Artificial Pack VS Wild Pack

This week’s question was presented to our training consultant Kurdt Greenwood.

We have seen dogs form packs with any other animals that live in its residence. Curious what you have seen in the wild versus what we have experienced in the artificial environment.

Kurdts response…

In captivity if you raise a baby lion with a hyena they can form a bond, but in the wild they are very competitive and fight over food and territory. So extremely unlikely that they would accept each other in the wild.

I have seen African wild dogs adopt Jackals into the pack and a breeding pair of Jackals raise a wild dog. They are both part of the true dog family so far more likely to get along. In captivity if you raise most species of pack animals together, they get along and form little packs with you as the human being pack leader.

I think in the wild things are too competitive, the parents teach their young to fear and respect other predators and competitors, so it makes it very unlikely for natural competitors to be absorbed into another species pack.

During the rainy season there will be more of a natural truce between species but not common at all for animals from different packs to work together, life in the wild is just too competitive.

When looking at smaller organisms’ symbiotic relationships are far more common, fungi being the masters of working with other animals and plants.

It is a very interesting question, I have raised a meerkat, dog and lion together and they formed a successful little pack, even dogs, cats and parrots can be in the same pack if you raise them together in captivity, so the environment that the animals are raised in makes all the difference and if you the parent and teach them to respect each other it seems you can from a pack of just about any animal as long as it’s in a controlled environment with the right teacher.

So, in conclusion it seems that that because the wilderness is so unpredictable, unforgiving and tough, and that pack animals have so many mouths to feed it’s extremely unlikely for a pack of completely different species to take on an outsider. But in a controlled environment with lots of food and the right human teacher you can form a pack of completely different species of animals.

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