Dhole

The dhole is the only living member of its genus, Cuon, and differs from wolves, jackals, and African wild dogs in several ways. It has one fewer pair of molar teeth in the lower jaw than most other canids, an extra pair of teats, a more cat-like agility, and a heavily whistle-based vocal repertoire rather than howling. Behaviourally it is among the most social of all wild dogs, living and hunting in large, tightly cooperative packs, and it is notably bold, being one of the few predators that will regularly challenge tigers and leopards over a carcass despite the enormous size difference.

The dhole's most famous vocalisation is a repeated, far-carrying whistle, which has earned it the nickname whistling dog, and it appears to be primarily a contact call used to keep a pack in touch and to rally scattered members back together after a hunt has spread individuals across dense forest. Dholes also produce an unusually varied set of other sounds, including screams, high-pitched squeaks, mews, growls, and a clucking noise given before a hunt, and this rich acoustic communication supports the close coordination that a large pack needs when pursuing prey through terrain where the animals often cannot see one another.

Yes, though it is risky and does not always succeed. A pack of dholes will sometimes mob a tiger or leopard that has taken over one of their kills or that they encounter at a carcass, surrounding it, harassing it from multiple angles, and darting in to nip and then retreat, relying on numbers and speed rather than any individual being a match for the cat. Large cats can and do kill individual dholes in these confrontations, and a tiger will usually stand its ground against a small pack, but a sufficiently large and determined group of dholes can pressure even a tiger into abandoning a carcass and leaving the area.

Dhole numbers have fallen to an estimated fewer than 2,500 mature individuals scattered across a broken range, and several pressures drive the decline. Forests across South and Southeast Asia have been cleared and fragmented, isolating dhole populations, and the wild deer and pigs the dholes depend on have themselves been heavily reduced by hunting, leaving packs short of prey. Dholes are also killed directly by people who see them as a threat to livestock, they catch diseases such as canine distemper and rabies from domestic dogs, and they must compete for both prey and space with tigers and leopards, which are often better protected. Conservation attention has historically focused far more on those big cats than on the dhole.