What is the maximal age a African wild dog reaches?
An adult African wild dog (Lycaon pictus) usually gets as old as 11 years.
African wild dogs are around 71 days in the womb of their mother. When born, they weight 298 grams (0.66 lbs) and measure 1.2 meter (4′ 0″). As a member of the Canidae family (genus: Lycaon), their offspring is 8 babies per pregnancy. Fully grown, they reach a bodylength of 92.4 cm (3′ 1″).
As a reference: Usually, humans get as old as 100 years, with the average being around 75 years. After being carried in the belly of their mother for 280 days (40 weeks), they grow to an average size of 1.65m (5′ 5″) and weight in at 62 kg (137 lbs), which is obviously highly individual.
The African wild dog (Lycaon pictus) is a canine native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is the largest indigenous 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 a lack of dewclaws. It is estimated that about 6,600 adults including 1,400 mature individuals live in 39 subpopulations that are all threatened by habitat fragmentation, human persecution and outbreaks of diseases. As the largest subpopulation probably consists of less than 250 individuals, the African wild dog is listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List since 1990.The African wild dog is a highly social animal, living in packs with separate dominance hierarchies for males and females. Uniquely among social carnivores, the females rather than the males disperse from the natal pack once sexually mature. The young are allowed to feed first on carcasses. The species is a specialised diurnal hunter of antelopes, which it catches by chasing them to exhaustion. Like other canids, the African wild dog regurgitates food for its young, but this action is also extended to adults, to the point of being central to their social life. Its natural enemies are lions and hyenas: the former will kill the canids where possible whilst hyenas are frequent kleptoparasites.Although not as prominent in African folklore or culture as other African carnivores, it has been respected in several hunter-gatherer societies, particularly those of the predynastic Egyptians and the San people.
Animals of the same family as a African wild dog
Not really brothers and sisters, but from the same biological family (Canidae):
- Coyote becoming 21.83 years old
- Corsac fox with 5 babies per pregnancy
- Pale fox becoming 10 years old
- Red fox becoming 15 years old
- Falkland Islands wolf getting as big as 96 cm (3′ 2″)
- Arctic fox becoming 15 years old
- Short-eared dog becoming 11 years old
- Hoary fox with 3 babies per pregnancy
- Sechuran fox growing to a mass of 4.23 kgs (9.33 lbs)
- Black-backed jackal becoming 14 years old
Animals that reach the same age as African wild dog
With an average age of 11 years, African wild dog are in good companionship of the following animals:
- Geoffroy’s tailless bat usually reaching 10 years
- Squirrel glider usually reaching 12 years
- Desmarest’s hutia usually reaching 11.33 years
- Common spotted cuscus usually reaching 11 years
- Eastern bettong usually reaching 11.75 years
- Gray brocket usually reaching 12 years
- Philippine porcupine usually reaching 9.5 years
- Long-tailed chinchilla usually reaching 11.25 years
- Thylacine usually reaching 13 years
- Side-striped jackal usually reaching 11.42 years
Animals with the same number of babies African wild dog
The same number of babies at once (8) are born by:
- Yellow-footed antechinus
- Golden hamster
- Cinnamon antechinus
- Narrow-headed vole
- Virginia opossum
- Taiga vole
- Southern long-nosed armadillo
- Dusky antechinus
- Brown rat
- San Joaquin antelope squirrel
Weighting as much as African wild dog
A fully grown African wild dog reaches around 22 kg (48.5 lbs). So do these animals:
- Peters’s duiker weighting 18.94 kilos (41.76 lbs) on average
- Arabian tahr weighting 22.06 kilos (48.63 lbs) on average
- Black duiker weighting 19 kilos (41.89 lbs) on average
- Western grey kangaroo weighting 25.58 kilos (56.39 lbs) on average
- Bornean yellow muntjac weighting 18.87 kilos (41.6 lbs) on average
- Eurasian lynx weighting 19.3 kilos (42.55 lbs) on average
- Giant otter weighting 26 kilos (57.32 lbs) on average
- African clawless otter weighting 19.16 kilos (42.24 lbs) on average
- Maned wolf weighting 23.31 kilos (51.39 lbs) on average
- Eurasian beaver weighting 19 kilos (41.89 lbs) on average
Animals as big as a African wild dog
Those animals grow as big as a African wild dog:
- Bornean orangutan with 89 cm (3′ 0″)
- Japanese macaque with 82.7 cm (2′ 9″)
- Thomson’s gazelle with 88.5 cm (2′ 11″)
- Malabar large-spotted civet with 84.5 cm (2′ 10″)
- Alpine musk deer with 90 cm (3′ 0″)
- Mandrill with 75.8 cm (2′ 6″)
- Clouded leopard with 83.8 cm (2′ 9″)
- Northern hairy-nosed wombat with 1 meter (3′ 4″)
- Common wombat with 98.6 cm (3′ 3″)
- Dorcas gazelle with 96.6 cm (3′ 3″)