End of the denning season
Category: Uncategorized | Date: Sep 18 2008 | By: zimbabwewilddogs
Well it seems that the denning season is pretty much over for most packs. I’ve been to 2 of the dens and no dogs have been around although there is still fresh spoor at the den sites so they probably haven’t gone far. And reports from other people about the other packs suggest they are on the move too. Now is when those collars come in handy… I will spend the next few days radio tracking to find all the packs, check how many of the pups (and adults) are still present in the pack and start to look at where they are going now they have finished denning.
Sherri & Sheryl, hopefully I’ll be able to give you a report soon on how ‘your’ dogs Racoon and Mina are doing. We just put more camera traps up at Mina’s den to see whether they are in fact still using it, so hopefully I’ll get some interesting pics from that. And Racoon is of course collared so I’ll be using her to locate her pack.
It’s a very interesting time for the project now, but sad that the denning season is over. Watching the interactions between the pups has definitely been a highlight; see the photo below showing some of the bigger pups at the Bedford den ‘playing’ with some of the smaller pups.
Back soon,
Rosemary
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Rosemary Groom is a post-doctoral research scientist with the African Wildlife Conservation Fund -
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2 Responses to “End of the denning season”
sheryl, washington, dc, on 20 Sep 2008
Ah, you read my mind when I clicked on the headline: “I wonder what’s happened to Mina and her pack?”
I hope the older pups aren’t too hard on the younger ones.
s.
Emma, on 21 Sep 2008
Hi Rosemary,
I enjoy reading your frequent updates on the wild dog project and think you’re doing an excellent job studying and trying to protect the dogs in what must be very difficult conditions in Zimbabwe!
I would be delighted if you could do a new blog topic giving body measurement and weight ranges you’ve recorded for the wild dogs you’re studying (I’m sure you’ve been too busy to do this up until now) and thought I’d ask about this as I was unable to access Wildlife Direct last week due to the pages not loading properly. I’d like to know the litter sizes you’ve observed in your study packs too if that’s OK with you - I love knowing all the facts & figures about wild dogs; they’re my favourite animals!
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