African Wild Dogs are native to Africa, south of the Sahara, historically absent only from the dense rainforests of the Congo Basin. Wild dogs occupy a range of habitats including short-grass plains (Kuhme 1965), semi-desert (Fraser-Celin et al. 2017), bushy savannas (Creel and Creel 2002, Woodroffe 2011b), woodland (Alting et al. 2021), and even upland forest (Malcolm and Sillero-Zubiri 2001). When searching for new territories, young wild dogs range very widely (e.g., Davies-Mostert et al. 2012), including through unsuitable habitat (O'Neill et al. 2020); this behaviour means that occasional records from unusual habitats (such as the top of Mount Kilimanjaro (Thesiger 1970), and deep in the Sahara Desert (Monod 1928)) are unlikely to indicate the presence of resident packs.

Although wild dogs’ long-range dispersal behaviour is particularly extreme, resident wild dog packs also occupy much larger home ranges (Gittleman and Harvey 1982), and live at much lower population densities (Carbone and Gittleman 2002), than would be expected on the basis of their energy demands. These patterns are thought to reflect the impact of competition with larger carnivores such as lions (Panthera leo) and spotted hyaenas (Crocuta crocuta), which kill wild dogs and steal their kills (Fanshawe and FitzGibbon 1993, Creel and Creel 1996, Mills and Gorman 1997, Swanson et al. 2014, Groom et al. 2016).

Wild dogs’ low population density and wide-ranging behaviour helps to explain why they tend to have persisted only in extremely large areas of habitat (Woodroffe and Ginsberg 1998). Today, wild dog distribution is limited primarily by human activities, which have fragmented and degraded wildlife-friendly habitat, rather than by the loss of a specific habitat type.

African wild dogs mostly hunt medium-sized antelope, relying on speed, endurance, and strength of numbers rather than stealth. Across much of eastern and southern Africa their primary prey are impala (Aepyceros melampus), with greater kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros), Thomson's gazelle (Eudorcas thomsonii), Wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus) also important prey species (Fanshawe and FitzGibbon 1993, Pole et al. 2004, Dröge et al. 2017, Creel et al. 2018). Small antelope, such as dik-diks (Madoqua spp.) and Steenbok (Raphicerus campestris) are important in some areas, as are Warthogs (Phacochoerus spp.). Wild dogs also take very small prey such as hares and lizards (Woodroffe et al. 2007c), but these make a very small contribution to their diet.

African wild dogs are highly social, cooperating to hunt (Creel and Creel 1995, Hubel et al. 2016), defend themselves and their kills (Fanshawe and FitzGibbon 1993), and to breed (Malcolm and Marten 1982). Typically, only one female and one male produce pups in each pack (Malcolm and Marten 1982, Girman et al. 1997b, McNutt and Silk 2008), but all pack members may contribute to raising the pups. As females have very seldom been observed to raise pups to adulthood without assistance from other pack members (but see Woodroffe et al. 2009), packs, rather than individuals, are often used as the units of measuring wild dog population size. Larger packs consistently raise larger litters (Creel et al. 2004, Rasmussen et al. 2008, Gusset and Macdonald 2010, Woodroffe et al. 2017).

Dispersal behaviour is central to wild dog population dynamics. Because inbreeding avoidance is strong (Girman et al.1997b) yet joining a pack (rather than being born into it) is very rare (e.g., Woodroffe, O’Neill and Rabaiotti 2019), most young wild dogs cannot find a mate in their natal pack and instead disperse to find unrelated mates elsewhere and to form new packs (e.g., McNutt 1996, Woodroffe et al. 2020). For the same reason, when an alpha animal dies, the surviving alpha may find no unrelated mate remaining in the pack. Under such circumstances, packs tend to fragment (e.g., Woodroffe et al. 2020). Thus, packs have a finite lifetime which very seldom exceeds that of their founders, and the formation of new packs is essential to population persistence (Woodroffe et al. 2019).

