1998 Veterinary report on African Wild Dog (Lycaon pictus) Authors: Aart M Visee, DVM; Tony and Lucy Fitzjohn; Sangito Lema The African Hunting Dog is an endangered species. Diseases, large predators (lions), and man threaten its existence. Because of lack of game they tend to get close to human settlements. As a consequence they are poisoned and come in close contact with domesticated dogs. As the African Hunting Dog is extremely susceptible to diseases transmitted by the domesticated dog (distemper, rabies and parvo virus), many of them die, and die as a result of injection with these viruses.