Hunting Tactics of the African wild dog

The sun beats upon thorns protruding from the branches of spare few acacia trees. The dry morning air of the savanna fills with excited chirps and twitters. The high pitched chatter climaxes in a greeting ceremony. Nostrils flare and tails wag as the African Wild Dogs kiss one another; running shoulder to shoulder before pausing to leap over and dive under each other. A frenzy begins to overcome the entire pack until all the dogs are jumping and play fighting with each other, increasing their energy as they prepare to go on the morning hunt!

The African wild dogs are one of the most successful hunters in all of Africa, catching prey 70 to 90 percent of the time. For a contrast, lions are only marginally successful catching their prey around 30 to 40 percent of the time. The dogs' diet may consist of Thomson's gazelles, impalas, and puku antelope as well as smaller prey such as wildebeest calves, rats and birds.

The dogs' hunt in a relay form, taking turns running after the prey. In this way the lead dog may change several times as the gazelle makes cuts where the following dogs may than move diagonally to close the distance. In addition the dogs have high endurance and are capable of running up to 37 miles per hour for up to 3 miles.

During the hunt the pack communicates by making high-pitched vocalizations or squeaks. Various inflections have specific referents allowing the pack to coordinate their hunt more effectively. In addition they can also signal their pack mates by moving their very large ears to show what direction to go or what to do.

Prey is dispatched in a particularly ravenous way. The dogs' disembowel their prey and tear it apart while it remains alive. Note that this is a highly effective method of killing the prey as pack size has been documented upwards of 100 members. That many mouths, snapping and rending makes quick work of anything unfortunate enough to be weeded from the herd.

Reference: 

http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-wild_dog.html

http://www.predatorconservation.com/wild%20dog.htm

http://www.awf.org/content/wildlife/detail/africanwilddog