• The African wild dog is a unique and important species quite unrelated to the domestic dog.
• Wild dogs are highly social carnivores that hunt in packs of 20-30 animals. They eat mainly medium-sized antelope such as impala but can take prey as large as buffalo. Each pack is nomadic within a large 500km squared range.
• In most packs, only one dog and bitch breed each year producing a single litter of up to 25 pups. Pups are fed by the rest of the pack who regurgitate meat for them.
• Once distributed throughout sub-Saharan Africa, wild dogs are now highly endangered with less than 500 dogs living in 600-1000 packs.
• The causes of their decline have been:
  • habitat loss
  • persecution by farmers
  • diseases from domestic dogs
  • competition with lions and spotted hyaenas

The museum diplays include a wild dog prepared by Roland Ward, arguably the greatest taxidermist ever!