Casualty of HN title mangling again. Original title: Africa’s Wild Dogs Are the Most Hated Carnivores on the Continent. Here’s Why Some Conservationists Are Saving Them Anyway
WalterGR · 2026-08-28 15:53:50 UTC
It’s not mangling. The article’s subtitle doesn’t fit within the character limit.
lightedman · 2026-08-28 16:45:19 UTC
We're in the era of 4k and 8k monitors. That character limit only occupies a tiny fraction of any modern screen.
So odd a site dedicated to future technology companies isn't even caught up with modern display techniques, let alone ones that existed some 2 decades ago.
lolpython · 2026-08-28 16:56:28 UTC
To be fair, on mobile the title lengths staying reasonable really helps HN homepage readability.
kakacik · 2026-08-28 17:17:48 UTC
Also even though new such hardware is cheap for our western standards, its a mistake to think this is valid for entire world for various reasons
micromacrofoot · 2026-08-28 17:40:41 UTC
the site is intentionally anachronistic precisely because the people here understand technology
upupupandaway · 2026-08-28 16:39:52 UTC
I wish we could get rid of the "Here's why" and similar clickbait fragments in titles.
everyday7732 · 2026-08-28 16:16:54 UTC
They look so similar to hyenas. Maybe they fit the same evolutionary niche.
There are several technical and nontechnical definitions of "successful" making it a pretty meaningless statement
nozzlegear · 2026-08-28 16:18:26 UTC
There's a group of these dogs at the zoo in Sioux Falls, SD. Like all dogs, I think my wife and I were predispositioned to like them. It didn't help that they all started howling when a police car drove by with its sirens on, which was cute.
seunosewa · 2026-08-28 19:00:29 UTC
They are cute but nasty. They eat their prey alive in the most painful way.
chasd00 · 2026-08-28 20:31:21 UTC
i don't have a source but there's something about their mouth or teeth that make it very hard for them to suffocate prey the way a lion or hyena would. They kill their prey through shock and blood loss from disembowelment which means basically eating it alive like you said.
bryanlarsen · 2026-08-28 16:29:14 UTC
For those who didn't know, to save you the search I just performed: the African Wild Dog is not literally a wild dog. It's not even a Canid, it's a separate genus (Lycaon) from dogs, wolves & coyotes.
Scarblac · 2026-08-28 16:52:53 UTC
That genus is part of the Canidae family though. Dogs and wolves are in the Canis genus in the Canidae group.
Jackals and foxes are also each their own genus, and there are a number more genuses.
jjtheblunt · 2026-08-28 19:19:32 UTC
i think the wolves/dogs/coyotes and african wild dogs all have 78 chromosomes, but it's unclear if the african painted dogs have been diverged so long as to have incompatible chromosome gene layouts despite matching chromosome counts.
i tried looking for any examples of hybrids but did not find any. they'd be pretty ridiculously cute though for sure.
supposedly hybrids of african painted dogs and domestic dogs happens, albeit rarely, in South Africa
It is amazing the failure rate and how people working in these endeavours keep on working and do not step in to intervene deeper. The statistics are what matters even if whole days are wasted because some leopard or lion ate the work done. These are not cute animal lovers, they are the real deal. Much luck!
therealdrag0 · 2026-08-28 19:39:57 UTC
Ya I’m so impressed by people who just go and work on problems like this and get their hands dirty.
UI_at_80x24 · 2026-08-28 18:26:05 UTC
This information may have been supplanted but newer studies, but one study determined that African Wild Dogs were the most successful pack hunters on the planet with a ~92% success rate. (success being defined as 'eating' after a hunt.
Edit: Opening line from the article - Wild dogs are the most successful hunters in Africa, with a kill rate of 80 percent.
Comments
So odd a site dedicated to future technology companies isn't even caught up with modern display techniques, let alone ones that existed some 2 decades ago.
While the article claims that wild dogs are the most successful predator in Africa, I found a national geographic article which claims the same for hyenas: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/hyenas-my...
Jackals and foxes are also each their own genus, and there are a number more genuses.
i tried looking for any examples of hybrids but did not find any. they'd be pretty ridiculously cute though for sure.
supposedly hybrids of african painted dogs and domestic dogs happens, albeit rarely, in South Africa
https://mykingsgate.co.za/info/african-wild-dog-hybrid-12023...
Edit: Opening line from the article - Wild dogs are the most successful hunters in Africa, with a kill rate of 80 percent.
And my favorite story about these animals is that they vote! https://www.science.org/content/article/wild-dogs-vote-initi...