Could African wild dogs breed with Domestic Dogs? or Have they been Domesticated.

Hello.

Has anyone tried to breed African wild dogs with domestic dogs? IIRC they both have the same number of chromosone which could make it possible.

Also has anyone attempted to domesticate them?

Thanks in Advance!

From what I remember from a programme I watched, no one has managed to domesticate one, not sure of the crossbreeding, whether its been done successfully or not, but I think if it had been there would have been mention of it somewhere.

same number of chromosomes, I did not think matter as much as the pairing of them.

Are they a subspecies like the new guinea singing dog?

Having spent 35 years living in East Africa, I've never heard of an African Wild Dog being mated with a domestic dog, nor have I heard of any attempts to domesticate them. According to the Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre it's difficult for the AWD to mate in captivity.

The African Wild Dog, also known as the Cape Hunting Dog, Lycaon Pictus, is a canid native to Sub Saharan Africa and is distinguished by having only having 4 toes not 5 like the domesticated dog. Their main predator is man, farmers, and hunters who shoot or poison them. Also the AWD is susceptible to to diseases such as parvo, distemper and rabies spread by domestic animals. They are considered an endangered species.

Guinea Singing Dogs and AWD are not related. Singing Dogs belong to the Asian group of canids which include the dingo, Shar-Pei, Chow Chow and Akita.

http://messybeast.com/genetics/hybrid-canines.htm

Very interesting reading.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canid_hybrid

Actually a great read.

Think the Coywolf info is out of date, since there numbers have greatly increased in the last 15 years.

But I would have told someone they where full of it if they told me a Wolf bred with a Jackal and then offspring bred with a Huskey produced a Sulimov Dog.

Don't think it's ever happened. I'm sure it's possible not sure why you would want to do it they are endangered.

Given that the latin name of the african wild dog (as mentioned above) is Lycaon Pictus and the domestic dog is Canis Familiaris it is usually accepted that if the first of the beasts two latin names are the same then they can be interbred. Of course, in this instance this is not the case. I have never heard of any case of deliberate or accidental interbreeding of the two. The only visual evidence i have seen of AWDs being hand raised from orphans, showed them to be entirely unsuitable as a companion animal, for even with very experienced handlers they very quickly became both wild and aggresive as they grew up. In this particular case this was of no consequence (even prefered) as they were being raised for release into the wild. It did, however, show their complete unsuitability for any sort of taming - if that is what you might call it!

I think you are absolutely correct Gordon. Great post!