Dholes - Facts for Kids

Dholes are clever hunters and often surround deer or boar together!

Dholes have been known to chase tigers away from kills, showing remarkable courage despite being much smaller.

Life Cycle

Female dholes give birth to an average of 4–6 pups, but litters can range from 1 to 10 pups.

Baby dholes are born with dark brown fur that gradually turns reddish as they mature.

Dhole puppies are born blind and helpless, opening their eyes after about 9–11 days.

All members of a dhole pack help care for puppies, bringing food to the nursing mother and later regurgitating food for the pups.

Dhole pups start trying real food around 3 weeks — with help from their family — but they nurse until about 6 to 8 weeks old, sometimes even a little longer!

Dhole pups start venturing outside their den at around 3 weeks of age but remain close to home until they’re about 10 weeks old.

Young dholes participate in their first hunt with the pack when they’re about 6 months old. At eight months, they’re already helping chase down deer.

Female dholes can have pups when they’re about 1½ years old, but in the wild, they usually wait until they’re around 2 to 3 years old before becoming moms!

Mother dholes carry their puppies for about two months — just like pet dogs — and then welcome them into the world after around 60 to 63 days!

In dhole packs, females may organize their breeding so that multiple litters are born around the same time.

Dhole pups vocalize with high-pitched squeaks and yips before they learn the characteristic whistle of adults.

Young male dholes often leave their birth pack when they’re about 1–2 years old to join other packs or form new ones.

Unlike wolf pups, dhole puppies may be moved between different den sites several times during their early development.

Diet & Feeding

Despite their small size, dholes can take down prey ten times their weight when hunting as a pack.

Dholes are hypercarnivores, which means their diet consists of more than 70% meat.

Unlike many predators, dholes start eating their prey while it’s still alive, beginning at the rear end.

The main prey of dholes includes deer, wild boar, and various species of antelope depending on their habitat.

Dholes have been observed hunting in relay fashion, with pack members taking turns chasing prey to tire it out.

Dholes don’t bury or save food for later — they eat their meal right away, then leave and move on!

When food is plentiful, dholes allow the puppies and nursing mothers to eat first, showing a different social structure than wolves.

Conservation & Population

There are fewer than 2,500 adult dholes left in the wild today, making them rarer than tigers.

Dhole numbers have dropped a lot over time — their populations fell 80% over the past few hundred years, and they’re still losing habitat and prey today.

Dholes are protected by law in most countries where they live, including India, China, and Russia.

Dholes are in trouble because people are cutting down their homes, hunters are taking their deer, sick dogs are passing deadly germs, and farmers sometimes chase or poison them if they eat livestock.

Dholes used to live across much of Asia, but now they’ve disappeared from around three-quarters of their old homes — only about 20–25% is still their home!

Some farmers in the countryside get scared of dholes and sometimes kill them — even though dholes almost never hurt people!

Conservation efforts for dholes include creating protected corridors between fragmented forest habitats.

Dholes need much bigger homes than tigers — about five times more space per family pack — so when forests are broken up, they get into trouble first. That makes them more vulnerable than tigers!

Some traditional communities in Asia revere dholes and consider seeing one to be good luck.

Today, around 300–350 dholes live in fewer than 40 zoos around the world! Since they need big packs and lots of different genetics to stay healthy, raising enough dhole families in zoos is hard work.

Scientists can’t easily spot these sneaky dogs in the forest, so they use “photo traps” — cameras that snap pictures when animals walk by.

To help dholes thrive, we don’t just protect the dogs — we protect their whole forest home! That means joining up forests, keeping deer healthy, and working with people too, so the whole ecosystem stays strong.

Extra Fun Facts

Dholes usually do raise their leg — and sometimes even stand on their front paws like a “handstand” — when they pee, just like many wild dogs!

The bite force of a dhole is stronger than that of a similar-sized domestic dog, which helps them crush bones easily.

Dholes are super-climbers! Unlike most wild dogs, they scamper up trees, jump between branches, and peek from treetops — like ninja canines!

Dholes have five toes on each front paw (with a little dewclaw like a thumb!) and four toes on each back paw, just like most wild dogs and wolves!

Dholes are featured in Rudyard Kipling’s “The Jungle Book” as the fierce “Red Dogs of the Deccan.”

During breeding season, a pair of dholes — a mom and a dad — team up until pups arrive, forming a special bond inside the big pack!

Dholes can recognize each other’s whistles — just like we recognize our friends’ voices!

Dhole packs have been observed splitting into smaller hunting groups during the day and reuniting at night.

Unlike wolves or domestic dogs, dholes don’t leave their territory to find new mates — instead, new members join existing packs.

Most wild dogs have five pairs of teats, but dhole moms have six or seven pairs — enough to feed big litters of pups!

In cold weather, dholes grow a thick, fuzzy winter coat—then when spring comes, they shed it for a leaner summer fur!

Dholes sometimes “sing” together in a chorus of whistles and chatters, especially before setting out on a hunt.