Anastasia is a great mother to her pups.
Move over, “Brangelina”–there’s a hot new couple in Southern California! And to top it all off, they are an endangered species.
The San Diego Zoo Safari Park is lucky enough to be home to a pack of Chinese wild dholes, also known as the Asiatic wild dog (see Dholes: Why the Whistles?). The mother, Anastasia, was born here at the Park seven years ago. The father, Lucius, is a transplant (as many of us are in Southern California!) who was born at another zoo and came to us two-and-a-half years ago. He is almost five years old. We paired this very handsome couple in April of 2009, and in January of 2010, we welcomed four new pups into the pack! For first-time parents, they were both excellent with the little dholes! Their annual breeding season is in November and December, and about 65 days later, cute little bundles of joy are born! This year, we are thrilled to announce that they have added to their family with the birth of four more puppies, born in February 2011. Our pack has now expanded to ten dogs!
The one-year-olds are mischievous and rambunctious and affectionately called “hoodlums” and “hooligans” by the keepers. Now we have four more to contend with! We couldn’t be happier about it, though. As stated earlier, dholes are an endangered species, and keeping a healthy, thriving captive population is very important.
Due to the shy nature of these wild canids, they are housed in an off-exhibit area at this time, so we will keep you updated through blog posts as to their progress!
Kelly Casavant is a senior keeper at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. Read her previous post, Pombe’s Big Adventure.
Can we get a little puppy cam on those cute little fellers? We can’t watch them in person but at least we can watch them play around on the cam
Moderator’s note: That would be fun, wouldn’t it?
Thanks Kelly for the update. You forget about some animals if you can’t see them. Is China working to save the Dholes also? Were they being used as a food source and that is why they are now endangered?
Moderator’s note: Dholes are currently endangered due to loss of habitat. Read more about them in our Animal Bytes section.
Thanks Moderator for the forward. With them are on the endangered list the second litter is so important.
How cute is that little puppy!!! Maybe we can get a video to see them in action?
What is the proper way to pronounce dhole? I’ve been reading up on them, but mostly they just offer the scientific name.
I too think it would be so amazing to get a cam in there! Dholes are so interesting! These ‘dogs’ are supposedly more closely related to today’s domesticated canids than wolves correct?
Moderator’s note: It’s pronounced “dole.” According to our Animal Bytes fact sheet, “the dhole is an unusual dog for a number of reasons. It doesn’t fit neatly into any of the dog subfamilies (wolves and foxes, for instance). Dholes have only two molars on each side of their lower jaw, instead of three, and have a relatively shorter jaw than their doggie counterparts. Also, females have more teats than other canid species and can produce up to 12 pups per litter.”
Interesting! I hope that everyone has a great weekend!
Kelly, could they install a camera so that we could see the Asiatic Wild Dog pups and parents? with a feed at the park by the nursery?
Moderator’s note: That would be fun to watch, but our budget for webcams is limited to what we currently have. Maybe some day…
Baby Dholes are the CUTEST THINGS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks Kelly for posting this (and for being generally awesome)!
The old maps at the WAP indicated a “future Dhole exhibit”, but those plans appear to have been scrapped. Why, and is there any intention of exhibiting the dholes in the future?
Yes, for now, the “future” dhole exhibit has been tabled due to money. The idea is still to get them on exhibit at some point.
What beautiful animals. Hope to see more of them and the puppies.
lu
Dholes are also found in many national parks in India. They look much browner than the one at the Safari Park. As mentioned they are endangered due to habitat lose. They are pack hunters and are extremely successful at hunting i.e. high percentage of their hunts ends in catching prey. They can run 30 mph for a long time and hence can wear out the prey. As in the link walkthewilderness (dot) net/search/label/Dhole
the ones found in India are brown all body except black bushy tail.
The blog written by Thomas has a wealth of info on Indian Wildlife especially the Bengal Tiger walkthewilderness (dot) net
Will they ever be out for the public to see them? They are interesting cute animals.
Kelly responds: For now, a dhole exhibit has been tabled due to money. The idea is still to get them on exhibit at some point.