African Wild Dogs historically were distributed across Africa, south of the Sahara. However, as people degraded and destroyed natural habitat, wild dogs were extirpated across most of their historical range. Today, wild dogs are known to persist in just 8% of their historical range, with approximately two-thirds of this land lying outside IUCN Category I-IV protected areas (IUCN/SSC 2016, IUCN/SSC in review, IUCN/SSC in prep). The global wild population is estimated to number below 700 packs globally.

African Wild Dog status varies across different regions of Africa. Their numbers are most robust in Southern Africa, where approximately 17% of the species’ historical range still supports breeding packs, comprising roughly two-thirds of the global population (IUCN/SSC 2016). The single largest subpopulation inhabits the Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA) Transfrontier Conservation Area, spanning northern Botswana, eastern Namibia, south-eastern Angola, south-western Zambia, and western Zimbabwe: KAZA alone supports nearly a third of the world’s African wild dogs (IUCN/SSC 2016). In eastern Africa, approximately 10% of historical range is still occupied by breeding packs, supporting nearly a third of the global population, the biggest subpopulation is in the Selous/Nyerere complex of southern Tanzania, which is thought to connect to Southern Africa via a corridor to northern Mozambique (IUCN/SSC in review). In Central Africa, wild dogs remain in just 5% of their historical range, with the largest subpopulation in and around Chinko National Park in the Central African Republic (IUCN/SSC in review). In West Africa the situation is even more serious, with a single remaining subpopulation in Sénégal’s Niokolo Koba National Park, covering just 0.2% of the region’s historical range and representing less than 0.5% of the global population (IUCN/SSC in prep-b). Most of North Africa falls outside wild dogs’ historical range, and the species is believed to be extinct in this region (IUCN/SSC in review).

Conservation action for African wild dogs is guided by regional strategies for southern Africa (IUCN/SSC 2016), eastern Africa (IUCN/SSC in prep), and North, West, and Central Africa (IUCN/SSC in review). These regional strategies each cover 10 years, and each has been updated at least once (IUCN/SSC 2008, IUCN/SSC 2010, IUCN/SSC 2012). Many range states have chosen to use their corresponding regional strategy as a template for developing National Action Plans (e.g., Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute 2016).

Given the central threat from habitat loss, habitat conservation is the most important action needed to prevent wild dog extinction. Wild dogs require habitat conservation at scales seldom considered for other species, making them an excellent flagship for very large protected areas (e.g., South Africa’s Kruger National Park), protected area complexes (e.g., Tanzania’s Selous Game Reserve/Nyerere National Park), and Trans-Frontier Conservation Areas (e.g., KAZA). These three areas together support over half of the world’s wild dogs, and maintaining their integrity is the top priority for wild dog conservation. Wild dogs can also persist at scale outside protected areas, where land use is conducive, for example the pastoralist areas of northern and eastern Kenya support important populations almost entirely on community land, while combining private ranches in Zimbabwe into multi-owner conservancies fostered impressive recoveries, and persistence, of wild dogs on private land. Education, at all levels of society, is important to explain, justify, and promote the prioritisation of wildlife conservation at such scales.

Although wild dog conservation is compatible with some hunting offtake of other species (e.g., in well-managed hunting reserves), indiscriminate hunting with snares has devastating impacts on wild dogs, which are highly susceptible to accidental capture. Control of snaring is a vital element of wild dog conservation (Becker et al. 2013), while removal of snares from the environment, antipoaching, and support for alternative livelihoods may all reduce snaring impacts on wildlife, removal of snares from injured animals may also play an important role in preventing population decline (Banda et al. 2023). Where snaring is a major concern, close monitoring of packs fitted with tracking collars can help with detecting and removing snares.

Where wild dogs share the landscape with people, livestock farming is likely to be the primary human land use, creating opportunities for livestock predation and hence human-wildlife conflict. Approaches to mitigating human-wildlife conflict include conserving wild prey, as well as encouraging forms of livestock husbandry which deter predation (e.g., Rasmussen 1996, Woodroffe et al. 2005, Woodroffe et al. 2007b).

