The predicament of the African wild dog, Lycaon pictus, is less precarious than claimed

In a paper published fifteen years ago, Gorman et al. (Nature 391, 479-481) made precise claims about how sensitive the African wild dog is to kleptoparasitism by spotted hyaenas Crocuta crocuta and lions Panthera leo. These claims are regularly referred to in the literature, and so far, they have remained unchallenged. However, careful perusal of their paper and analysis of the available data on energy intake and expenditure by wild dogs show that their claims are unfounded. Contrary to Gorman et al., wild dogs can usually take loss of food by kleptoparasitism in their stride. We present the calculations of the energy budget of wild dogs that remain implicit in the paper by Gorman et al.