Now it is rare to see a pack with more than 20 animals in most areas. The most common threats to the African wild dog are habitat fragmentation, competition, and diseases. Since they have very large home ranges, this presents a problem to them with humans encroaching on their territory, and creating wildilfe reserves only serves to worsen the problem, since wildlife reserves are very fragmented and small. Wild dogs have no natural predators, but they will compete with larger predators such as the lion, hyena, and leopard. This, again, is worsened by the wildlife reserves, which force the animals together in a very small space.
Diseases take a tremendous toll on the wild dog.
Humans with their domestic dogs worsen the problem, as the domestic dog harbors many diseases and can spread them easily to the wild dog. An entire population has become extinct due to diseases. The African wild dog is officially extinct in Gabon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and in the Republic of Congo. They have been mostly erradicated throughout most of Kenya and Uganda. There is a very large population in southern Tanzania, which is one of the largest in all of Africa.