Factors influencing the hunting success of an African wild dog pack

Abstract

Abstract. The success of a pack of African wild dogs, Lycaon pictus, hunting Thomson's gazelles, Gazella thomsoni, and blue wildebeest, Connochaetes taurinus, in Serengeti National Park, Tanzania, was influenced by the age of the prey and the number of dogs hunting together, but not by the amount of cover available, the size of prey groups, or the distance at which prey groups fled. The study suggested two ways in which wild dogs may benefit from communal hunting. First, it increased the range of prey species available to the pack. Although single dogs regularly killed both immature and adult Thomson's gazelles, they were not observed to kill wildebeest calves, and groups of two did not hunt adult wildebeest successfully. Larger groups were more successful than smaller ones. Second, hunting in groups reduced interspecific competition from spotted hyaenas, Crocuta crocuta , through improved defence of carcasses.