Zimbabwe Wild Dogs

Hi folks,

A couple of weeks ago we went to the Bedford Splinter Pack den site, only to find it abandoned.  We looked around but there was no recent sign of any wild dog activity so we checked the camera trap to see if that would shed some light on what happened.  Unfortunately, because it was not an infra-red camera we were unable to establish the reason they chose to move dens.  But we did get some great shots of the alpha female carrying the pups away to their new den.

It may well have been lion disturbance or something like that – because I switch the flash off on these cameras when I put them at the dens, any night time activity is simply recorded as a black photograph.  And there were more than 100 of these blank, black photos the night before they moved dens, suggesting perhaps a nocturnal visitor which scared them off….  This is an image captured at one of last years dens.

Infra-red camera traps cost US$200 each – if anyone would consider sponsoring the project enough to buy one (or even go towards buying one) we would be very grateful.  They are extremely valuable tools and the information we get from them is exceptionally useful.  Without these, the lion activity at den sites is going to go pretty much unrecorded unfortunately.  We have 3 and need at least 4 more.  If you can help, please click on the DONATE button on the right hand side of this page or go to our project home page by following this link.

Thank you,

Rosemary