NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



fact in many parts, stock farming is rendered quite 

 unprofitable owing to the depredations of these 

 dogs. Statistics show that in Southern Rhodesia 

 109 wild dogs were killed in the year 191 1. 



The number of puppies at a birth on the average 

 is the same as with domestic dogs. Often, however, 

 as many as ten or twelve in a litter have been found. 

 They are born and reared in a burrow dug in the 

 ground out on the open veld. These are con- 

 nected with each other by subterranean passages. 

 Frequently the deserted holes of the Aard Varks are 

 utilised and altered to suit the requirements of the 

 animal. Like the Cape Jackals, the adult wild dogs 

 do not take refuge in these burrows, but when 

 pursued at once make off to the nearest patch 

 of bush, finding sanctuary in the dense, thorny 

 thickets, which are impossible of penetration by 

 the pursuer. 



It is not often at the present time we find the 

 burrows out upon the open veld. They are exca- 

 vated within the precincts of the dense, thorny 

 scrub which abounds in South Africa. Animals 

 rapidly learn by experience. These dogs, for in- 

 stance, know full well that now the country is over- 

 run with a deadly foe in the shape of man, it would 

 be courting death for them to attempt to rear their 

 families out upon the open veld. Like the human 

 race when confronted for the first time with some 

 altogether new form of danger, the lower animals 

 are at a loss how to act, and numbers of them perish, 



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