Canids are a family of carnivorous mammals that includes dogs, foxes, wolves, dingoes, jackals, coyotes, and wild dogs. They evolved from miacids 40 million years ago and are surface predators with superior vision and smell. Canids inhabit various habitats and eat small mammals, and can bring down large animals by hunting in cooperative packs. The dire wolf, a typical member of the Pleistocene megafauna, is now extinct. The domestic dog is a domesticated version of the gray wolf and has been “man’s best friend” for 12,000 years.
Canids are a family within the order Carnivora and class Mammalia. The official name of the family is Canidae. Includes dogs, foxes, wolves, dingoes, jackals, coyotes, and wild dogs. Canids are distinguished by high intelligence, exclusive carnivores, complex social structures, relatively long legs and agile bodies adapted for stalking prey, bushy tails, claws, sharp teeth, the classic canid skull, and elongated snout with a sensitive sense of smell. Canids can be divided into two clades, Canini (dogs and relatives) and Vulpini (foxes).
Canids evolved from primitive mammalian carnivores, miacids, in the Late Eocene, about 40 million years ago. Rather than being ambush predators, a common predatory mode, canids are surface predators, pursuing their prey in long, open chases. Due to superior vision and smell, canids can detect prey up to a mile away or more. Their agile bodies give them the stamina to travel long distances. When canids get close to their prey, they kill it with their high-powered bite. One canid, the African Wild Dog, has a bite force quotient (ratio of bite force to body mass) that is supreme among all existing carnivores.
Canids are found on every continent except Antarctica, and inhabit a variety of habitats, including grasslands, deserts, mountains, and forests. They eat various animals for food, mostly small mammals like rabbits. By hunting in cooperative packs, canines can bring down all but the largest animals, including cattle, buffalo, and warthogs. Some canids, such as wolves, have even historically hunted humans, especially the young, weak, or solitary. Today, wolf attacks are very rare, wolves with a propensity to attack humans having probably been selected, as well as populations depleted due to competition from humans and domestic dogs.
Larger canids, such as the dire wolf, are now extinct. The Dire Wolf was up to 6 feet (1.8 m) long and weighed up to 200 pounds. This one is bigger than most humans. The dire wolf is considered a typical member of the Pleistocene megafauna, large animals that became extinct in the recent evolutionary past, most likely due to human invasion and defense. Numerous Dire Wolf skeletons can be found in the La Brea Tar Pits in downtown Los Angeles.
Of course, the most famous of the canids is the domestic dog, a domesticated version of the gray wolf. Dogs have been “man’s best friend” for 12,000 years, following us around the world and helping us hunt. There are now an estimated 400 million dogs worldwide.
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