Infectious disease is a biologically complex and hence challenging threat to wild dogs. Across much of Africa, rabies persists in domestic dog populations, and mass vaccination of domestic dogs is an effective way to protect local people and domestic animals, as well as wild carnivores, from a devastating disease (Cleaveland et al. 2003, Cleaveland et al. 2006, Prager et al. 2013, Hayes et al. 2022). However, wildlife likely play a key role in the persistence of canine distemper virus (Craft et al. 2008, Prager et al. 2012, Prager et al. 2013, Viana et al. 2015), meaning that domestic dog vaccination is unlikely to be as effective for distemper as it should be for rabies. Vaccination of wild dogs themselves has been shown to be both safe and effective against both pathogens (Reuben et al. in prep, Woodroffe et al. in prep, Gold et al. in review), the Canid Specialist group is current preparing guidelines to support wild dog managers in deciding which intervention is most important under which circumstances. As for snaring, monitoring using tracking collars is a vital tool for detecting and responding to disease outbreaks.

Reducing the impact of road mortality on wild dogs is best achieved by avoiding routing major roads in and near wild dog habitat. Where such roads are already in place, measures such as signage and speed bumps may help to reduce impacts. Elsewhere in the world, over- and under-passes are used to reduce road mortality for both people and wildlife, such approaches are not yet widely practised in Africa, but could be valuable where road improvement or construction in or near wild dog habitat is unavoidable.

As climate change is a global phenomenon, only global action to reduce carbon emissions can entirely avoid or reverse its negative consequences for African wild dogs. However, analyses suggest that weather impacts on adult wild dogs operate, at least in part, by increasing their susceptibility to existing causes of mortality such as disease and human wildlife conflict (Rabaiotti et al. 2021). Hence, climate impacts might be mitigated, to some extent by addressing other threats to wild dog populations.

As is apparent from the narrative above, wild dog conservation action is often species-specific, hence it can only be implemented where wild dogs are known to occur. Important wild dog populations remained undetected in Angola and CAR until recent years, and it is possible that some other populations are yet to be confirmed. Surveys are much-needed, especially in areas identified in conservation strategies as “possible range” (IUCN/SSC 2016, IUCN/SSC in prep, IUCN/SSC in review). Likewise, monitoring of key populations is crucial to targeting conservation interventions, assessing their efficacy, and identifying new threats.

Participants in strategic planning have identified few areas of “recoverable range”, where natural recolonisation or reintroduction could be considered (IUCN/SSC 2016, IUCN/SSC in prep, IUCN/SSC in review). While conserving existing populations should be prioritised over attempting to restore lost ones, reintroduction may have an important role to play in certain areas. Methods for reintroduction have been developed and honed in South Africa, in the course of establishing and maintaining a "managed metapopulation" of very small subpopulations across an array of small, fenced reserves, none of which would be viable on its own but which, under intensive management, has proven very successful when viewed as a single unit (Davies-Mostert et al. 2015). The methods developed in managing the metapopulation have been applied to reintroductions outside South Africa, most notably the successful restoration of wild dogs to Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park (Bouley et al. 2021), which numbered 11 packs at the most recent estimate. Thus far, reintroductions have been restricted to southern Africa, translocations further afield should be guided by (ongoing; Ramage et al. in prep) studies of wild dog sub-specific taxonomy and evolutionarily significant units (Hoelzel 2023), as has been agreed recently for lions (Becker et al. 2022, Bertola et al. 2022).

While it is now well-established that wild dog translocations should rely on wild-reared animals which have the survival skills needed for life in the wild, captive populations also have an important role to play in wild dog conservation. Developing guidelines for managing disease would have been far more difficult had it not been possible to evaluate vaccines and vaccination protocols in captivity before trialling them in the wild (e.g., Connolly et al. 2013, Connolly et al. 2015, Wahldén et al. 2018). Likewise, accelerometry collars used to better understand the impacts of prey loss and climate change were evaluated first in captivity (English et al. 2023). Zoos play a vital role in educating and inspiring people worldwide to care about wild dogs, and provide a vital stream of funding to support conservation action in the field.