Final answer:
The carrying capacity of African wild dogs is influenced by limiting factors such as the amount of land available, availability of prey, water resources, disease, human encroachment, and competition with other carnivores. These factors govern the logistic growth of their population, which levels off as the carrying capacity is approached.
Step-by-step explanation:
Carrying capacity is the maximum population size of a species that an environment can sustain indefinitely without being degraded. In the context of African wild dogs, scientists could investigate various limiting factors that affect their carrying capacity. One such factor is the amount of land available, which is crucial for the African wild dogs' needs for hunting, finding shelter, and accessing resources.
The predicted effect on the African wild dog population is that a limited amount of land would constrain their population growth, as they require large territories to support their social structures and hunting practices. Other limiting factors include availability of prey species, water resources, disease, human encroachment, and interspecific competition with other carnivores for food and territory.
Limiting factors cause a population to exhibit logistic growth, in which the growth rate decreases as the population nears the carrying capacity, ultimately leveling off. This differs from exponential growth, where the growth rate continues to increase alongside the population size.