'dhole'

David L. White dlwhite at texas.net
Fri Jun 15 16:22:17 UTC 2001


>> I agree that that is what the usual supects say, on the linguistics side,
>> but on the biology side, all my sources agree that wolves do not occur in
>> south India, and therefore in the Kannada area.  (Why is not entirely clear
>> to me.  They did not spread from China into SE Asia either.  Dislike of
>> tropcal heat?)  Therefore there is something not quite right here.

>> Dr. David L. White

> Could the Dravidian word refer to a different carnivore?

        Well, the obvious possibility is that is refers to dholes, and that
somewhere along the line somebody screwed up in saying that it means 'wolf'.

> Your question is very interesting: why have wolves not penetrated south
> India or SW Asia? It can't be just the heat - north India (where there ARE
> wolves) can be as hot as any place on this earth in the summer, as I know
> from experience (48 degrees in May/June are not unusual in New Delhi, for
> example). Maybe it's the humidity they don't like, or there are carnivores
> who thrive better than wolves in the year-round humid heat.

        Yes, dholes do.  Why is unclear.  They are not tropical animals,
being known to occur as far north as the so-called Siberia of Siberian
tigers.  (Which would be better called "Ussuriland".   It is really part of
the Chinese zone, biologically.)   But they are an older lineage than wolves
(with smaller brains, for example), and have perhaps had longer to adapt,
however they have, to year-round humid heat.  They used to occur in Europe,
but were in the long run unable to compete with wolves there. So it is odd:
wolves out-compete dholes in Europe, but dholes out-compete wolves in
south/east Asia.  In China and northern India, both occur.  (Or in the case
of China, used to.  The Chinese have done a great job of replacing animal
biomass with human biomass.)

Dr. David L. White



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