African Wild Dog

I'm endlessly fascinated with wild animals that look vaguely like our domesticated versions but still remain untamed and, well, different. In the case of the African Wild Dog, it would be (and I'll give you one guess- quick!) those ears. At a brief glance, this guy looks a lot like a German Shepherd, doesn't it? And that's rather cool given that this dog still roams wild in packs on savannahs and in lightly wooded areas, hunting and eating everything from wild birds up to zebras. But egads! Those ears! If this species was ever domesticated, as has been successfully achieved with some wild varieties of African cats, I don't think I could ever own one because I would be perpetually distracted by the poor animal's Mickey Mouse Club ears. They're mesmerizing in a really funky sort of way. I doubt I'd ever get anything done because I'd find it difficult to ever look away. That and the fact that its hearing has to be off the charts. Edison has really big ears and I swear he can pick up signals from space because he hears things (and summarily goes off on a wild barking tangent to sound the alarm) that no one else can hear. With ears like this, these dogs have to be able to eavesdrop on conversations in other galaxies. Frankly, I don't think I could take anymore nuisance barking in my life. And oh yeah, I would so not be up for cleaning the remnants of meals out of this thing's beard either.

Photo courtesy of Wild Dogger on flickr.