Welcome

Car­ni­vore keep­ers at Edin­burgh Zoo today announced the birth of the Zoo’s first ever African hunt­ing dog. The announce­ment coin­cides with the reopen­ing of the hunt­ing dog walk­way, which keep­ers had closed to vis­i­tors in August as they sus­pected Jet, the pack’s non-​dominant female, was pregnant.

With less than 5,500 hunt­ing dogs (Lycaon pic­tus) left in the wild, the birth of this puppy is an immense achieve­ment for Edin­burgh Zoo. Habi­tat frag­men­ta­tion is one of the biggest fac­tors in the hunt­ing dogs’ decline, as the packs need a large range in order to remain sus­tain­able. Hunt­ing dogs are also heav­ily per­se­cuted by farm­ers, despite rarely attack­ing live­stock. Edu­ca­tion and con­ser­va­tion breed­ing pro­grammes such as the one Edin­burgh Zoo is part of remain cru­cial to sav­ing this species from extinc­tion. The African hunt­ing dog’s sta­tus in the wild is regarded as Endan­gered accord­ing the IUCN Red List of Threat­ened Species™.

McGarry said: “Although we don’t know its sex yet, this pup is prov­ing to be a real bun­dle of atti­tude. It’s very bold for such a young age and we’ve often spot­ted it tug­ging along joints of meat that are twice its size. All of the dogs have been seen feed­ing it and it looks like an estab­lished mem­ber of the pack.”

And McGarry con­tin­ues: “Most first-​time moth­ers can be very ner­vous, so we decided to close the enclo­sure to vis­i­tors in order to give Jet and her pup the best chance of a suc­cess­ful birth. Hunt­ing dogs have a very intri­cate social hier­ar­chy and if they feel threat­ened this can cause the mother to reject her pups.”

In two weeks’ time, the puppy will be caught up for its first health check and to be sexed. As hunt­ing dog pup­pies are born black and white and only start to get their mot­tled mark­ings from when they are two months old, the keep­ers will only name the feisty lit­tle pup once its colours have come through.

Although Edin­burgh Zoo’s pack has two males, Blade and Two Socks, only Blade the dom­i­nant male will breed with the pack’s females. Usu­ally, the dom­i­nant female will be the one to have pups but it is not uncom­mon for lower-​ranking females to also give birth. The Zoo’s keep­ers are con­fi­dent this pup will be the first of many for their pack.

(Source: Edin­burgh Zoo press release, 23.10.2013)