New Hope For Extremely Rare Wild Dog Spotted Once Again

An especially rare species of wild dog, thought to be extinct in the area, was spotted in a wildlife park in Bengal, giving new hope for conservations concerned about the dwindling species. Called the Asiatic Wild Dog or dhole, four or five of the species were spotted in Jaldapara National Park.

Rajendra Jhakhar, director of the park's wildlife division, told The Epoch Times that forest guards spotted the animals:

The dogs were sighted crossing a road in the area three months back, but our forest guards couldn't manage to capture an image then. It seems the same pack has settled in the area. And we hope they are breeding too.

Listed as an endangered species by the IUCN's Red List, there are fewer than 2,500 Asiatic wild dogs remaining in the wild, thanks to rampant habitat loss, hunting, loss of prey and possible disease transfer from feral and domestic dogs.

The species, which is also fondly called the Red Whistling Dog of the Deccan, appeared in Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book stories, because the author once famously encountered a pack of the fierce dogs in his travels.

Dholes are also genetically very unique, Bhaskar Acharya, conservation biologist with the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) told LiveMint.

"The term wild dog is a misnomer as dholes are genetically distinct from dogs; also they do not fit into any of the subfamilies like foxes or wolves and are classified in a genus of its own-Cuon," he said.

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