Way of the Dhole

Chapter 4: Diet and Hunting

(Photo Credit goes to OATH, Inc) Nilgai 

(Photo Credit goes to Ian Peden) Rusa Deer 

(Photo Credit goes to Ganesh Gorai) Nilgiri Tahr 

(Photo Credit goes to the Sabah Forest Department) Banteng 

While dholes mostly hunt ungulates, they'll also prey on smaller animals such as langur monkeys, hares, and rodents. In central India, dholes eat langurs more often than anywhere else in India. A study in Southeast Asia found small bears in the diet of dholes, but they made up less than 1% of their diet, and outside of that area, bears aren't on the menu.

(Picture Credit goes to Stephen D. Nash) Gray Langur Monkey 

So dholes take a bit of a variety of prey animals, but how do they hunt and kill their prey? 

Dholes hunt in one of three methods. 

One method is for some dholes to flush prey towards other dholes that are waiting. 

Another method they use is to move in an extended line and attack an animal, alone and immediately without flushing out prey animals when they find a target. Dholes are also good swimmers and will drive prey into the water to get an advantage over them. 

(Photo Credit goes to Jayanth Sharma) 

Regardless of the method chosen, dholes rarely chase their prey for over 500 meters, their teamwork and speed let them kill an animal in short distances. The reason for this isn't because they can't run very long, they can. It's simply more difficult to chase something over long distances in a forest than in open spaces. Human runners can relate to this, any marathoner will tell you it's easier to run marathons on an open road than in the woods. 

Dholes don't have the powerful killing bite of big cats, therefore, they cannot kill animals by asphyxiation as tigers can. Instead, dholes bite off chunks of flesh from the tail, ears, underbelly, flanks, and other vulnerable body parts and the animal will become weaker from shock and blood loss and the dhole will have an easier time bringing it down, and when attacking stags, dholes have a habit of biting onto their noses to avoid the antlers. When it comes to smaller prey, they deliver a bite to the neck and shake it. 

(Photo Credits go to Dede Aulia Rahman, Mochamad Syamsudin, Asep Yayus Firdaus, Herry Trisna Afriandi, and Anggodo)

To many people, this may seem horrible, but this is the only way dholes can kill large prey animals, and killing other animals is how they make a living. By hunting and killing large herbivores, they help keep the natural balance in the ecosystems. Another thing we must remember is that hunting for a living isn't easy for predators because many of them fail more than they succeed and prey animals have ways to defend themselves such as hooves, horns, antlers, and social structures.