Lake Fong, Post-Gazette
	An African wild dog runs away as a cheetah approaches the other side of a fence at the Pittsburgh Zoo yesterday. A new exhibit features two male and two female wild dogs.

Jasmine the Cheetah had the best view of the four African wild dogs that yesterday became her new neighbors at Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium.

That's because whenever she strolled along the 8-foot-high fence between their exhibit yards, Draco, Puck, Vega and Pandora raced after her, apparently eager to make her acquaintance.

"She can sit there and taunt them a little bit," said mammal curator Amos Morris. "She just looks at them and turns around and walks off," while the dogs get wound up. One dog's enthusiasm even got him buzzed by the electrical fence.

The wild dogs, two brothers and two sisters from separate litters that formed a pack, were born about three years ago on a reserve in the KwaZulu-Natal region of South Africa, where cheetahs also were raised, the curator said. The zoo has been working about as long to bring them to Pittsburgh.

Fewer than 5,000 are left in the world and in South Africa, once their main home, there are perhaps 500, Mr. Morris said. Their numbers have dropped because diseases like canine distemper have spread to them from domesticated dogs; farmers shoot them to protect livestock; and their habitats are disappearing with urbanization.

"They are one of the more endangered carnivores in Africa," Mr. Morris said. "They need some attention before they drop below a point where they can't survive," so many zoos are interested in exhibiting them and aiding conservation efforts.

Eventually, the pack will be bred, and there are about a dozen puppies in a litter, he said. African wild dogs are more related to bush dogs than hyenas or wolves.

When not stalking the cheetah, the dogs began to get familiar with their exhibit after a routine 30-day quarantine.

"They were sliding down on their backs," said keeper Karen Vacco, pointing to a slope of flattened grass. "They just rolled all the way down and buried themselves in there."

African wild dogs have very big ears, have mottled coloring similar to a German shepherd and weigh about 60 pounds of "all muscle," as the keeper put it.

"They don't bark, but they are so vocal," Ms. Vacco said. When they greet each other, "you'll hear all this whining and you think somebody is getting hurt. Then you realize nobody's mouth is even open."

Like big house dogs, they tend to chew, so she expects it'll be easier to watch them after they get to work on the brush and logs in their exhibit.

African wild dogs also like to dig, so their exhibit has a barrier of spaced rebar steel that goes four feet underground, Ms. Vacco said. The 13-year-old cat next door will be safe, and her neighbors may actually be good for her.

"I'm sure Jasmine does not know what a wild dog is, so this is something all new to her," the keeper said. "That's probably about the most she's moved in years."