Page 9 - Dog

DOGGIES OF ALL SORTS WARM FEET
Dogs have been bred in an Of the many ways dogs have helped
amazing assortment of shapes, people, one of the more unusual ones
sizes, and colors. This painting was as a foot warmer for church
shows just some of the 400 breeds congregations in the Middle Ages.
of domestic dogs (pp. 48–61) in Shown in this beautiful stained glass
the world. All these breeds are (right) are the biblical characters
descended from the wolf, which Tobias and Sarah – and their dog.
was first tamed by humans about
12,000 years ago (pp. 8–9).

THE LARGEST CANID This wolf has
The wolf (pp. 22–23) is thick gray fur, but
Teeth the largest of all the wild the fur can vary
number canids. It lives and hunts from nearly pure
the usual in a family group, or pack, white to red to
42 (pp. 8–9), and is the most social brown or black
but first lower (pp. 18–19) of all the
molars are small carnivores. The wolf is the
and flat – unlike ancestor of all domestic
other dogs’ teeth dogs (pp. 48–61).
Gray wolf

AFRICAN HUNTER
The African hunting dog is a highly
developed social carnivore (pp. 18–19)
that hunts in family groups. These wild Shorter hind legs
dogs live in the grasslands of Africa give typical
(pp. 26–27), but are in danger of crouching position
extinction. Great numbers of them Muzzle was
are being hunted and poisoned heavy, and
by farmers; they are also dying its teeth were
from disease, particularly very different
canine distemper. from a dog’s
African hunting dog
This striped hyena is found in
Africa and western Asia. Long,
The Tasmanian wolf looked similar Rounded Hyenas are hunters and powerful
to a dog, but it was a marsupial and ears scavengers; their powerful teeth front legs
unrelated to the dog family. It is can crush bones that even big
now known only from stuffed cats are not able to chew.
specimens in museums.
What is not a dog?

Sometimes called dogs, the hyena, Tasmanian wolf,
and prairie dog are not in the dog family. The three
Thick, species of hyena, within the Hyaenidae family, are
muscular more closely related to cats. The Tasmanian wolf, or
base of tail thylacine, now extinct, was a marsupial (pouched Prairie dogs are highly social
could not rodents that live in
wag like mammal) that lived in Australia, and the North communal burrows covering
a dog’s American prairie dog is a rodent related to squirrels. up to 160 acres.

(c) 2011 Dorling Kindersley. All Rights Reserved.