African Wild Dog

The African Wild Dog(Lycaon pictus) also known as the Painted Wolf live in family groups called packs. There are led by an alpha pair, usually the mother and father of the pack. In the case of the death of one of the alpha animals, the next oldest male or female will take the vacant position. Adults are lean and slender with powerful long legs for running. The pack hunts in groups while one or two adults will stay behind to guard the pups. When the pack makes a kill, individuals take food home to feed the pups and the babysitters. Litters are usually born only to the alpha female since she and the alpha male usually are the only unrelated pair. When litters are born subordinate female, the alpha female will rear them as her own and may even chase off the mother of the pups so she is the sole provider for the pups. Since subordinate males cannot breed with any of the females, they usually will leave the pack to find or form a new one with unrelated females.

Dimensions
Adults typically weigh from 40 to 75 pounds and stand 30 inches tall at the shoulder. They are usually 30 to 45 inches long.

Social Hierarchy
Wild Dogs are led by an alpha pair with strict hierarchies on both male and female sides. Usually only the alpha pair breed and produce most of the litters within the pack. Subrodinate females mate with rovers from other packs while males usually leave the pack for a short time to mate with females from other packs.

If the alpha males dies and there are not unrelated males, one of the sons of the alpha female will take dominance till he leaves to find better matting opportunities since he is unable to mate with his mother, sisters, cousins or aunts in the group. When there is an absent of natal-males, only then do unrelated males join the group, thus a new alpha male will arise, usually the biggest strongest oldest male. If the alpha female dies, one of her daughters, nieces or maybe sister if there still are any left in the pack will take dominance. If they are related to the alpha male, whether he be the father or brother of the new alpha female, they she will have to wait for a new unrelated male to join her pack once her brothers and cousins leave. Only adult pack members become interested in rank and dominance and have to be a year of age to become a dominant if there are no other adults within the pack to take the position.

At a year of age, the young adults become interested in their social order of the pack. Older are ranked higher than younger, pups from a previous litter rank higher then pups from a later litter. Litter-mates usually have the same rank unless one of them becomes and alpha. If the alpha female or male dies and two same gender siblings of the same litter are the oldest then the most aggressive and biggest will be the new dominant. When males enter a new pack, the eldest male becomes the new alpha male of the new pack. If females leave their birth pack and join up with rovers from another, the eldest, biggest and strongest female becomes the alpha female.

Dominance is usually established without blood-shed since most members are related, unless new unrelated males join the pack. When new females or males then the hierarchy is based off of submission rather than violence. Submission and nonaggression are emphasized heavily; even over food, lower ranking members will beg from higher ranked members instead of fight. Wild Dogs rather not injure each other because if an adult if inured there is the rick they may die and the pack lose a hunter and babysitter. Raising litters together and hunting together raises the pack successful in survival.

Life Cycle
Wild Dogs can breed at any time of the year but most litters are born from March to June, which is the second half of the Rainy Season. The typical gestation period is approximately 70 days. Females usually give birth around the same time to maximize chances of survival. Larger packs cane rear up to 20 pups from different females, all suckled by the alpha female. Most pack usually have 8 to 10 pups. Pups usually are weaned by 10 week by which they move on to solid food. The pups stay in and around the den till the age of three months all the time they are watched over by adult babysitters. At three months the pups are old enough to go out with the pack while hunting but do not take part in the hunt till a year of age. At 8 to 11 months, the juveniles are big enough to kill small prey but are still depend on the adults for most of their food. At 12 to 14 months, they are considered fully grown and can start taking part in the hunt.

At 12 months Wild Dog become mature enough to breed and produce litters of their own however most subordinate females do not reproduce till their second year. Male start to rove at a year of age but usually don't start till a year and a half, if there is no unrelated females within the pack. However males usually do not leave their birth pack which is unsual for mammals. The only time males leave their pack is if they come across unrelated females who dispered from their own pack and form a new one. Or if roving males come across a pack with no adult males and simply stay at that pack. Female stay in the pack for 14 to 30 months before leaving to start their own packs. Most often if is the females who leave the pack to form new ones while males stay within their birth pack.

Role Play
For the sake of role play we'll make it easy and allow surbodinate females to have litters and rear their own young with the alpha female. Unrelated males can join a pack or females if the pack losses all it's adult females. For now the eldest female and male will become the dominant pair. To keep too many pups from being born within a pack, there shall be a limit of four pups per litters. Females can give birth to a signal pups, two pups or three pups if they wish. There should be at least one or two babysitters at a time depending on the size of the packs. Pups will emerged at two weeks of age, will be weaned and start going out on hunts with the adults at a month of age.

Role Play is located in Hwange National Park Zimbabwes at the Painted Dog Conservation (PDC). There are four playable packs and two none playable packs.

Just place your wild dog's name before the ID code and This played by  your user named  after so other users know which dogs you play as.

ID Codes

Every ID Code starts with the letter Z which stands for Zimbabwe. The nest letter stand for the pack the Wild Dog was born in, each pack starts with a different letter example V for Vikings. The next letter stands for the gender of the animal, M for Male and F for Female. Lastly the ID Code ends with three digit numbers which is simply the allocated consecutively. Each animal gets their own name, no names are the same for any living animal.

Example ZVM002:

This animal was born or First Seen in Zimbabwe. This animal was born or First Seen in the Vikings Pack. This animal is a male and was the second animal to be identifies in the Vikings.