Category: Carnivores general, Denning, Other wildlife, Wild Dogs, zimbabwe | Date: Jul 30 2009 | By: zimbabwewilddogs

Hi Folks, 

As many of you know, it is a tough place for any animal in the wild, especially a pup in the African bush. There are so many dangers, which makes the denning season, a time of high alert for the pack to watch over the pups. Its quite common for a wild dog pack to move its den site multiple times through out the denning season. This change in den sites are sometimes due to the packs decision that the den site is no longer safe because of some threat to the pups.

Below are pictures of a rock python at the old Bedford den. Fortunately the Bedford pack had just moved their den a few days before these pictures were taken.

Here you can see the drag marks to the right where the python entered the main den hole to the left.

Till next time

- Rafael

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Category: Carnivores general, Wild Dogs, zimbabwe | Date: Jul 22 2009 | By: zimbabwewilddogs

Hi Folks,

I could not keep this one in the bag any longer. A couple of weeks ago Dr. Rosemary Groom and Myself came across unexpectedly 4 dogs hunting along one of the Conservancy roads. Dr. Groom was able to Identify the individuals as Newt,Four-Ten,Browny and Paw Paw from the Mapari pack. Those of you who follow the dogs closely will find this exciting due to the fact that paw paw was missing for a while and her state of being was in question.  Now to our surprise she has joined the three males to make a pack. These four dogs are now a true pack since there is at least one dog of each gender in the pack who can contribute to offspring and therefore future wild dog generations. 

Below are some of the pictures I was able to snap while Rosemary was busy ID’ing the dogs.

Till next time Rafael

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Category: Carnivores general, Education, Wild Dogs, zimbabwe | Date: Jul 17 2009 | By: zimbabwewilddogs

Hi all, its Rafael again,

I want to take this time since I have Moreangels here with me know, to introduce herself and talk about what she is working on here at the African Wild Dog Project and maybe share her experiences so far.

As Rosemary stated in an earlier blog, Moreangels will be here for a few months working on her Master’s research. I will let her take over.

Hallo everyone. My name is Moreangels; I am studying for a Masters of Science Degree in Tropical Resource Ecology with the University of Zimbabwe. I am joining Dr Rosemary and the Lowveld wild dog project as part of my MSc research project. I will be collecting wild dog, hyena, leopard and lion faeces to determine their diets. This will enable us to see if there is diet overlap and hence competition for prey between these carnivores. This is important in determining whether lions, leopards and hyenas are a threat to the wild dog population in Save Valley Conservancy.

My first day with the wild dogs

It was to be my first time going out to live in the bush; I was full of anticipation and excitement before I even set out for my journey to Save Valley Conservancy. The day I arrived, just before sunset, Rosemary and Rafael took me out to one of the packs, the Teddy pack in Sango Ranch. This was my first encounter with the wild dogs; all my senses were alert for any sign of them. Within minutes of arriving at the den two beautiful dogs came out to gaze at us. It was amazing seeing the wild dogs for the first time, I wanted to reach out and touch them but getting out of the car was going to make they run away. All the other dogs came into view one by one and we counted eight of them. After a while they all went away, probably for another hunting adventure. It was just awesome.

Moreangels

Below are some photos I took of Moreangels drying some of her samples.

till next time - Rafael

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Category: Carnivores general, Wild Dogs, zimbabwe | Date: Jul 15 2009 | By: zimbabwewilddogs

Hi Everyone,

This past week has been very successful in collaring some of our Wild Dogs. We were able to fit two dogs each with a different type of collar. The types of collars we use are VHF (which emits a radio frequency that our radio receiver picks up and thus able to track its location by the intensity of the signal) and a GPS collar (which does VHF, but also Global Positioning so we can download into a computer all the places the dog has been within a set time frame). Since the GPS collar also does VHF we tend to put these collars on adult dogs since they weigh a little more than the plain VHF collars. The first dog we immobilized was an adult female from the Maera pack, this is the one we fitted with a GPS collar. Our second dog was a young female from the Bedford pack and we fitted her with a VHF collar.

In order to put a collar on a dog, the animal has to be sedated. To sedate the Wild Dog is the hard part. We use a special type of air gun that shoots a dart that contains tranquilizers in order to immobilize the dog and fit a collar on. The trick is to get close enough to the dog so we have a clear shot, the Wild Dogs seem to recognize Rosemary’s car so we are afforded to get a little bit closer to the dogs but it is still hard, for these dog are very alert. Once in a good range the next issue is to make sure there is no vegetation in front of the dog, even the slightest piece of twig can deflect the dart off the intended target.  Lastly we want the dog still and in a good position to dart, preferably a thigh muscle. All these circumstances need to line up to successfully tranquilize. Lots of precaution is taken in shooting any animal with a tranquilizer dart, one is safety to the animal and the other is the cost of the tranquilizer drugs from a missed dart. 

From left to right Rueben,Moreangels,Rosemary and myself.

till next time -Rafael

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Category: Carnivores general, Random | Date: Jul 12 2009 | By: zimbabwewilddogs

Hi guys,

I just want to introduce you to Moreangels Mbizah, a masters student from the University of Zimbabwe who has recently joined the wild dog project for her 3 month field project.

