Insights into long‐distance dispersal by African wild dogs in East Africa

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Within a large carnivore guild, subordinate competitors (African wild dog, Lycaon pictus, and cheetah, Acinonyx jubatus) might reduce the limiting effects of dominant competitors (lion, Panthera leo, and spotted hyena, Crocuta crocuta) by avoiding them in space, in time, or through patterns of prey selection. Understanding how these competitors cope with one other can inform strategies for their conservation. We tested how mechanisms of niche partitioning promote coexistence by quantifying patterns of prey selection and the use of space and time by all members of the large carnivore guild within Liuwa Plain National Park in western Zambia. Lions and hyenas specialized on wildebeest, whereas wild dogs and cheetahs selected broader diets including smaller and less abundant prey. Spatially, cheetahs showed no detectable avoidance of areas heavily used by dominant competitors, but wild dogs avoided areas heavily used by lions. Temporally, the proportion of kills by lions and hyenas did not detectably differ across four time periods (day, crepuscular, early night, and late night), but wild dogs and especially cheetahs concentrated on time windows that avoided nighttime hunting by lions and hyenas. Our results provide new insight into the conditions under which partitioning may not allow for coexistence for one subordinate species, the African wild dog, while it does for cheetah. Because of differences in responses to dominant competitors, African wild dogs may be more prone to competitive exclusion (local extirpation), particularly in open, uniform ecosystems with simple (often wildebeest dominated) prey communities, where spatial avoidance is difficult.

Section: Relationships Of African Wild Dogs To Dominant Competitorscontrasting

confidence: 99%

Spatial and temporal avoidance of risk within a large carnivore guild

Dröge

Creel

Becker

et al. 2016

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128

“…This is particularly pertinent given that during the five months post‐vaccination, the two wild dog packs spilt up and formed five packs (Burrows et al, ). Such dynamics have been observed in the Serengeti Ecosystem to result in dispersing pack members covering hundreds of kilometers (Masenga et al, ). Lacking satellite GPS telemetry, such movements would most likely have gone undetected, and the study animals would not have been sighted again.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

“…Dispersal and pack formation did occur outside SNP with packs establishing both within the LGCA and NCA as well as further away in Kenya (Masenga et al, ). However, no new or established packs returned to occupy the Serengeti plains region where they were studied between 1964 and 1991.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The number of packs more than doubled in subsequent years, with 13 packs recorded in LGCA alone during 2012 (Masenga, ). Wild dog populations have the ability to rapidly increase in size (Woodroffe, ), and dispersal and pack formation have been recorded in the population (Masenga et al, ). New packs need to establish territories (Fuller et al, ) and the lack of wild dogs on the Serengeti plains post‐1991 would have provided the necessary territorial voids immediately alongside the other resident packs (Jackson, Groom, Jordan, & McNutt, ; Mcnutt, ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several cases of rabies have been reported from the areas adjoining SNP post‐1991 (Lembo et al, ), and over 40% of village members in NCA reported the presence of wild dogs at their households (Czupryna et al, ), confirming the sympatric occurrence of domestic dogs and wild dogs. Thirdly, wild dogs are exposed to similar types of interventions, that is immobilization and collaring (Masenga et al, ), and the same types of handling that allegedly resulted in individual and pack mortality in SNP (Burrows et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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No evidence of handling‐induced mortality in Serengeti's African wild dog population

Jackson

Masenga

Mjingo

et al. 2018

Self Cite

The disappearance of an endangered African wild dog population from Serengeti National Park (SNP) led to international debate centered around one question: were researchers to blame? The “Burrows' hypothesis” postulated that stress induced by research‐related immobilization and handling reactivated a latent rabies virus, eliminating the population. Insufficient data inhibited hypothesis testing, but since wild dogs persisted alongside SNP and have been studied since 2005, the hypothesis can be tested 25 years after its proposition. To be supported, wild dog immobilization interventions should have resulted in high mortality rates. However, 87.6% of 121 handled wild dogs (2006–2016) survived >12 months post‐handling. Some argued that viral reactivation would necessitate long‐term stress. Following immobilization, 67 animals were captured, transported, and held in a translocation enclosure. Despite the longer‐term stress, 95.5% survived >12 months. Furthermore, the stable number of wild dog packs in the ecosystem over the past decade, and lack of recolonization of SNP, strongly oppose Burrows' hypothesis. Instead, factors such as heightened levels of interspecific competition are likely to have contributed to the wild dog disappearance and subsequent avoidance of the Serengeti plains. Handling and radio telemetry are invaluable when studying elusive endangered species, yielding information pertinent to their conservation and management, and had no effect on Serengeti wild dog survival.

Long‐Distance, Transfrontier Carnivore Dispersals in Southern Africa

Beytell,

Hanssen,

Aschenborn

et al. 2024

Information on long‐range dispersal in tropical carnivores is limited compared to their temperate counterparts. Here we present data on long‐range, transboundary dispersals for three species of tropical carnivores: African wild dog (Lycaon pictus), African lion (Panthera leo), and spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta). The dispersals we document in our savannah system are among the longest that have been recorded for African wild dog and African lion, while for spotted hyena one of our recorded dispersal events is of similar magnitude to the longest documented movements occurring among any carnivore species from around the world.