One might have seen videos of a cheetah hunting a gazelle in the open savannas of Africa, or a tiger hunting deer in the forests of India. If you’re really lucky, you might have seen it happen while on a safari in the wild. These hunts are often dramatic, with the predator chasing the prey with all its might, and the latter making the leap of its life to escape and survive. It is sure to evoke strong emotions—a sense of awe towards the strength and resilience of the predator, or sympathy for the prey.
Many things in nature might seem cruel to us. A vicious predator killing innocent prey, young ones dying untimely deaths, protective mothers fighting tooth and nail to keep their young ones safe, a life spent in fear and hiding, and the unforgiving climate of the natural ecosystem.
Among nature’s most formidable predators is the Asiatic wild dog (Cuon alpinus). Known across south Asia as ‘dholes’, these highly social carnivores live in close-knit packs of 2-25 individuals. A pack of these red dogs can easily hunt down quarry that weigh up to 10 times their own size. Those who have seen dholes hunt in the wild often consider the dogs to be “cruel, vicious beings.” Because dholes lack the jaw-strength to deliver a definitive killing bite to incapacitate their prey, the only way the pack succeeds is by eating the prey alive—a gory sight, certainly not for the faint of heart. But a closer look at their hunting style reveals something a lot more remarkable, like a game of Kabaddi. In this game of life and death, dholes play ‘defenders’ and their meek prey—the sambar deer, or a wild pig, or on occasion, the massive gaur—plays the ‘raider’. In their own game of ‘tag’, the dholes ultimately win if and when they kill the raider.
Our team has been researching dholes of the Valparai plateau in India’s Western Ghats for over two years now. The plateau is a unique setting where several dhole packs cohabit vast tea plantations alongside people, domestic stock and small townships. Our study involves engaging with a wide network of local informants who co-monitor the dhole packs with us, tracking their movement and behavior across the landscape.
This summer, on one of our dhole-tracking ventures, we chanced upon a pack that had killed a gaur calf. When we arrived at the spot, the dholes had already killed and almost completely eaten the calf. Gaur calves are not easy to kill as they are fiercely guarded by their mothers. Such hunts can go on for hours, turning into an exhausting game of perseverance. We were surprised to see the mother gaur still lingering around the dead calf, trying desperately to protect what was left of the carcass whilst chasing the dholes away. She stayed back long after the pack had left having had their fill; she stood there sniffing and nudging the remains of her calf. She looked disoriented, drooling with exhaustion. We visited the carcass the next evening, and she was still around, seemingly mourning for her calf, bellowing in heart-wrenching cries.
In another incident that closely followed, we witnessed a pack of five dholes (four adults and a single pup) scavenging on a dead gaur. All the while, another adult gaur—how it was related to the dead one, we remain unaware—was trying to guard the carcass of its companion safe from the hungry dholes. One of the pack members tactically lured the gaur away from the carcass, and made way for the small pup. The little one climbed over the carcass and started nibbling into the entrails. The sight of the dhole that was trying to distract the gaur from the carcass took me back to the mother gaur that was defending her dead calf. Both the predator and the prey were giving their all to care for their young, with the same determination and grit. One mother’s loss is indeed another mother’s gain.
The monsoons arrived early this year, and our team is back from the field. As I sit back and reflect on all that nature has to offer—beauty and gore alike, I am able to slowly reconcile with the harsh realities of existence in the wild. And today, on May 28, we celebrate World Dhole Day; a day to perhaps appreciate all the complexities that encapsulate this much-maligned predator and our arduous efforts to save the endangered dogs of Asia, one pack at a time.
Thasmai H S is associated with The Dhole Project at the Wildlife Conservation Society–India. Her work pertains to carnivore ecology, particularly canid species. She also has interests in human-wildlife interactions and wildlife law enforcement
Views expressed are author's own and don't necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth