Lycaon Pictus - Social Structure

Social Structure

Packs are separated into male and female hierarchies. It was previously thought that if one of the alphas were to die the pack would split up, but this was disproven (although on a small scale) by Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, in which 6 dogs who had previously been held in captivity (only 5 made it to the island, 1 died of anesthesia) lost their 2 alphas, to what was presumed to be crocodiles, but the pack of 3 stuck together and a new alpha male and female were made. In the female group, the oldest will have alpha status over the others, so a mother will retain her alpha status over her daughters and sisters. Among males, the father and most dominant brother of the others will be dominant. Without a father or brother, one of the others may become the new dominant breeder. African wild dogs defer to youth, at kills, letting them eat first; this may lead to the youngest male taking over an alpha vacancy without bloodshed. When two such loner separate-gender groups meet, they may form a pack together if unrelated. Dominance is established without bloodshed, as most dogs within a group tend to be related to one another in some way. When this is not the case, they form a hierarchy based on submission rather than dominance. Submission and nonaggression are emphasized heavily; even over food, they will beg energetically instead of fight. This behavior may be due to their manner of raising large litters of dependent pups in which the loss of a single individual due to injury would mean that the hunting pack might not be able to provide for all the pack's members.

Unrelated wild dogs sometimes join in packs, but this is usually temporary. Instead, unrelated wild dogs will occasionally attempt hostile takeovers of packs.