Zimbabwe Wild Dogs

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Apr 27 2009 | By: zimbabwewilddogs

Just a quick post to give an extremely heartfelt thanks to Pirjo, Gaylen, Ivanova & Trish who donated to our project this month, in response to our appeal for money to buy the drugs to help treat injured wildlife.  Unfortunately we are still a long way off from our goal, and not a week goes by without another report of a snared animal that needs help.  Mostly these are not followed up on (because there is no-one to help), and the animals are left to suffer their injuries, often until they die from them.  Or they are shot.  Such a waste.  I look forward to the time I can write posts about how we rescued and treated these animals.  The donations received take us that much closer to the goal.  Thank you so much.

Rosemary    

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Apr 27 2009 | By: zimbabwewilddogs

Hi folks,

I got back to Zimbabwe yesterday after a long, hot drive up from South Africa, where I was attending a conference and doing some shopping.  The journey was 14 hours, including 3 hours at the border, mainly standing in queues or sitting in the car in a queue to get through.  Not much fun, especially when some small beasty has clearly found its way into the air pipes of my car and died there, meaning the whole car has a delightful odour of decaying carcass and it’s a health hazard to put on the air conditioning!

Anyway, we made it through the border, and the project is now the proud owner of two new mountain bikes and a set of new uniforms for the scouts, both of which are long overdue.  I also managed to get a few essential items of camping equipment which we will be needing next month when we start working on the wilds of Gonarezhou National Park.  A few vehicle spares, PVA paint and some mountain bike parts complete the list.  Oh where are the days when a shopping trip involved skirts, tops, jeans, books, jewellery etc??!

The scouts have been doing an excellent job of keeping on top of the wild dogs while I was away and all the packs seem to be doing well.  Both scouts took photos of the different packs so I can confirm the reports and identify individuals present.  Some of the photos are less useful for identification, but are fun nonetheless….

African Wild Dogs looking for the photographer….!

And sometimes they are not even of wild dogs…

I’ll be out in the field for the next few days to do my end-of-the-month check on all the dogs, and will be back with more about the packs soon,

Rosemary

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Apr 15 2009 | By: zimbabwewilddogs

Hi folks,

I’m off down to South Africa later today and probably won’t get a chance to blog while I’m down there, so will be out of touch for a while.  I’m stopping on the way down in one of the South African reserves to meet with some of the South African wild dog researchers with whom we collaborate so hopefully that will be productive.  Then I’m off to a conference in Kruger for a week, with a few days shopping on either side before coming back up.  Unfortunately the shopping isn’t as fun as it sounds  - my list includes motorbike spares, new shocks for the car, uniforms for the scouts, battery-operated lights etc.

However, it will be nice to see Kruger and to meet some of the other researchers in the region.  I’ll be in touch again when I’m back,

Rosemary

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Apr 10 2009 | By: zimbabwewilddogs

Hi folks,

Well, this Easter weekend began for us here in the conservancy with the threat of land invasions and having to flee the land.  We are waiting to see what happens.

This is an exerpt from ZW News which I get emailed every day, and seems to be pretty standard news at the moment, with every day producing similar stories.  Seems we may be next… (Chiredzi is our nearest town).

Seven more people have joined the growing list of Zimbabwean commercial farmers facing prosecution for being on their land, as part of the ongoing offensive against farmers that has violently intensified in the last week. The growing list of farmers facing prosecution has now reached 100 and includes the wife of Chiredzi farmer, Gary Warth, who has been in hiding for more than six weeks. His wife Teresa was arrested on Monday in a move that Chiredzi police blatantly admitted was to ‘bait’ her husband out of hiding to face arrest and prosecution. She was later released and is expected in court this week. Five other Chiredzi farmers have also been arrested since late last month and will appear in court next week, on false charges of occupying state land illegally. Meanwhile the violent offensive in Chegutu has not yet eased, with Mount Carmel farm manager Martin Joubert, also being hauled behind bars this week. Joubert joins seven other Mount Carmel farm workers who were arrested over the weekend while trying to defend the land from a gang of lawless thugs.

The land invasions and fast-track prosecution of farmers began in earnest in February, after Attorney General Johannes Tomana instructed local police and magistrates to support the attacks. In all cases, court orders and other legal protections on the farms are being knowingly ignored, and with the police supporting the attacks, farmers have no assistance or protection. It was also known that arrest warrants had been issued for the farmers. Rosemary 

2 responses so far

Category: Uncategorized, Wild Dogs | Date: Apr 07 2009 | By: zimbabwewilddogs

Hi folks,

Just wanted to post a few pictures of our new wild dog pack.  They are a very charismatic group, and very relaxed around vehicles which makes for wonderful viewing opportunities…

These photos were given to me by a guest who saw the dogs at a kudu kill

Such wondeful animals!

