4 ms·

To a large extent the instincts were already there; we’ve just adapted and selected for various sub-patterns of the ancestral pack hunting behavior. Herding liv

To a large extent the instincts were already there; we’ve just adapted and selected for various sub-patterns of the ancestral pack hunting behavior. Herding livestock is very similar to chasing and driving prey to where you want it.

ChrisMarshallNY 5y ago
Dogs are very smart. The wild ones, even more so. Some of us may remember this episode of Sir David Attenborough's Planet Earth: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0036vfk https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0036vfk The dogs look like a trained commando squad. This gives you an idea why everyone on the savannah is scared of a Wild Dog pack.
- btilly 5y ago
  Per https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/mammals/hunting-success-rates-how-predators-compare/ https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/mammals/huntin... wild dogs have an astonishing 85% success rate in making a kill. However they lose nearly half their kills to other predators such as hyenas and lions. Even so their chase to meal ratio is still better than most predators.
- samatman 5y ago
  Worth pointing out (maybe?) that dogs-the-domesticated-animal are less closely related to the African wild dogs than they are to wolves and coyotes. All of which are pack hunters and smart ones to boot. It's just that your first paragraph gives the impression to me that "wild dogs" are the same creatures as domesticated ones, just wild, when that is more true of the wolf than it is of the African wild dog. For instance, the African wild dog and the domestic dog can't interbreed.
  - ChrisMarshallNY 5y ago
    Maybe. There was a particular dog breed that I saw all over the place, and it looked a lot like them. Big suckers. Nasty teethies… You didn’t want one of them biting you. In any case, I’m sure that wolf packs behave in quite a similar manner.
    - samatman 5y ago
      Wolf packs do indeed. There are of course dogs in Africa, and also the African wild dog: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_wild_dog https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_wild_dog Unless you were on safari, what you saw was most likely an African breed of Canis familiaris.
      - ChrisMarshallNY 5y ago
        Saw all of the above. I was born there. There is a common dog that looks a lot like the Rhodesian Ridgeback (although a lot scruffier). I really liked them.

ChrisMarshallNY 5y ago

Dogs are very smart. The wild ones, even more so. Some of us may remember this episode of Sir David Attenborough's Planet Earth: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0036vfk https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0036vfk The dogs look like a trained commando squad. This gives you an idea why everyone on the savannah is scared of a Wild Dog pack.

btilly 5y ago
Per https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/mammals/hunting-success-rates-how-predators-compare/ https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/mammals/huntin... wild dogs have an astonishing 85% success rate in making a kill. However they lose nearly half their kills to other predators such as hyenas and lions. Even so their chase to meal ratio is still better than most predators.
samatman 5y ago
Worth pointing out (maybe?) that dogs-the-domesticated-animal are less closely related to the African wild dogs than they are to wolves and coyotes. All of which are pack hunters and smart ones to boot. It's just that your first paragraph gives the impression to me that "wild dogs" are the same creatures as domesticated ones, just wild, when that is more true of the wolf than it is of the African wild dog. For instance, the African wild dog and the domestic dog can't interbreed.
- ChrisMarshallNY 5y ago
  Maybe. There was a particular dog breed that I saw all over the place, and it looked a lot like them. Big suckers. Nasty teethies… You didn’t want one of them biting you. In any case, I’m sure that wolf packs behave in quite a similar manner.
  - samatman 5y ago
    Wolf packs do indeed. There are of course dogs in Africa, and also the African wild dog: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_wild_dog https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_wild_dog Unless you were on safari, what you saw was most likely an African breed of Canis familiaris.
    - ChrisMarshallNY 5y ago
      Saw all of the above. I was born there. There is a common dog that looks a lot like the Rhodesian Ridgeback (although a lot scruffier). I really liked them.