The dhole, a fast, cunning, intelligent predator of the Asian jungles. One that is on the brink of extinction, yet not many people know of their existence.
Are these animals the ruthless beasts as portrayed by Rudyard Kipling? Or are they an animal...
During the Pleistocene Era, dholes lived in Asia, Europe, and even in North America from Alaska all the way down to Mexico. Now they only live in Asia.
Historically, they lived as far north as the Altai Mountains and maybe even southern Siberia. From there, their range extended as far south as Southeast Asia and the islands of Sumatra and Java in Indonesia.
However, due to the destruction of their habitat and hunting by people, their numbers sharply decreased to the point where they've disappeared from most of their historic range. Today, dholes are found mostly in southern Asia in the countries of India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, China, Tibet, and in the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra. Of all the countries they inhabit, India has the largest dhole population.
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(Photo Credit goes to Arjun Srivathsa)
The dhole is a bit odd because most land predators that live and hunt in groups are found in more open spaces like grasslands. Think of lions and hyenas in Africa and wolves in Yellowstone for example. While dholes can be found in steppes and mountains, most dholes are found in forest habitats, from the open dry forests of central India to the dense montane rainforests of Thailand. And they don't tend to do well if the habitat is degraded in any way, making them pretty habitat-sensitive. But wherever they live, they prefer as far away from people as possible. Research in India has found that dholes prefer living in protected areas and farther away from humans.
