Zimbabwe Wild Dogs

Category: Wild Dogs, poaching, zimbabwe | Date: Jun 07 2009 | By: zimbabwewilddogs

Hi folks, 

I’m sad to report we’ve lost another one of the dogs to snaring.  The scouts found the carcass during an ambush of some well-known commercial poachers on one of the conservancy properties.  It was still fresh enough for us to identify it as one of the adult males from the Mapari pack.  Ironically, he was actually called ‘Snare’, having escaped from a snare before, although he still bore the scar around his neck.  This time round he wasn’t so lucky: he was caught around both his back legs and - from the destruction of the vegetation around where he was caught - must have died a very slow and painful death.  Poor dog.  He was only 3 years old as well.

His carcass was hidden under a bush:

The good news is that they at least caught some of the poachers, and cleared 98 snares from the area.  Unfortunately it was too late for a few impala as well who were also caught in these snares.

We took the carcass back to the car and have taken the skull for measurements, and other samples for genetic analysis.  Only time will tell what impact this tragedy will have on the denning of the pack this year.

Rosemary

Tags: African Wild Dogs, dead wild dog, snaring, zimbabwe