Abstract
African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) are reported to hunt with energetically costly long chase distances. We used high-resolution GPS and inertial technology to record 1,119 high-speed chases of all members of a pack of six adult African wild dogs in northern Botswana. Dogs performed multiple short, high-speed, mostly unsuccessful chases to capture prey, while cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) undertook even shorter, higher-speed hunts. We used an energy balance model to show that the energy return from group hunting and feeding substantially outweighs the cost of multiple short chases, which indicates that African wild dogs are more energetically robust than previously believed. Comparison with cheetah illustrates the trade-off between sheer athleticism and high individual kill rate characteristic of cheetahs, and the energetic robustness of frequent opportunistic group hunting and feeding by African wild dogs.
Highlights
African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) are reported to hunt with energetically costly long chase distances
A perceived high energetic cost of protracted hunting locomotion[16] compared with ambush predation has led to African wild dogs being attributed with a low margin of energy intake over that required for maintenance[16] leading to negative energy balance if a large proportion of kills are lost to kleptoparasites[16]
Our results show that short opportunistic hunts of medium-sized prey are relatively cheap, and African wild dogs using this hunting strategy will most likely have a large safety margin with respect to the effects of kleptoparasitism
Summary
African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) are reported to hunt with energetically costly long chase distances. A perceived high energetic cost of protracted hunting locomotion[16] compared with ambush predation has led to African wild dogs being attributed with a low margin of energy intake over that required for maintenance[16] leading to negative energy balance if a large proportion of kills are lost to kleptoparasites[16] This description of African wild dogs as persistent hunters, a recurrent theme in sporting safari literature[17], is primarily based on observations of the species hunting in open short-grass plains habitats, such as those found in the Serengeti of Tanzania[13,18,19,20,21,22]. Individual kill rate: the number of chases ending in a kill versus the total number of chases by that individual; pack kill rate: individual kill rate multiplied by number of actively hunting dogs
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