African wild dog: Where It Lives, Map & Facts

Where the African wild dog lives – recorded in 8 countries, with quick facts from Wikidata and an introduction from Wikipedia.

Scientific name	Lycaon pictus
Group	Foxes, jackals & wild dogs
Status	Endangered (Wikidata, IUCN category label)
Found in	8 countries
Continents	Africa
Class	Mammal
Order	Carnivora
Family	Canidae

Where does the African wild dog live?

Open-licence (CC0 / CC BY) wild records published on GBIF place the African wild dog in 8 countries and territories across Africa.

Countries with at least a handful of records (a minimum share of the species’ records, to leave out vagrants and escapes). Records with coordinates only; captive and fossil records excluded.

Is the African wild dog endangered?

The African wild dog’s conservation status recorded in Wikidata is “Endangered” (an IUCN Red List category label). Source: Wikidata.

What kind of animal is the African wild dog?

The African wild dog (Lycaon pictus) is a mammal in the order Carnivora and the family Canidae, genus Lycaon. (Taxonomy from Wikidata.)

About the African wild dog

The African wild dog (Lycaon pictus), also called painted dog and Cape hunting dog, is a wild canine native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is the largest wild canine in Africa and the only extant member of the genus Lycaon, which is distinguished from Canis by dentition highly specialised for a hypercarnivorous diet and by a lack of dewclaws.

An estimated 6,600 adults (including 1,400 mature individuals) live in 39 subpopulations, all threatened by habitat fragmentation, human persecution, and outbreaks of disease. As the largest subpopulation probably consists of fewer than 250 individuals, the African wild dog has been listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List since 1990.

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Text in “About” is quoted from the Wikipedia article African wild dog (revision 1381227128), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: lead section excerpted verbatim, formatting removed. Quick facts, taxonomy and status: Wikidata Q173651 (CC0). Countries and pin: GBIF.org occurrence records (CC0 / CC BY 4.0).