Moreangels will be analysing the faecal samples we’ve been collecting from wild dogs, lions, hyenas and leopards to look at the prey-choice overlap between this large carnivore guild.  This will help us to establish the extent of competition for prey that the wild dogs face from the rapidly increasing lion and hyena populations.  She’s also been helping us the last few days with a couple of wild dog immobilisations, which Rafael will tell you about in the next post.

So, welcome to Moreangels!

Rosemary 

Tags: Carnivores, faecal analysis, zimbabwe

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Category: Carnivores general, Denning, Education, Other wildlife, Random, Wild Dogs, poaching, zimbabwe | Date: Jul 11 2009 | By: zimbabwewilddogs

Hi Folks, 

Its been a real busy here at the African Wild Dog project. I thought I would let you all in on my involvement and recent happenings lately. Regular check ups on our known packs is one aspect of the project. Now that denning season is upon us, the trips to the den are now anticipated with the emerging of this years pups, like the Maera pups from Rosemary’s last blog. Aside from our visits with the known packs Rosemary is involved in other projects that involve the Conservancy but may or may not involve Wild Dogs. Im involved in the data management of these projects, which include Wild Dog sightings, Blood analysis and poaching occurrences. Also there are spontaneous things that happen, that keeps things very exciting. For example the other day, we had to help a fellow researcher here at Chishakwe free a lion out of a cage, that was intended to lure Cheetahs for research. We have also tried to help in the tranquilizing of Nyala at another section of the conservancy with again another fellow researcher of Rosemary’s. So not only do I get to work with Wild Dogs but I get to help out in other projects occurring at the Conservancy which has been a plus to an already exciting job.

I thought I would share a picture of home base. Most of the work and data is managed here. It is also a nice view with the ranch horses in our front lawn at the moment 

till next time
Rafael

2 responses so far

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jul 08 2009 | By: zimbabwewilddogs

Hi guys,

I mentioned in another post a while ago that I was concerned about some of the Maera pack pups after a lion was caught on camera at their den site.  Today we had a good sighting of the dogs and confirmed that unfortunately there are only four puppies left – there were originally six.  Nonetheless, the four that remain are utterly adorable and are confident and curious little fellows:

We watched them being fed by one of the adult males.

And just for interests sake, I thought I’d share the following photo with you, from one of our camera traps.  The zebra passed right by the den – stayed there for about 20 minutes – but the dogs didn’t seem at all interested!

Back soon,Rosemary

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Category: Carnivores general, Wild Dogs, zimbabwe | Date: Jul 07 2009 | By: zimbabwewilddogs

Hi Folks, 

I was introduced to the Star pack as my first ever encounter with wild dogs, and I must say it was pretty cool. The Star pack conveniently denned in Chishakwe ranch, which many of you may know is where Rosemary and I are located. The introduction happened a few days after my arrival into Zimbabwe, which I was still adjusting from the long flight from the states. The Star pack were at the den site relaxing enjoying the afternoon. I’ve watched wild dogs on TV growing up, so it was very exciting to see wild dogs for the first time ever in person. It was a great first experience and Im looking foward to the work ahead.

-Rafael

Tags: Wild Dogs, zimbabwe

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jul 07 2009 | By: zimbabwewilddogs

Hi folks,

Time seems to have flown recently and already I see we are into the second week of July!  So apologies for not saying this sooner, but I just wanted to say a huge thank you to those who supported our project in June: Antonio, Deborah (twice!) and William.  Your support is greatly appreciated, especially as we are struggling to find funding during this global economic crisis.  So many, many thanks from us all at the wild dog team and from the dogs themselves!

Thank you!

Rosemary  

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Category: Denning, Uncategorized, Wild Dogs, zimbabwe | Date: Jul 04 2009 | By: zimbabwewilddogs

Hi folks,

Forgive the infrequent posts at the moment - we are rushing around like mad things trying to keep up with the dogs as they all start to den and the pups start appearing.  This is just a brief update of where we are now…

We’ve located 5 den sites so far: the four collared packs (Maera, Mapari, Bedford and Teddy) and one un-collared pack (Star).  The Maera pack pups came out aboout 2-3 weeks ago, but I haven’t mangaged to see them again since they moved dens after the lion visited!  I recently saw the puppies of the Bedford pack for the first time as well.  We only saw 7 but camera trap photos show there to be at least 12.  All very exciting, and they are such fun to watch! 

The other packs have only recently denned down and so the pups are not yet out.  Mapari pack will probably be next, followed by Star pack.  The Teddy pack is quite late and only denned down about 4 days ago.

Having found those den sites, I am now able to ask the scouts to focus on other areas in the conservancy, so hopefully soon we should get a clearer picture of the other packs in the conservancy, and if we can find their den sites, we’ll have the chance to count them and photograph them as a baseline for the forthcoming year.

Back soon,

Rosemary

PS - I’ll conscript Rafael into writing some blogs soon, so you can see the project through a new pair of eyes!

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