Rosemary

Tags: African Wild Dogs, new pack, wild dog photos, zimbabwe

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Category: Wild Dogs, zimbabwe | Date: Apr 04 2009 | By: zimbabwewilddogs

Hi folks,

I’m hugely excited that I can finally report some good news here, in between all this nightmare of snaring.  We have a new pack of wild dogs!  They showed up on one of the northern ranches in the conservancy last week and have been hanging around the area since then.  It’s a pack of 8: 4 adults and 4 pups and the pups are still quite small - they must have been a late litter last year.  I don’t recognise any of the dogs except 1 male (the Alpha male) whom I have a photograph of from the south of the conservancy taken this time last year.  We have no idea where the others have come from, or where they have been up until recently. 

 I was fortunately able to collar the pack a couple of days ago, so we can keep an eye on them and try to make sure they don’t get caught in snares etc.  I asked the owner of the ranch if he would like to choose a name for the pack, and he passed the honour on to his young son, so the pack now sports the name of the Teddy Pack, with members Baloo, Yogi, Paddington, Koala etc….!

I’ll post some pictures soon, but just wanted to report the good news! 

Rosemary

Tags: new pack, snaring, Wild Dogs, zimbabwe

One response so far

Category: Other wildlife, Uncategorized, Wild Dogs, elephants, poaching, zimbabwe | Date: Apr 02 2009 | By: zimbabwewilddogs

Hi folks,

This is the first appeal I’ve ever put out on Wildlife Direct, but the time has come to ask for some help.  As you all know, the desperate situation in Zimbabwe is resulting in, amongst other things, a huge amount of wildlife poaching.  Much of this is for commercial purposes by persistent poachers and the level at which it is occurring is currently unsustainable.

As you’ll have seen if you are a regular reader of this blog, wild dogs are severely threatened by snaring, not only in the Save Valley Conservancy, but throughout the country.  But it is not only wild dogs that suffer.  Snaring is an indiscriminate killer – between August 2001 and October 2008, 5,981 animals of 30 different species were killed in snares.  These included endangered African wild dogs, lions, leopards, cheetah, sable  buffalo, wildebeest, nyala, impala, kudu, zebra, giraffe and even elephants.  On one occasion, one snare line killed 18 individual animals. 

 74,390 snares were recovered between August 2001 and October 2008

Almost the biggest problem with this method of poaching is the wastage.  Of the 1,421 animals killed in snares during August 2005-November 2008, 58.8% were found rotten or scavenged, 27.3% were recovered by the ranch or taken to the police as evidence and only 13.9% were extracted by illegal hunters.  This is a truly shocking waste of the wildlife resource.

However, the deaths in snares are only one part of the story.  Many animals manage to break the snare wire and free themselves, but continue to carry the snare around their neck or leg or trunk.  Many of these die and go unrecorded, and many end up being shot because of their injuries.  Others continue to suffer from these horrific injuries until they die.  

This is where we come in and where we can do something to help.  Although I manage the Lowveld Wild Dog Project, the umbrella organisation for our project is a non-profit making organisation called the African Wildlife Conservation Fund (AWCF).  Given my position in the field in Zimbabwe, and my qualifications and licence to immobilise wild animals, I am in a position to help AWCF with their general conservation efforts, a large part of which is tackling this poaching crisis.  If we can be on standby for anyone to call us to help to free snared animals or treat injured ones, we could do a huge amount to help the wildlife here. 

So at this point I am appealing for help.  The drugs used to immobilise wildlife are not cheap.  They are less expensive for carnivores: for enough drugs to immobilise 10 wild dogs (including the knock-down drug, the sedative and the reversal) would cost US$500, i.e. $50 per dog.  For herbivores however, the drugs are extortionately expensive.  One vial of the main knock-down drug (5ml) and its reversal costs US$600.  Depending on the species, this would immobilise between 5 to 10 animals, assuming no darts miss.  However, in addition to this drug, you need a sedative drug which costs US$106 per vial, and at least 2 vials of the human antidote (because this drugs is life-threatening to humans) which cost US$200 per vial.  So in order to be ready to help treat wounded wildlife, we need to buy at least US$1500 worth of drugs (and that’s only a start…).

A buffalo caught in a snare that had to be shot because no-one had the drugs to immobile and treat it

If anyone feels they could contribute something towards this, we would be enormously grateful and you can be assured your donation will go directly towards helping wildlife in the most direct and hands-on way.  Any extra money that is raised above what we need to buy the drugs will be put towards the anti poaching units in the conservancy, to help buy radios, uniforms and ammunition.

I’ll sign off here, because this post is long enough now, but if anyone would like more information, please don’t hesitate to ask.  And please consider helping us: I know it’s a bad time economically, but if we don’t act soon, it’s going to be too late for Zimbabwe’s wildlife.

Thanks in advance,

Rosemary        

Tags: poaching, snaring, Wild Dogs, wildlife, wildlife immobilisation, zimbabwe

3 responses so far