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The African wild dog

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Larger Carnivores of the African Savannas

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Abstract

The African wild dog Lycaon pictus was originally described by C.J. Temminck in 1820 from a specimen collected on the Mozambique coast. He called it a form of hyaena Hyaena picta, but it was soon recognised as one of the canids, and was first renamed Lycaon tricolor by Brookes in 1827. The name Lycaon is derived from the Greek word lykaios which means wolfish. It was then given the specific epithet pictus,which is derived from the original picta and which is the Latin word for spotted, as directed by the International Rules on Taxonomic Nomenclature. The African wild dog is today also sometimes called the Cape hunting dog, or the painted dog. The latter name refers to the wild dog’s varied coat colour with its blotched patches of white, black and yellow, which led to the use of the name tricolor by Brookes. Although all wild dogs have this patchy coat colour, those of the southern savannas have a bit more white in their coat than their northern counterparts.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Wildlife Management, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

    J. du P. Bothma

  2. Lapalala Wilderness, Vaalwater, South Africa

    Clive Walker

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  1. J. du P. Bothma
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© 1999 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Bothma, J.d.P., Walker, C. (1999). The African wild dog. In: Larger Carnivores of the African Savannas. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-03766-9_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-03766-9_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-662-03768-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-662-03766-9

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