Animal Profiles: The Dhole · 12:16am Jan 20th, 2019

DHOLE
Scientific name: Cuon alpinus

Weight: 33-44 pounds

Home: Asia

Physical Appearence

Dholes are reddish brown in color with a black tail, and some dholes have a white underbelly. The ears are slightly rounded at the tips. They aren't very big, they're only as tall as a large fox and weigh as much as a coyote on average.

Range

In our world, dholes are found in the Asian countries of India, Thailand, Indonesia, China, Bhutan, Nepal, and Cambodia. Back in the Pleistocene age however, they could also be found in both Europe and North America.

Social Structure

Like wolves and African Wild Dogs, Dholes live in packs. A typical dhole pack will have anyhere from 5-12 members, but according to K. Ullas Karanth, when the pups are old enough to travel with the pack, the size of the pack will go up to 20 or perhaps more than that until the pack splits up. There are reports of dhole packs of up to 40 members, but this is likely just a story since research back in the day found that when the size of a pack increases, meat consumption decreases for each dhole, meaning being in a large pack isn't very healthy for dholes. According to Karanth, the quick movements of dholes and thick cover can sometimes make counting the number of dholes in a pack not easy at times. So whoever came up with the idea of dholes living in packs of up to 40 could have easily have accidentally miscounted.

Diet

Dholes are carnivores, meaning they obviously eat meat. Their diet includes Sambar, Chital deer, wild boar, gaur calves, hares, nilgiri tahr, langurs, jungle fowl, and they also aren't too proud to scavenge. They don't have the strength to bring down large prey on their own so they must hunt in packs. Dholes will drive their prey into water, and will quite literally drown them. When they can't do that, they will bite at the underbelly, ears, flanks, and sometimes the tail in an attempt to weaken the victim. The animal is then either pulled down, or it dies of shock and blood loss.

Competitors

Throughout their range, dholes comepete with tigers and leopards. How do they interact? Not very friendly. Dholes will harass and chase leopards up into trees as a way of defending against leopard attacks. Tigers on the other hand are a different story, while there are stories of huge packs of dholes attacking and killing tigers, there is no evidence that this actually happens. I emailed some biologists at a university in Arizona, and they told me that there are no verified/believed accounts of dholes killing tigers, however, tigers will quite frequently catch and eat dholes, so dholes are more scared of tigers than vice versa. How could this be? How can a pack of dholes chase off a leopard, but be no match for a tiger? The answer is size and power. According to Karanth, a tiger can be anywhere from 6 to 15 times the size of a dhole,and that a tiger is powerful enough to kill a dhole with just one swipe from its paw, and when they attack an enemy of that size, they will lose several pack members, and that doesn't have any value for the dholes because that would make life harder for the dholes. He describes one instance where a tigress fought a dhole pack over a kill, and she won after killing 2 of them, showing that when dholes see fellow pack members get killed, they back off. Leopards on the other hand are much smaller than tigers, and aren't strong enough to kill a dhole with one swipe, so dholes in a pack are able to be much more aggressive to a leopard than a tiger. However, leopards will kill solitary dholes, and Karanths suggests that both big cats may snatch dholes from their dens when they sleep at night. One study in Thailand showed that dholes were more abundant in areas with less prey, but with no or few tigers. Another more recent study has found that dholes and leopards are droven out of where cattle are grazed to where the crop fields are and they end up eating deer and other crop raiders.

Threats

Dholes are listed as endangered, and it's said that there are fewer than 2,500 mature dholes left in the wild, and one expert says that may not even be an accurate estimate. People will kill dholes after a loss of livestock, their habitat is getting smaller, and dholes can get diseases from domestic dogs. So if we want to keep dholes around, we'll need to do what it takes to protect them.

In Equestria

What about in Equestria? I'd imagine the relationship between dholes and ponies would be similar to that of dholes and humans. Dholes wouldn't hunt ponies since some ponies like Applejack could kill a dhole with just one kick. Pegasus ponis can just fly away, and unicorns have their magic, and horses have never been on the menu of dholes.

If you want to see if I'm correct, read these sources.

"A View From The Machan" may want to also type dholes vs tiger

"Tiger, leopards, and dholes in a half empty forest"

"The ecological benefit of tigers to farmers in reducing crop and livestock losses in the eastern Himalayas: Implications for conervation of large apex predators"

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Golden Fang Ryu Shenron

Golden Fang Ryu Shenron #1 · Mar 4th, 2019 · · ·

According to Karanth, a tiger can be anywhere from 6 to 15 times the size of a dhole,and that a tiger is powerful enough to kill a dhole with just one swipe from its paw, and when they attack an enemy of that size, they will lose several pack members, and that doesn't have any value for the dholes because that would make life harder for the dholes. He describes one instance where a tigress fought a dhole pack over a kill, and she won after killing 2 of them, showing that when dholes see fellow pack members get killed, they back off. Leopards on the other hand are much smaller than tigers, and aren't strong enough to kill a dhole with one swipe, so dholes in a pack are able to be much more aggressive to a leopard than a tiger. However, leopards will kill solitary dholes, and Karanths suggests that both big cats may snatch dholes from their dens when they sleep at night.

Very nice description in the difference in power between the Dhole, Tiger and Leopard.