Somali wild dog
| Somali wild dog | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Taxidermy exhibit on display in the Natural History Museum of Genoa, Italy | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Family: | Canidae |
| Genus: | Lycaon |
| Species: | L. pictus |
| Subspecies: | L. p. somalicus |
| Trinomial name | |
| Lycaon pictus somalicus Thomas, 1904 | |
The Somali wild dog (Lycaon pictus somalicus) is a subspecies of African wild dog native to the Horn of Africa. It is similar to the East African wild dog, but is smaller, has shorter and coarser fur, and has a weaker dentition. Its colour closely approaches that of the Cape form, with the yellow parts being buff rather than bright orange as is the case in the East African subspecies.[1]
It is legally protected in Ethiopia, though it is absent in all protected areas, being present only in small numbers in the southern part of the country. The animal may still occur in northern Somalia, but the ongoing Somali Civil War has made its prospects for survival poor. It is probably extinct in Eritrea.[2]
According to Enno Littmann, the people of Ethiopia's Tigray Region believed that injuring a wild dog with a spear would result in the animal dipping its tail in its wounds and flicking the blood at its assailant, causing instant death. For this reason, Tigrean shepherds would repel wild dog attacks with pebbles rather than with edged weapons.[3]
References
- ↑ Bryden, H. A. (1936), Wild Life in South Africa, George G. Harrap & Company Ltd., pp. 19-20
- ↑ Fanshawe, J. H., Ginsberg, J. R., Sillero-Zubiri, C. & Woodroffe, R., eds. 1997. The Status & Distribution of Remaining Wild Dog Populations. In Rosie Woodroffe, Joshua Ginsberg & David MacDonald, eds., Status Survey and Conservation Plan: The African Wild Dog: 11-56. IUCN/SSC Canid Specialist Group.
- ↑ Littman, Enno (1910). "Publications of the Princeton Expedition to Abyssinia", vol. 2. Leyden : Late E. J. Brill. pp. 79-80