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Hey besties, it’s ya girl Klopushka back again and today we’re starting a FANTASTIC new segment!! Niche animals for your OCs. Today on the chopping block: African wild dogs, aka painted wolves, which is literally where their Latin name Lycaon pictus comes from.
IRL these guys are pack animals, and despite the name they are NOT related to hyenas (who are actually in the feliformia suborder, i.e. cat-adjacent). They’re literally some of the most effective hunters on the planet their success rate for pack hunting is like ~80%. INSANE.
They live in super organized packs with strict altruism. Like, wounded members and pups eat FIRST, and THEN everyone else gets their turn. Also their puppies are some of the most wholesome little gremlins out there they’re constantly following each other around single-file, and the whole pack babysits them.
Unlike a lot of other predators, female painted wolves leave the pack when they grow up, while the males stay in the pack they were born in. So adult males are usually fathers, brothers, or uncles to the pups. Their whole efficiency comes from teamwork.
AND ALSО this might blow your mind-were SUPPOSED to be in the original Lion King script! They were gonna have the same role as the hyenas, working alongside them. But Disney cut them bc of role overlap, animators in the 90s didn’t wanna deal with explaining the difference between two rival pack hunters living in the Outlands when they basically serve the same narrative purpose. "They're both pack hunters, they both compete with lions, why waste screentime explaining the lore when they do the same thing?" and just like that, we lost an entire species getting representation on the big screen.Anyway go off I guess but we were ROBBED.
