Threats to wild dogs
The African wild dog has declined dramatically over the past 30 years. Between 3,000 and 5,000 wild dogs remain in total and most of these are in southern and eastern Africa. The pressures that bear directly on the survival of wildlife species such as the African wild dog can be attributed broadly to a slow but continuous loss of wilderness habitat and the concurrent decline of wildlife populations that depended on those habitats. Additionally, as competition for resources increases with a rapidly growing human population, the frequency of conflict with people escalates, resulting in damaging perceptions and the persecution of wildlife, while at the same time the threat of domestic-animal diseases becomes increasingly pronounced.

Wild dogs range widely so that even those within protected areas often contact human activity outside the reserve boundaries. Outside the protected areas, wild dogs face persecution by man that is often linked to the unfounded negative attitudes and images connected with the wild dog. As a general rule, African wild dogs are thought to be dangerous, vicious, and problematic. Personal injury is non-existent and loss of livestock from wild dogs is infrequent. However, wild dogs that come into contact with local farmers are either shot or poisoned due to the hostility and fear most people feel toward them. Furthermore, wild dogs are also frequently found, inside and outside of reserve boundaries, dead from snares and vehicle accidents.

Wild dogs that are in contact with human activity are also threatened by domestic-animal diseases. The constant social contact, such as that described during the hunting rally, between all wild dogs in a pack means that any virus, once started in a pack, will quickly and effectively spread to all the dogs in the pack. Wild dog populations in Kenya and Tanzania were decimated by the rapid spread of disease between packs in the early 1990's. Viruses known to be fatal or cause significant mortality in wild dogs include rabies and canine distemper. Although protected areas are available to this endangered carnivore, the area of land devoted to wilderness and the wildlife populations that it supports is declining. As a result, the daily survival of individual wild dogs is growing steadily more difficult. Despite man's historical persecution of this fascinating canid, as well as its vulnerability to domestic dog diseases, the loss of habitat from expanding human populations ultimately puts the greatest pressure on the last of the continent's wild dogs. As land-use policies that will impact the remaining wildlife continue to be implemented, the long-term survival of the African wild dog hangs in uncertainty.