The Pack Across the Grass: teacher key

African Wild Dogs, grade 4 edition, written for 4th grade. African wild dogs once ran across much of Africa. Learn how a pack lives and hunts, how it talks and how the pups are raised.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. What is the biggest danger to wild dogs?
   • Habitat loss and fragmentation (answer)
   • Too much rain
   • Too many pups
2. Who usually leads a wild dog pack?
   • The oldest pup
   • One breeding pair (answer)
   • A gazelle
3. What do big ears help a wild dog do?
   • Dig a den
   • Hunt at night
   • Stay cool in hot weather (answer)
4. Who helps feed the pups?
   • The whole pack (answer)
   • Only the mother
   • Only the aardvark
5. Wild dogs once lived across most of Africa south of the Sahara. What does that tell you?
   • They have never changed where they live
   • They live in fewer places now (answer)
   • They live in the Sahara
6. What does fragmentation mean in: habitat fragmentation?
   • Land cut into small pieces (answer)
   • A very big pack
   • A kind of antelope

Words

• pack: dog group
• savanna: grassy plain
• fragmentation: cut into pieces
• litter: pups born together
• antelope: gazelles, impalas