To survive in the forests of southern India, dholes must work together. By working as a team, the pack can take down a deer, which can be twice as tall and many times heavier than a single dhole.
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TRANSCRIPT
- [Narrator] With the coast clear, the adults scan the territory for food.
(birds chirping) The forest is full of deer.
They can be twice as tall and many times heavier than a single dhole.
But if they work as a team, the pack can take them down.
And the dholes can use the dense forest to turn the odds in their favor.
A male chital with large antlers is more likely to get tangled in the thickets.
(deer yelps) The dholes edge closer, talking to each other to coordinate their attack.
But their high frequency calls don't travel far.
(dholes chirping) The more the dholes disperse, the more they'll struggle to hear each other.
For a moment, the pack's confused, but these chatty canids have saved their best talk for last.
(dholes whistling) The whistle.
(dholes whistling) A low frequency call, that carries farther, and is easier to hear through the thick forest foliage.
(dholes whistling) With up to 10 of them surrounding the deer, the whistling hunters know exactly where every pack member is, even when they can't see each other.
At last, they're all in place.
(dholes whistling)
