The dhole is also known as the Asiatic wild dog, red dog, and whistling dog. It is about the size of a German shepherd but looks more like a long-legged fox. This highly elusive and skilled jumper is classified with wolves, coyotes, jackals, and foxes in the taxonomic family Canidae. Find out more!

Found in eastern and southern Asia, from Siberia in the north to the Malay Peninsula in the south, dholes occupy a wide variety of climates and habitats, including dense forests, scrub, steppes, and alpine regions.

The dholes use these sounds when hunting together. Such communication helps them take down prey many times their own body weight. They then swallow the meat in large chunks and actually carry it back to pack members that way! Like other dogs, dholes use their keen sense of smell to track prey. They have even been seen chasing their prey into water to help slow it down.

They eat deer, wild pigs, buffalo, and wild goats. In Southeast Asia, dholes feed on deer, gaur, and banteng, and in Siberia, they eat deer, wild sheep, and reindeer. Dholes also eat berries, bugs, lizards, and rabbits and can hunt well on their own if needed.

Sometimes dhole packs get together to form super packs of up to 30 or more animals. They hunt together, share their prey, and then separate again into the original smaller groups. Inter-pack aggression is rare, perhaps because neighboring packs tend to be related to one another. Dhole packs live in burrows with multiple entrances.