World Dhole Day!
When you think of India’s wildlife life you often think of tigers, leopards, elephants, maybe even the greater one-horn rhino; but rarely does a dog come to mind. Imagine a species that’s more endangered than tigers, or leopards, or even Asian elephants it's on par with the greater one-horn rhino in numbers. No, it doesn’t just live in one small corner of the forest or a single island; most of southern Asia use to be its home range. There is such a dog and its name is the Dhole. Never heard of it? Not surprised considering the literature on this elusive canine is minimal at best. For an animal with such a large range and is a habitat generalist (in other words it can survive in lots of different habitats), it's surprising to see their numbers dropping. The other surprise, no one seems to know about them. I won’t say no one cares, it's just outside their home range very few people know what a dhole is. In captivity, there are less than 50 zoos that house dholes in the world.
So what is a dhole? A dhole is a medium-sized canine, about 50lbs or so. They work in family groups of around 5 to 8 adults to hunt. Now I don’t want to call them packs like you would a wolf or African Painted Dog, but rather a family group. You see something cool about the dhole is they will allow other dhole groups in their territory and on occasion the two groups will even hunt together. During these meetings, some younger dholes might even form their own group and head off on their own. The group will all help raise a litter of pups, even though quite often it's only one female that gives birth. There does appear to be leaders of the group and a pecking order like with wolves but not as strict, it's more fluid with dholes. Their main prey is deer of all sizes (hog deer up to sambar), banteng, Gaur, and wild boar. They will go for smaller animals as well but these make up a bulk of their diet.
Conservation wise tigers have been the main reason why dholes most likely have not gone extinct in much of their home range. Land set aside for tiger conservation has helped protect dhole habitat as well. However, these areas are fragmented and are getting crowded as leopard and tiger numbers rebound. Tiger and leopards often eat the same food as dholes but they hunt at different times and utilize different food resources at different times of the year. These conservation lands are often fragmented and make it hard for dholes to travel from different parks.
When you think of India’s wildlife life you often think of tigers, leopards, elephants, maybe even the greater one-horn rhino; but rarely does a dog come to mind. Imagine a species that’s more endangered than tigers, or leopards, or even Asian elephants it's on par with the greater one-horn rhino in numbers. No, it doesn’t just live in one small corner of the forest or a single island; most of southern Asia use to be its home range. There is such a dog and its name is the Dhole. Never heard of it? Not surprised considering the literature on this elusive canine is minimal at best. For an animal with such a large range and is a habitat generalist (in other words it can survive in lots of different habitats), it's surprising to see their numbers dropping. The other surprise, no one seems to know about them. I won’t say no one cares, it's just outside their home range very few people know what a dhole is. In captivity, there are less than 50 zoos that house dholes in the world.
So what is a dhole? A dhole is a medium-sized canine, about 50lbs or so. They work in family groups of around 5 to 8 adults to hunt. Now I don’t want to call them packs like you would a wolf or African Painted Dog, but rather a family group. You see something cool about the dhole is they will allow other dhole groups in their territory and on occasion the two groups will even hunt together. During these meetings, some younger dholes might even form their own group and head off on their own. The group will all help raise a litter of pups, even though quite often it's only one female that gives birth. There does appear to be leaders of the group and a pecking order like with wolves but not as strict, it's more fluid with dholes. Their main prey is deer of all sizes (hog deer up to sambar), banteng, Gaur, and wild boar. They will go for smaller animals as well but these make up a bulk of their diet.
Conservation wise tigers have been the main reason why dholes most likely have not gone extinct in much of their home range. Land set aside for tiger conservation has helped protect dhole habitat as well. However, these areas are fragmented and are getting crowded as leopard and tiger numbers rebound. Tiger and leopards often eat the same food as dholes but they hunt at different times and utilize different food resources at different times of the year. These conservation lands are often fragmented and make it hard for dholes to travel from different parks.
Dholes are very misunderstood, often thought of as a pest or vermin (their name even means reckless to give you an idea of what people first thought of them). What the dhole really needs is more support. To get people to care about these amazing creatures. Their family dynamic, their intelligence, they even have a language all their own (they whine, whoop and whistle). Also, I don’t know too many 50lbs dogs that would stare down a leopard or tiger and win.
There is hope. The Dhole is listed as CITES II, which means the trade of them internationally is essentially banned. In much of their home range, they are protected, although due to a lack of understanding from locals they are still often poisoned or killed. Even China recently listed it as a protected species!
There is still much work to be done. More research is needed to see if dholes still live in some of the remoter regions of their home range. There hasn’t been a real population estimate since 2015 so hard to tell what the population is doing, all we know is it's decreasing, but at what rate. Disease from feral digs is impacting some dhole population and their prey. The biggest one though is just the general lack of knowledge of the species, we need to know more about them to know how to better protect them.
That need, that lack of global awareness of the species is what spurred us to come up with World Dhole Day. We need a day that is dedicated to just get people to learn about them. No plea for funding, no cry for action but just getting people to stop a second and learn about one of those amazingly unique creatures we share this amazing planet with.
There is hope. The Dhole is listed as CITES II, which means the trade of them internationally is essentially banned. In much of their home range, they are protected, although due to a lack of understanding from locals they are still often poisoned or killed. Even China recently listed it as a protected species!
There is still much work to be done. More research is needed to see if dholes still live in some of the remoter regions of their home range. There hasn’t been a real population estimate since 2015 so hard to tell what the population is doing, all we know is it's decreasing, but at what rate. Disease from feral digs is impacting some dhole population and their prey. The biggest one though is just the general lack of knowledge of the species, we need to know more about them to know how to better protect them.
That need, that lack of global awareness of the species is what spurred us to come up with World Dhole Day. We need a day that is dedicated to just get people to learn about them. No plea for funding, no cry for action but just getting people to stop a second and learn about one of those amazingly unique creatures we share this amazing planet with.
World Dhole Day 2025
If you are interested in having your own World Dhole Day event feel free to reach out to us and we would love to help you in anyway possible. Feel free to reach out to [email protected]
Visit our WDD Activities Page for ideas to have your own World Dhole Day!
Visit our WDD Activities Page for ideas to have your own World Dhole Day!
Past World Dhole Days |
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Minnesota Zoo
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Zoo Miami
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The Wilds
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San Diego with JAB Canid Center
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