African Wild Dog
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African Wild Dog (Lycaon pictus) once roamed large swaths of the African continent.
Like other large canids around the world, human settlements encroached on their territory, and when the dogs preyed upon the settlers livestock, they became targets.
Sharp population decreased resulted in the IUCN listing them as endangered since 1990. A handful of private organizations are working to preserve small territories in their current range.
While they are the single representative of their genus, they share common behavioral traits with other wild wolf and dog species such as living and hunting in packs.
© 2010 Patricia A. Michaels