the 'Dhole'

[David L. White]

> Dholes (aka "red dog of India" (Kipling)) are found in dense forests.  Wolves
> as a general rule and apparently especially in southern Asia are found in
> open habitats.

        Just briefly, again...
        No.  Wolves used to live in eastern N. America, not to mention
Japan, which is not exactly noted for its open steppes, and dholes occurred
in the tundra environments of Ice Age Europe.  The reason we associate
wolves with grasslands these days is that we exterminated them in former
forest lands, which are good for agriculture, first.   It is no sort of
inherent property.  The two species have essentially the same "life-style",
living to a large extent off of deer or deer-sized animals, and there is no
reason to think that one or the other would engage in a sort of tabu
avoidance of areas that were too wooded or not wooded enough, as long as the
overall life-style was viable.
        On the other hand, staying out of each other's way to some extent is
probable.   One may compare how ferrets and badgers in N. America are
grassland animals, though in Eurasia they are not.  Probably the previosuly
established existence of racoons and possums occupying much the same niche
in the forests of N America made spread into these areas more difficult.
And probably wolves, coming into India from the NW and there bumping into
dholes, tended to stay in environments more similar to those they came from,
as did ferrets and badgers in N. America.   But avoidance of dholes cannot
be the whole story.  Note that wolves have not spread from temperate N.
America into tropical Central America either, despite there being no
competition there from dholes or anything else of the sort.

Dr. David L. White