development as well.Scott Creel, Professor of Conservation Biology & Ecology, Montana State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/841342017-09-18T13:20:05Z2017-09-18T13:20:05ZHow animals vote to make group decisions<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/186198/original/file-20170915-13360-1lsvnyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/wild-dog-pups-694123111?src=teJKT1_bEtJFc9ay2XlvQQ-1-73">Seyms Brugger/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Today we opt for ballot boxes but humans have used numerous ways of voting to have their say <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-shouting-it-out-to-staying-at-home-a-brief-history-of-british-voting-78555">throughout history</a>. However, we’re not the only ones living (or seeking to live) in a democratic society: a new study has suggested that <a href="http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/284/1862/20170347">African wild dogs</a> vote to make group decisions.</p>
<p>A new study has found that these dogs sneeze to decide when to stop resting and start hunting. Researchers found that the rates of sneezing during greeting rallies – which happen after, or sometimes during, a rest period – affect the likelihood of the pack departing to hunt, rather than going back to sleep. </p>
<p>If dominant individuals start the rally it is much more likely to result in a hunt, and only two or three sneezes are required to get the pack started. But if a subordinate individual wishes to start a hunt, they have to sneeze a lot more – around ten times – to get the pack to move off.</p>
<p>The researchers think that this sneezing is the pack members voting on when to start a hunt, since it is often the lower ranking (and therefore the hungriest) dogs who start the rallies. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sVxKlsfi73g?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>Communal decisions are essential for social living, and in animals it is rare to find a social system where one individual coerces the rest of the group into performing a particular action. But since animals cannot produce the kind of pre-election propaganda so beloved of human politicians, social groups must have different ways of suggesting and gaining consensus for activities.</p>
<h2>1. Baboons: take it or leave it</h2>
<p>When members of a <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/348/6241/1358?variant=full-text&sso=1&sso_redirect_count=1&oauth-code=afe4ee45-67c8-4732-b0ca-842510ce1c66">baboon troop</a> set off to forage, several members may move in different directions. Other baboons in the group must decide which one to follow, and social dominance has no effect on the likelihood that the majority of the group will follow. Moving purposefully seems to be an important factor in getting other individuals to follow – another parallel with human behaviour, since people will follow whoever seems to have the <a href="http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED133827.pdf">most confidence</a> .</p>
<h2>2. Meerkat voice voting</h2>
<p>In meerkat mobs, social cohesion is vital for survival, and moving from one patch to another must be done together. A meerkat going it alone will very soon be an ex-meerkat. In order to get the group to head quickly to a new patch, an individual will <a href="http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/278/1711/1482">emit a “moving call”</a>. If three or more meerkats make moving calls within a short period of time, the group will speed up its movement, but two or less individuals calling does not affect the speed. In meerkat mobs three is evidently considered a quorum.</p>
<h2>3. Capuchin monkeys “trill”</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.beamreach.org/data/101/Science/processing/Nora/Papers/Use%2520of%2520Trill%2520Vocalizations%2520to%2520Coordinate%2520Troop%2520Movement%2520among%2520White-Faced%2520Capuchins-%2520A%2520Second%2520Field%2520Test.pdf">White faced capuchin monkeys</a> at a site in Costa Rica have been heard using “trill” calls to persuade the group to move off in the direction preferred by the caller. However, the callers were not always successful in getting the group to move, and status within the group did not seem to affect the likelihood of persuading the troupe to move. Although the researchers did not consider the possibility that these calls were a form of voting, there are similarities between their use and the sneezes used by the wild dogs.</p>
<h2>4. Honey bee scouts vote among themselves</h2>
<p>Honey bees have an advanced social system with individual workers having different tasks. When a nest becomes overcrowded and some of the bees need to move out, <a href="http://www.life.umd.edu/classroom/biol106h/PDF/Seeley.pdf">scout bees</a> go off to find a suitable site for a new nest. Of course, they all find different sites and some may find more than one location. </p>
<p>When they return to the swarm, the scouts each perform a dance that gives directions to their chosen site. As time goes on some of the scouts stop advertising their site, and a few will switch to advertising another scout’s site. The swarm will only move when all the scouts that are still dancing are advertising the same site. This process can take several days to complete, but it is a bit like buying a house without having seen it on the say-so of a few estate agents.</p>
<h2>5. Ants vote with their feet</h2>
<p><a href="http://eprints.uwe.ac.uk/25915/1/Franks_etal2015_srep11890.pdf">Rock ants</a>, found in the south of England, choose a new nest site based on the quality of the site, with entrance size and darkness among assessed criteria. They appear to use a simple voting system consisting of leaving the nest site if an individual does not perceive the quality to be high enough. When enough ants have accumulated at a site, it is deemed to be of a suitable quality (or perhaps the best that can be found in the area), and the ants move in. If the quality subsequently deteriorates, individuals drift away to another site until enough of the colony have left the original nest and joined the new site. A simple, but apparently effective system.</p>
<p>Voting by animals is not a subject that has been studied to any great extent, although political systems are common among social animals and are quite well documented, but if wild dog, meerkats and ants are doing it, you can bet your bottom dollar that other species are doing it too.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84134/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jan Hoole does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Democracy is not just for humans.Jan Hoole, Lecturer in Biology, Keele UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.