The Chon alpinus, or Dhole is a wild dog found in Eastern and Southern Asia. The most common place to find these little rascals is in India, South of the river Ganges, and in the Central Indian Highlands.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Where's That Dhole?!
What the Heck Does it DO?!
The Dhole is a wild dog. It does... well wild dog things. It hunts in packs and preys on medium to large ungulates such as water buffalo or boar. They've even been known to take down[Image] tigers! Talk about a Napoleon Complex! Before embarking on a hunt, packs will often go through pre-hunt rituals involving nuzzling, body rubbing, and homo and heterosexual mounting. I guess the family that preys together er... hunts together.
So why do I care?
The Dhole face extinction due to prey dying out and humans expanding into their habitats. The Dhole are constantly fighting for their survival against humans, tigers, and leopards. That's not an easy task! We've been cutting down rain forests to expand our own cities for years and the Dhole have been paying the price. Farmers have even gone so far as to club the pups in their den in acts of retaliation for lost livestock! This cannot be allowed to continue. Think of the children!
Bibliography
Information thanks to
http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/5953/rangemap
Some info (very little) cautiously obtained from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhole
Pictures thanks to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhole
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