Wild Dog Diaries | |
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Directed by | Senani Hegde |
Written by | N Bhanutej |
Produced by | Krupakar Senani Features Limited for National Geographic Channel |
Narrated by | Christopher Hooke |
Edited by | Saravanakumar Ecotone |
Music by | Ravish K P |
Release date |
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Running time | 47 minutes |
Country | India |
Language | English |
Wild Dog Diaries is a wildlife film portraying the behaviour of wild dogs ( Cuon alpinus ). [1] The film was directed by the photographer duo of Krupakar-Senani and mainly filmed in the Bandipur National Park and the Mudumalai National Park of India.
The film centres around a pack of dholes, canids native to Central and Southeast Asia. The dhole is a highly social animal, living in large clans without rigid dominance hierarchies. [2] Such clans usually consist of 12 individuals, but groups of over 40 are known. [3] It is a diurnal pack hunter which preferentially targets medium and large sized ungulates. [4] It is listed as Endangered by the IUCN, on account of its decreasing population, which is now estimated at less than 2,500 adults. Factors contributing to this decline include habitat loss, loss of prey, competition with other species, persecution, and disease transfer from domestic dogs. [5]
The film was produced for the National Geographic Channel and completed in the year 2006. [6] It was shot over a period of 12 years . [7] The shooting of the film was a difficult task because of the elusive nature of the dhole and the forest terrain. [6] While shooting for this film, Krupakar-Senani were kidnapped and held captive by the forest brigand, Veerappan. [7]
The film uncovers the life of Krupakar, a film maker who wants to make a film on dhole, but is abandoning the venture because of its elusive behaviour. He encounters a local tribesman, who gives insights on how to track the animal. [8] The pack hunts together and various instances where they co-ordinate to kill a prey is shown. The meat that the adult dogs eat is regurgitated and the bones separated which is offered to the smaller pups as their meal. [6] The film also shows how the adults protect the pups. Two female dogs which have strayed from another pack try to join this pack. The female leader of the pack, sensing that she might lose out on the male dogs in her pack, tries to prevent them from joining the pack. [6] But the newcomers manage to lure away some males from the pack and start their own.
The film won the Festival Grand Award 2007 in the Japanese Wildlife Film Festival held in Toyama, Japan where it beat 320 other entries to win it. It also won the Best Film award in the environment film festival, Vatavaran 2007 held in New Delhi. [9] The film won the best documentary film award in Asian television awards, Singapore 2007
Canidae is a biological family of dog-like carnivorans, colloquially referred to as dogs, and constitutes a clade. A member of this family is also called a canid. The family includes three subfamilies: the Caninae, the extinct Borophaginae and Hesperocyoninae. The Caninae are known as canines, and include domestic dogs, wolves, coyotes, foxes, jackals and other species.
The dhole is a canid native to Central, South, East and Southeast Asia. It is genetically close to species within the genus Canis, but distinct in several anatomical aspects: its skull is convex rather than concave in profile, it lacks a third lower molar and the upper molars possess only a single cusp as opposed to between two and four. During the Pleistocene, the dhole ranged throughout Asia, with its range also extending into Europe but became restricted to its historical range 12,000–18,000 years ago.
Foxes are small-to-medium-sized omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull; upright, triangular ears; a pointed, slightly upturned snout; and a long, bushy tail ("brush").
Jackals are canids native to Africa and Eurasia. While the word "jackal" has historically been used for many canines of the subtribe canina, in modern use it most commonly refers to three species: the closely related black-backed jackal and side-striped jackal of sub-Saharan Africa, and the golden jackal of south-central Europe and Asia. The African golden wolf was also formerly considered a jackal.
The wolf, also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of Canis lupus have been recognized, including the dog and dingo, though gray wolves, as popularly understood, only comprise naturally-occurring wild subspecies. The wolf is the largest extant member of the family Canidae, and is further distinguished from other Canis species by its less pointed ears and muzzle, as well as a shorter torso and a longer tail. The wolf is nonetheless related closely enough to smaller Canis species, such as the coyote and the golden jackal, to produce fertile hybrids with them. The wolf's fur is usually mottled white, brown, gray, and black, although subspecies in the arctic region may be nearly all white.
Canis is a genus of the Caninae which includes multiple extant species, such as wolves, dogs, coyotes, and golden jackals. Species of this genus are distinguished by their moderate to large size, their massive, well-developed skulls and dentition, long legs, and comparatively short ears and tails.
The bush dog is a canine found in Central and South America. In spite of its extensive range, it is very rare in most areas except in Suriname, Guyana and Peru; it was first described by Peter Wilhelm Lund from fossils in Brazilian caves and was believed to be extinct.
The Bengal fox, also known as the Indian fox, is a fox endemic to the Indian subcontinent from the Himalayan foothills and Terai of Nepal through southern India, and from southern and eastern Pakistan to eastern India and southeastern Bangladesh.
The Ethiopian wolf, also called the red jackal, the Simien jackal or Simien fox, is a canine native to the Ethiopian Highlands. In southeastern Ethiopia, it is also known as the horse jackal. It is similar to the coyote in size and build, and is distinguished by its long and narrow skull, and its red and white fur. Unlike most large canids, which are widespread, generalist feeders, the Ethiopian wolf is a highly specialised feeder of Afroalpine rodents with very specific habitat requirements. It is one of the world's rarest canids, and Africa's most endangered carnivore.
The golden jackal, also called common jackal, is a wolf-like canid that is native to Eurasia. The golden jackal's coat varies in color from a pale creamy yellow in summer to a dark tawny beige in winter. It is smaller and has shorter legs, a shorter tail, a more elongated torso, a less-prominent forehead, and a narrower and more pointed muzzle than the Arabian wolf. It is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List due to its widespread distribution and high density in areas with plenty of available food and optimum shelter.
Canid hybrids are the result of interbreeding between the species of the subfamily Caninae.
The dog is a domesticated canid species, Canis familiaris.
Indian dog may refer to:
Krupakar and Senani are wildlife photographers from Karnataka, India. They have produced the wildlife film Wild Dog Diaries for National Geographic Channel. For this documentary they won the following awards:
Xenocyon is an extinct group of canids, either considered a distinct genus or a subgenus of Canis. The group includes Canis (Xenocyon) africanus, Canis (Xenocyon) antonii and Canis (Xenocyon) falconeri that gave rise to Canis (Xenocyon) lycanoides. The hypercarnivorous Xenocyon is thought to be closely related and possibly ancestral to modern dhole and the African wild dog, as well as the insular Sardinian dhole.
The African wild dog, also known as the painted dog or Cape hunting dog, is a wild canine native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is the largest wild canine in Africa, and the only extant member of the genus Lycaon, which is distinguished from Canis by dentition highly specialised for a hypercarnivorous diet and by a lack of dewclaws.
The Tian Shan dhole, also known as the Siberian dhole, Western Asiatic dhole, or northern dhole is a subspecies of dhole native to the Altai and Tian Shan mountain ranges, and possibly Pamir and Kashmir.
The Ussuri dhole, also known as the Eastern Asiatic dhole and the Chinese dhole, is the nominate subspecies of the dhole wild dog native to Asia. The Ussuri dhole subspecies is originally native to China and sections of Manchuria, the Amur River, the Korean Peninsula and Mongolia; however, it is presumed regionally extinct or extirpated in most of its historical range in the country, and likely found in fragmented populations in the Russian Far East.
Mececyon trinilensis, the Trinil dog, is an extinct canid species that lived on the island of Java in Indonesia during the Pleistocene.