African wild dog

Lycaon pictus (Temminck, 1820)

The African wild dog (Lycaon pictus), also called painted dog, painted wolf, hunting dog, African wolf or thoa, is a medium-sized mammal in the family Canidae and the order Carnivora. It is a terrestrial, diurnal carnivore, with an adult body mass of 22 kg and a highest reported value of 24.25 kg.

Photo: Michael Gäbler · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Quick facts about the African wild dog

Gestation lasts 72 days, ranging from 60 to 80 days, and there is 1 litter per year with 7.5 young per litter. The IUCN Red List classifies the African wild dog as Endangered (EN), a threatened category, in its global assessment.

Weight: 22.1 kg – 24.3 kgsrc for Weight
Length: Not recorded
Lifespan: 15.1 yearssrc for Lifespan
Diet: Carnivoresrc for Diet
Longest recorded lifespan: 17 years
Main food: Not recorded
Habitat: Not recorded
Gestation: 60 days – 80 dayssrc for Gestation
Young per litter or clutch: 7.5src for Young per litter or clutch
Age at maturity: 21 months – 23.1 monthssrc for Age at maturity
Litters or clutches a year: 1src for Litters or clutches a year
Active: By day (diurnal)src for Active
Lifestyle: Terrestrialsrc for Lifestyle
Conservation status: Endangered (IUCN)src for Conservation status
Countries on record: Not recorded

Photos of the African wild dog

Only freely licensed photos are shown. Each carries its creator and licence.

African wild dog (Lycaon pictus) — Charles J. Sharp · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Where does the African wild dog live?

Not recorded

What is the African wild dog?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

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.
The African wild dog is a specialized hunter of terrestrial ungulates, mostly hunting at dawn and dusk, but it also displays diurnal activity. It captures its prey by using stamina and cooperative hunting to exhaust them. Its natural competitors are lions and spotted hyenas; the former kill the dogs where possible, whilst the latter are frequent kleptoparasites. Like other canids, the African wild dog regurgitates food for its young, but also extends this action to adults as a central part of the pack's social unit. The young have the privilege of feeding first on carcasses.
The African wild dog has been revered in several hunter-gatherer societies, particularly those of the San people and prehistoric Egypt.

From the Wikipedia article “African wild dog” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=African_wild_dog&oldid=1384655862), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.

What does the African wild dog sound like?

Elsa Sandoval, Stichting Painted Dog Conservation · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Is the African wild dog endangered?

The African wild dog is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List: it faces a very high risk of extinction in the wild.

LCLeast Concern
NTNear Threatened
VUVulnerable
ENEndangered
CRCritically Endangered
EWExtinct in the Wild
EXExtinct

Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Endangered species. What the categories mean.

How is the African wild dog classified?

kingdomAnimalia
phylumChordata
classMammalia
orderCarnivora
familyCanidae
genusLycaon
SpeciesLycaon pictus (Temminck, 1820)

Synonyms Hyaena picta, Lycaon pictus lupinus, Lycaon pictus manguensis, Lycaon pictus pictus, Lycaon pictus sharicus, Lycaon pictus somalicus

Other names and names in other languages (93)

