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We saw the African Painted Dogs in the excellent Singapore zoo. There was a pack of five or six in an open enclosure. There are more in Bronx zoo and in a few others in North America and Europe. Zoos are the easiest place to find them as there are only a few thousand left in Africa and extinction threatens.
As it was mid-day, warm and humid and they were waiting for lunch, the dogs were not active. So I cannot confirm the claim that they run at an astonishing 40mph (66kph). What I can vouch for is that their short patchwork coats of black, white, fawn and russet blocks provide excellent camouflage under the harsh equator sun and partial foliage cover. They seemed placid enough and accepted human scrutiny with equanimity, even boredom.
A little taller than a Podengo Medio, they have similar long bodies and long legs and a sturdier body. Their snouts are long and pointed. These had enormous ears, shaped like saucers, though some from other regions do have more pointed tips. Their thick, bushy tails, are more like a horse`s than a dog`s, dangle and withdraw between the rear legs, when unhappy. I read that their teeth are also different, designed to slash flesh rapidly to consume their kill before a lion or hyena arrives. And they have lost their original dew claws.
Experts dispute their origins, but suggest that they were among the first dogs to diverge from the original wolf ancestor of domestic dogs, wild dogs and jackals. A nearly complete skeleton of a similar dog millions of years old has been found recently in South Africa.
So their similarity (apart from coloration and at a distance only) to podengos probably stems from a Darwinian adaption to the requirements of hunting. Living in Africa, they hunt far bigger animals than the rabbit or squirrel, favorite of podengo medios. They are better hunters than lions, with a score of 90% kills, compared to no more than 30% for a lion. I would like to have seen them run; but their walk was the elegant unhurried pacing of a podengo medio or a whippet - what I call the Cruft`s walk.
The Dhole (or Indian wild dog), which can be seen in San Diego and Minnesota zoos, diverged from the common wolf ancestor just a little later. It now inhabits wooded and savannah uplands in places like Kashmir and the Himalayan foothills. This looks much closer to the podengo, with its long pointy ears and short fawn coat. It also has a long,thick tail, which is not carried erect.
The Dhole (or perhaps a Podengo ancestor) carried by Indian sailors to Australia over 2000 years ago, became the Dingo. At around the same time Roman and Phoenician sailors took a Middle Eastern dog through the Mediterranean to Spain and Portugal. where it became the Podengo and Podenco. Some time later, Portuguese sailors left dogs in New Guinea. These have now retreated into the mountains to escape from the human head-hunters in the plains and are called the New Guinea singing dog. This can also be seen in San Diego zoo.
Of all these perhaps only distantly related dogs, the only ones ever to have been fully domesticated are the podengos. But when miners started to leave unfinished food around their camps in the empty Northern Territory of Australia, dingoes came to eat the scraps. You can see from photos at the time, that these dogs were ripe for domestication, too.
As it was mid-day, warm and humid and they were waiting for lunch, the dogs were not active. So I cannot confirm the claim that they run at an astonishing 40mph (66kph). What I can vouch for is that their short patchwork coats of black, white, fawn and russet blocks provide excellent camouflage under the harsh equator sun and partial foliage cover. They seemed placid enough and accepted human scrutiny with equanimity, even boredom.
A little taller than a Podengo Medio, they have similar long bodies and long legs and a sturdier body. Their snouts are long and pointed. These had enormous ears, shaped like saucers, though some from other regions do have more pointed tips. Their thick, bushy tails, are more like a horse`s than a dog`s, dangle and withdraw between the rear legs, when unhappy. I read that their teeth are also different, designed to slash flesh rapidly to consume their kill before a lion or hyena arrives. And they have lost their original dew claws.
Experts dispute their origins, but suggest that they were among the first dogs to diverge from the original wolf ancestor of domestic dogs, wild dogs and jackals. A nearly complete skeleton of a similar dog millions of years old has been found recently in South Africa.
So their similarity (apart from coloration and at a distance only) to podengos probably stems from a Darwinian adaption to the requirements of hunting. Living in Africa, they hunt far bigger animals than the rabbit or squirrel, favorite of podengo medios. They are better hunters than lions, with a score of 90% kills, compared to no more than 30% for a lion. I would like to have seen them run; but their walk was the elegant unhurried pacing of a podengo medio or a whippet - what I call the Cruft`s walk.
The Dhole (or Indian wild dog), which can be seen in San Diego and Minnesota zoos, diverged from the common wolf ancestor just a little later. It now inhabits wooded and savannah uplands in places like Kashmir and the Himalayan foothills. This looks much closer to the podengo, with its long pointy ears and short fawn coat. It also has a long,thick tail, which is not carried erect.
The Dhole (or perhaps a Podengo ancestor) carried by Indian sailors to Australia over 2000 years ago, became the Dingo. At around the same time Roman and Phoenician sailors took a Middle Eastern dog through the Mediterranean to Spain and Portugal. where it became the Podengo and Podenco. Some time later, Portuguese sailors left dogs in New Guinea. These have now retreated into the mountains to escape from the human head-hunters in the plains and are called the New Guinea singing dog. This can also be seen in San Diego zoo.
Of all these perhaps only distantly related dogs, the only ones ever to have been fully domesticated are the podengos. But when miners started to leave unfinished food around their camps in the empty Northern Territory of Australia, dingoes came to eat the scraps. You can see from photos at the time, that these dogs were ripe for domestication, too.
