Camouflage and Identification: Canid Colouration

Canid species vary in colouration and camouflage techniques depending on habitat and identification purposes. One of the most extreme examples of this is the African Wild Dog (Lycaon pictus), (Creel & Creel, 2002).  Lycaon pictus translates to painted wolf, which refers to the extreme colouration of the animals (Creel & Creel, 2002). This patterning creates amazing camouflage and has been said to resemble "a furred version of combat fatigues" by Angier (1996). The variation in colour is generally on the body and legs of the dogs with most facial colouring being extremely similar (Creel & Creel, 2002). The three main colours are brown, black and white with a small amount of variation in the shades (Creel & Creel, 2002). Some dogs contain no white at all while others have distinct white marks on the tail and underside just behind the forelegs (Creel & Creel, 2002). Body colouration is so varied and unsymmetrical on both sides that photos of the left side of a dog cannot be connected to photos of the right side of the same dog (Creel & Creel, 2002).

Colour variation among African Wild Dogs
http://www.monartozoo.com.au/animals/african-wild-dogs/
accessed 10/5/16

The Wild dog's pattern and colouration is so distinct between individuals the dogs have been known to identify each other up to 100m away (Creel & Creel, 2002). This has been seen in interactions between separate packs in which chases have been initiated and never were members of the same pack harassed (Creel & Creel, 2002). Olfactory sense possibly works with visual identification in this instance (Creel & Creel, 2002).

In the case of the dingo (Canis lupus dingo) colouration is mainly a camouflage evolution rather than identification (Appleby et al. 2015). The main colourations such as ginger, black and tan and white help the animals blend into their surroundings (Appleby et al. 2015). Ginger animals are generally found in sandy conditions such as Fraser Island and Central Australia (Appleby et al. 2015). The black and tan colouration helps in more heavily vegetated areas such as rainforests and light colouration is best suited to either light sands or high altitude snow areas of Southern Australia (Appleby et al. 2015).

Colour variation among dingoes from different areas
http://jennyleeparker3.wix.com/aussie-canis-dingo#!blogger/c12nl accessed 10/5/16

References:

Appleby. R, Johnson. C, Morrant. D, Savolainen. P, Watson. L, 2015, The Dingo Debate: Origins, Behaviour and Conservation, CSIRO Publishing, Victoria Australia

Creel.S, Creel. N.M, 2002, The African Wild Dog: Behaviour, Ecology and Conservation, Princeton University Press, Princeton University New Jersey USA