African hunting dogEnglish
African hunting dogEnglish
African painted dogEnglish
African painted wolfEnglish
African painted wolfEnglish
African wolfEnglish
Cape hunting dogEnglish
Cape hunting dogEnglish
Hunting dogEnglish
Hunting dogEnglish
Painted dogEnglish
Painted hunting dogEnglish
Painted hunting dogEnglish
Painted LycaonEnglish
Painted wolfEnglish
ThoaEnglish
Wild hunting dogEnglish
WildehondAfrikaans
ذئب ملونArabic
كلب ملونArabic
ذئب ملون إفريقيArabic
كلب الصيد الإفريقيArabic
كلب الصيد الملونArabic
كلب بري إفريقيArabic
كلب ملون إفريقيArabic
imbwaBemba
umumbuluBemba
umweleBemba
Хиеново кучеBulgarian
pes hyenovýCzech
Pes hyenovitýCzech
HyænehundDanish
Afrikansk vildhundDanish
HyänenhundGerman
Afrikanischer Bemalter WolfGerman
Afrikanischer WildhundGerman
Bemalter WolfGerman
Αφρικανικό αγριόσκυλοGreek
LicaonSpanish
licaónSpanish
Perro SalvajeSpanish
HüäänrebaneEstonian
HyeenakoiraFinnish
savannikoiraFinnish
LycaonFrench
Chien sauvage africainFrench
CynhyeneFrench
Le CynhyeneFrench
Loup-peintFrench
זאב טלואHebrew
okahaneHerero
ohakanneHerero
afrikai vadkutyaHungarian
LicaoneItalian
Cane selvatico africanoItalian
リカオンJapanese
აფთრისებრი ძაღლიGeorgian
Қорқау итKazakh
DibekuKimbundu
Imbuá yanchitoKimbundu
아프리카들개Korean
impupiLamba
Afrikos hieninis šuoLithuanian
kunwidiLunda
urutLuo
Gwok LumLuo
HyenehundNorwegian Bokmål
Afrikansk VillhundNorwegian Bokmål
Afrikaanse Wilde HondDutch
chibazanmq
mpeniNyanja
Likaon pstryPolish
MabecoPortuguese
Cão-selvagem africanoPortuguese
Cão-selvagem-africanoPortuguese
Гиеновая собакаRussian
Гиеновидная собакаRussian
kafurosbs
mumiShona
Дивљи пасSerbian
kisuSwahili
suntweTongan
Afrika Yaban KöpeğiTurkish
LeteaneTswana
lekanyaneTswana
leTharelwaTswana
leTlhalerwaTswana
Собака гієноподібнийUkrainian
tareloVenda
tarelwaVenda
IsitshetsheXhosa
chipulaYao
非洲野犬Chinese

Catalogue of Life Wikipedia iNaturalist Wikidata IUCN Red List

Relatives of the African wild dog

Other species in the same family Canidae.

Wolf

Canis lupus

Canidae

Red fox

Vulpes vulpes

Canidae

Coyote

Canis latrans

Canidae

Golden jackal

Canis aureus

Canidae

Dhole

Cuon alpinus

Canidae

Fennec fox

Vulpes zerda

Canidae

CompareAfrican wild dog vs Wolf African wild dog vs Red fox African wild dog vs Coyote African wild dog vs Golden jackal

Common questions

Each answer is written from the sourced facts on this page, and only where they hold the answer.

What kind of animal is the African wild dog?

The African wild dog is a mammal in the family Canidae, order Carnivora and suborder Caniformia.

How heavy is an African wild dog?

An adult African wild dog weighs 22 kg, with a highest reported value of 24.25 kg, placing it in the medium size class.

What does the African wild dog eat?

The African wild dog is a carnivore.

Is the African wild dog endangered?

Yes. The IUCN Red List classifies it as Endangered (EN), a threatened category, in its global assessment.

How long does an African wild dog live?

The African wild dog has a lifespan of 15 years, with a highest reported value of 17 years.

How many young does an African wild dog have?

An African wild dog has 7.5 young per litter and 1 litter per year, after a gestation of 72 days.

When does an African wild dog reach sexual maturity?

It reaches sexual maturity at 1.8 years, with reported values from 1.7 to 1.9 years.

Who named the African wild dog?

The scientific name Lycaon pictus is credited to Temminck, 1820, written as (Temminck, 1820).

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.

An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1
Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf
Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence).
EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1
Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service).
Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). African wild dog (Lycaon pictus). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/african-wild-dog

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BibTeX

@misc{african_wild_dog_2026,
  title = {African wild dog (Lycaon pictus)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/african-wild-dog},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}