African wild dogs live in packs of about 7 to 15 dogs. A pack is a group of dogs that live together. Each pack is usually led by one breeding pair, a male and a female. Wild dogs talk to each other with many different sounds.

A pack hunts together, as a team. Wild dogs mainly eat antelope, such as gazelles and impalas. They hunt mostly in the early morning and around dusk. Dusk is the time just before dark.

An African wild dog is about 30 to 43 inches long. It weighs about 40 to 79 pounds. It has big, round ears. The big ears help it stay cool in hot weather. Every wild dog has its own coat pattern.

Wild dogs live in open grassland and savanna. They live about 10 to 12 years in the wild. As of November 2026, the IUCN lists African wild dogs as Endangered. The IUCN is a group that rates how safe each kind of animal is.

A mother wild dog has her pups in an underground den. It is often a burrow that an aardvark dug. A mother can have as few as 2 pups or as many as 20 in one litter. The whole pack helps feed the pups. The dogs bring meat back to the den.

Words to know

• pack: dog group
• litter: pups born together
• dusk: before dark
• burrow: hole home
• antelope: gazelles, impalas