Project Coordinator: Sue van Rensburg (Regional ecologist, EKZNW)

Principal Investigators:  Drs. Micaela Szykman and Michael Somers

Ezemvelo KZNWildlife

Smithsonian’s National Zoological Park, Conservation and Research Center

Department of Zoology, University of Transkei

 

The species and the challenge.

African wild dogs have been eliminated from much of their historical range, largely due to habitat fragmentation, persecution, competition with larger carnivores, contact with human activity and disease.  There now is increasing interest in re-establishing populations of African wild dogs through targeted reintroductions, to prevent their extinction. 

 

 

 

 

A Population and Habitat Viability Assessment in 1997 resulted in a comprehensive conservation action plan for the endangered African wild dogs of South Africa.  This plan included protecting and even enlarging existing wildlife areas that support wild dog populations, as well as re-establishing populations into protected areas.  Recent wild dog reintroductions into Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park have been particularly successful, largely due to the careful monitoring of reintroduced packs. Consequently HiP has become a valuable source of wild dog for other areas. The intention is to create a meta-population of wild dog in a network of reserves which, individually, could not naturally support wild dog dynamics. However, if managed in a coordinated fashion, these would provide the key to the survival of this species. The idea is that dogs would disperse naturally and/or be moved around this network of reserves so as to maximize population potential. Currently there is a conservation and research program which aims to identify the social, ecological and physiological factors that impact reintroduction success of this important and endangered predator species that has yielded promising results thus far.  This information will both contribute to our understanding of African wild dog behavioral ecology and will have significant practical benefits to designing and implementing future successful wild dog reintroduction efforts and meta-population dynamics

 

Broader Impacts.

Any project whose aim is to conserve a carnivore species must include a community education and outreach program.  Wild dogs have long had a history of persecution, and these species are still disliked, and even hunted, by cattle and game ranchers who view them as pests.  We will work with local managers, wildlife officials and community conservation officers to communicate with and educate people in local communities about coexisting with carnivores.  Furthermore, because of a long history of discrimination and inequality, few black South Africans have had the opportunity to work in a professional capacity in the disciplines of field ecology and conservation biology.  This project has already hired two Zulu research assistants and helped train several South African undergraduate and graduate students. Awareness and appreciation of the plight of this species both within local communities and commercial farmers will assist in creating safe passages though which the dogs could travel if naturally dispersing between reserves. The success of such programs have already been felt where a community safe guarded a group of dogs that broke out of HiP until the EKZNW vet arrived and successfully darted the dogs which were then trans-located to a safe area.

Finally, there are many more people who know nothing about, or are misinformed about African wild dogs. The project will be creating simple handout materials for tourists, local landowners and community members, generate a project web page to reach out to the public at-large and participate in giving talks to tourists at the local lodges and to children in local schools, to promote an improved understanding and appreciation for endangered carnivores and their habitats.

 

Facilitating the meta-population of wild dog

The wild dog program in HiP has reached the stage where there will be several groups of valuable females that will be ready to leave their current pack within the next year. These animals are extremely important for seeding new populations. Wild dogs range over expansive distances and tracking them with radio collar requires driving around trying to find a signal (900km² area in HiP alone) and then triangulating. With limited hours available and difficulties of accessibility into some of the areas there is always the risk that dispersing animals will break out of the park unbeknown to us. These dogs will then range wildly, trying to find mates. While this form of natural dispersion has been successful in some cases, it puts the dogs at huge risk.

 

 

If we had a means of tracking the dogs literally from the office, and knowing where the dogs are in real time, we would be able to pick up if the dogs leave the park and then monitor their progress. If we see they are heading for a dangerous area, we would be in a position to intervene, darting the dogs and trans-locating them to an appropriate reserve where a mate would be available. The is the essence of the meta-population idea, getting as many alpha breeding pairs, which are genetically unrelated, established across