Quick answer
African wild dogs hunt medium ungulates in cooperative daylight packs — impala, gazelle, warthog, wildebeest calves. They are not hyenas. The species is IUCN Endangered. Never feed them. Figures checked 13 August 2026.
What do they actually eat?
Medium antelope they can exhaust as a team. A Kruger density is not a fenced ranch. They are not a farms-and-suburbs species.
How do they hunt?
Daylight relay chases with very high success, then sharing at the carcass. Lions and hyenas steal when they can. Snares sit on the same lines.
What does that mean for the savanna?
They take a slice of medium ungulates and feed scavengers. Empty game cannot hold an Endangered pack.
Is livestock a wild-dog diet?
No. Goat kills happen where wild prey and corridors collapse. Never feed them. Habituation raises lethal control.
Does range still decide the menu?
Yes. Packs need huge home ranges. Fences turn a hunt into a road.
Does cooperation replace habitat?
No. WARN’s habitat-loss reporting funds partner work — not a painted-wolf camp.
Sources
African Wild Dog FAQs
What do African wild dogs eat?
Medium ungulates they can run down as a pack: impala, gazelle, wildebeest calves, warthog. They are not hyenas and not wolves. Livestock kills are a conflict map, not a preferred menu. Never feed them. IUCN: Endangered.
Do they eat people?
Attacks on people are vanishingly rare. They hunt antelope, not as a polar-bear-style default on humans. Do not approach a den or a collared pack. A viral clip is not the Kruger average.
How does diet link to conservation?
Empty ungulate guilds and fenced ranches cannot hold an Endangered pack. Snares on the hunt line kill dogs that never reach the kill. World Animal Rescue Network funds habitat partners — not a painted-wolf camp.
Do they hunt like lions?
No. They relay-chase in daylight with very high success rates, then share. Lions ambush and steal. Mixing the methods mixes the species.
Who this page is for.This page is about wild diet. Skip it if you need a captive feeding plan from a veterinarian.