AnimalvsAnimal
African Wild Dog (Lycaon pictus) (53884454129)🐺

Photo: Bernard DUPONT · CC BY-SA 2.0

SpeciesCarnivoraCanidae
Carnivores

🐺African wild dog

Lycaon pictus (Temminck, 1820)

Le Lycaon, parfois désigné sous les noms de Cynhyène ou encore de Chien sauvage d’Afrique, est un mammifère carnivore de la famille des canidés. Le nom « Lycaon » désigne à la fois le genre Lycaon, ainsi que la seule espèce actuelle : le Lycaon peint (Lycaon pictus). Il vit généralement en Afrique subsaharienne australe et centrale, dans les steppes et les savanes. Ce canidé dont les formes et les vocalises évoquent celles d’une hyène, vit dans de grandes meutes très soudées, et a la réputation de faire un grand nombre de petits. Cependant, il reste gravement menacé par l’activité humaine causant une forte fragmentation de son habitat et l’obligeant à lutter sans cesse contre les lions et les hyènes tachetées.

Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Videos
259
Photos
5
Measurements
14
vs you
≈ a third of your weight
Also called
Cape Hunting Dog, Hunting Dog, African Hunting Dog, African Painted Wolf, Painted Hunting Dog
Conservation status
ENEndangered

IUCN Red List assessment, 2025.

Population trendDecreasing
Key measurements
Body mass
24 kg
Body length
1.02 m
Shoulder height
0.69 m
Top speed
not recorded
Bite force
not recorded
Maximum lifespan
17 years
All measurements ↓
Facts and figures

Everything we know about the African wild dog

Typical adult figures. Where a value is an estimate rather than a measurement, it says so.

Body mass
24 kg
COMBINE
Other figures ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Figures vary

  • 27 kgAnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: high
Body length
1.02 m
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Shoulder height
0.69 m0.61–0.78 m · typical rangenot stated
Details ↓

"It has a head-body length of 76-112 cm, tail length of 30-41 cm, shoulder height of 61-78 cm, and body weight of 17-36 kg." Range-only; value is the midpoint. Open-access ASM species account.

Source: Bucci, Nicholson & Krausman 2022, Mammalian Species 54(1017):seac002, https://academic.oup.com/mspecies/article/54/1017/seac002/6565923 · see citation

Brain mass
134 g
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Maximum lifespan
17 years
COMBINE
Other figures ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Figures vary

  • 17 yearsAnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: high
Generation length
5.57 years
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Age at maturity
2.2 years
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Gestation
72 days
COMBINE
Other figures ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Figures vary

  • 72 daysAnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: high
Litter size
about 7
COMBINE
Other figures ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Figures vary

  • 8AnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: high
Trophic level
Carnivore
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Activity cycle
Crepuscular / mixed
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Home range
396 km²
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Population density
0.02 per km²
COMBINE
Details ↓

Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0

Volume l
24 Laverage
Details ↓

Body mass at ~1.0 kg/L, the density of vertebrate tissue.

average = a mean across sexes or species in a group.

Not recorded for African wild dog yet: top speed, bite force.

Where it sits

Family tree

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. ›phylumChordata
  3. ›classMammalia
  4. ›orderCarnivora
  5. ›familyCanidae
  6. ›genusLycaon
  7. ›speciesLycaon pictus
Full lineage
  1. classMammals · Mammalia
  2. orderCarnivorans · Carnivora
  3. familyCanidae
  4. genusLycaon
All 14 branches ↓
  1. kingdomMetazoa
  2. phylumChordata
  3. subphylumCraniata
  4. subphylumVertebrata
  5. superclassGnathostomata
  6. superclassSarcopterygii
  7. superclassTetrapoda
  8. classMammals · Mammalia
  9. subclassTheria
  10. superorderLaurasiatheria
  11. orderCarnivorans · Carnivora
  12. suborderCaniformia
  13. familyCanidae
  14. genusLycaon
More

More about the African wild dog

Closest relative on this site
🐺 Ethiopian wolf — last shared an ancestor ≈ 4.3 million years ago.
What it eats
warm-blooded animals100%
In other languages
Lycaon pictus (it), Lycaon pictus (fr), Lycaon pictus (es), Afrikanischer Wildhund (de), likaon (pl), זאב טלוא (he) … and 27 more languages
More photos
African Wild Dog (Lycaon pictus) (53884454129)Lycaon pictusAfrican Wild Dog (Lycaon pictus) (53642744538)
All 5 photos in the gallery →

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