Painted Hunting Dog Skull Replica measures 7.4 inches. Painted Hunting Dog Skull is museum quality polyurethane cast. 2-part skull (separate cranium and jaw). Made in USA. Known as African Hunting Dog.
The African hunting dog or Lycaon pictus is a canid native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is the largest indigenous canid in Africa, and the only extant member of the genus Lycaon.
These dogs have many names such as the African Wild Dog, Cape Hunting Dog, Painted Lycaon Dog, Painted Hunting Dog and Painted Wolf.
It is distinguished from Canis by dentition highly specialized for a hyper carnivorous diet, and a lack of dewclaws. It was classified as endangered by the IUCN in 2016.
The Painted Hunting Dog is a highly social animal, living in packs with separate dominance hierarchies for males and females. The skull is relatively shorter and broader than those of other canids.
The young are allowed to feed first on carcasses. Painted Hunting Dogs are a specialized diurnal hunter of antelopes, which it catches by chasing them to exhaustion.
Like other canids, the African hunting dog or Lycaon pictus regurgitates food for its young, but this action is also extended to adults, to the point of being central to their social life.
The Painted Hunting Dog possesses the most specialized adaptations among the canids for coat color, diet, and for pursuing its prey through its cursorial running ability.
It possesses a graceful skeleton, and the loss of the first digit on its forefeet increases its stride and speed. This adaptation allows it to pursue prey across open plains for long distances.
The teeth are generally carnassial shaped, and its premolars are the largest relative to body size of any living carnivoran except for the spotted hyena.
The African hunting dog or Lycaon exhibits one of the most varied coat colors among the mammals. Individuals differ in patterns and colors, indicating a diversity of the underlying genes.
The purpose of these coat patterns may be an adaptation for communication, concealment, or temperature regulation.
The Painted Hunting Dog has 78 chromosomes, the same number as those of species in the genus Canis.
In 2018 whole genome sequencing was used to compare the dhole (Cuon alpinus) with the African wild dog. There was strong evidence of ancient genetic admixture between the two species.
Today their ranges are remote from each other; however during the Pleistocene era the dhole could be found as far west as Europe. The study proposes that the dhole’s distribution may have once included the Middle East, from where it may have admixed with the African wild dog in North Africa.