Blog #241--Another Beautiful Example of Survival Adaptability

Dogs, both domesticated and wild, are social pack animals that thrive in groups but often struggle alone. So what happens when an African wild dog suddenly finds itself alone in a land filled with top predators? Most of the time, solitary dogs die from starvation or are killed by predators bent on securing their own territories. But there are exceptions.

I watch animal documentaries on television frequently since I love all life forms. Wildlife photographers have developed techniques for following specific families and individual animals for lengthy periods. In doing so, they show us how life is more complex than we might suspect. We can make generalizations about how all members of a species behave normally, but variations of survival instincts show themselves under times of duress. These photographers are doing great work in helping us learn about survival instincts and how various individual animals cope with changes in their lives.

I recently watched a program on NatGeoWild television about a female wild African dog. A combination of circumstances forced her into a solitary life, and she used a wide range of survival techniques to thrive despite her predicament. Unlike most females of her species, this dog was confident and had a strong will to live despite the lack of a supportive family. The confidence undoubtedly came from the options available to her by using both sides of her brain equally.

Wild dogs hunt in groups. They can run 30 miles an hour for three miles, and they wear down much larger prey. Once they have it surrounded, they start biting all parts of the prey repeatedly until they have subdued it. This particular wild dog had no other family members to aid hunting, but it found ways of killing sufficient prey to remain strong and healthy.

The dog’s natural sociability, combined with a strong need, allowed her to form alliances, first with a family of jackals and then with a hyena. The jackals are scavengers rather than hunters, so the dog helped bring food for the family. It also regurgitated food for the jackal pups to eat. The jackals gave her friendship, and she helped them survive.

One day she came across a lone hyena. Hyenas are aggressive and highly predatory; their reputation as scavengers is somewhat misplaced. If the dog had encountered a family of hyenas, it would have been at a potentially fatal disadvantage. But perhaps in desperation, the dog defied any fear within her to approach the hyena cautiously. There was a meeting and accepting process for both animals. In hyena families, if one hyena brings in a friend, the others accept it, at least as long as the status quo is maintained.

The wild dog began going on hunting trips with the hyenas, bringing some of the food back for the jackals. This was a temporary alliance, but it allowed her to survive. Her adaptability and courage were proof of a personal balance between her male and female sides. She could be dominant and direct when needed, but she could be submissive and indirect when it suited her purposes.

One day she sensed a group of wild dogs approaching her area. She left the jackals behind in hope of finding a mate since she was in heat and ready to reproduce. However, that proved unproductive since the new group was too large and would not have accepted her into their family hierarchy. Desperate to pass along her genes, at one point she tried to seduce a male hyena. He declined the invitation, much to her chagrin.

Giving up hope of a mate temporarily but needing to use her motherly instinct, she tricked a different mated pair of jackals to leave their protected den, allowing her to take over possession of their three young pups. She couldn’t nurse them, but she dutifully regurgitated meat from recent kills to keep them fed for a couple days before the jackals tricked her into letting down her guard so they could reclaim their pups. Finding a compromise solution, the jackals allowed the dog to join the family, giving her a chance to help raise the young ones. She still hadn’t found a mate by the end of the show, but she had already survived far longer than anyone could hope.

The female wild dog’s survival success was due to her balance between two opposite polarities. That is what “Survival of the Fittest” is all about. She had a wider variety of behavioral choices by maximizing her use of both sides of her brain. She had a confidence that allowed her to do things others are incapable of doing. Had that confidence been arrogance or insecurity, she would have perished quickly. But being in the middle between extremes, she had a potential for consciousness as well, which would have allowed her even more awareness of her situation and how to maximize her abilities.

In the movie “Shawshank Redemption,” the innocent main character escaped a maximum security prison by crawling through a manure-filled drain pipe to freedom. Like that character, this one female African wild dog was placed in extremely difficult circumstances beyond her control and came out smelling like a rose.

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