Zimbabwe Wild Dogs

Category: Gonarezhou National Park, Wild Dogs, zimbabwe | Date: Oct 31 2009 | By: zimbabwewilddogs

Hi folks,

I realise I haven’t actually posted much about wild dogs recently.  This is by no means because there is nothing to report – I’ve just chosen to tell you about a few other things we’ve been up to recently instead.  (When you work in conservation in a place with such critical conservation needs as Zimbabwe and with so few people on the ground, you are bound to get involved in other conservation efforts from time to time).

Anyway, I just wanted to give you an update on the state of the wild dog population here in Zimbabwe’s lowveld.  Excitingly, evidence we found during the recent field trip to Gonarezhou National Park suggests there are more wild dogs there than previously thought, and the packs seem to be breeding well.  On one occasion we actually saw at least 10 pups, and in another area we saw tracks of a large pack with numerous adults and pups.

The wild dog population in the Save Valley Conservancy remains strong, and all packs are doing well.  Both the Teddy Pack and the new Raf pack lost their litter of pups to lions this year, but the survival of other litters has been good.  The Star Pack are all still present and correct – 6 adults and 8 pups, as is the Maera pack – 8 adults and 3 pups.  Our super-pack, the Bedford pack, numbers 42 individuals now – 24 adults and 18 pups!  The last sighting of the Mapari pack was only of 18 dogs – there should be 20 if all have survived – but there may have been more in the bushes!

Some individuals of the Maera pack, including the 3 pups

As for the south of the conservancy, there is certainly a lot more wild dog activity down there than we have seen for the past couple of years, which is extremely encouraging.  The new pack of three dogs I wrote about in an earlier post is by all accounts doing well – Rueben has named them the Delta Pack.  And our de-snared male Willy Wonka and his Mrs (Mavericks pack) have now got three pups, which is excellent news.  There was no breeding in the south of the conservancy last year, which was a big concern, so even a small litter is a positive sign of population recovery.  It is possible there is another pack of five dogs in the south as well – maybe a pack we know as the Impala pack, but we aren’t yet sure about that.

Delta dogs!

So, minimum (known) number of wild dogs in the conservancy now totals 105 individuals (64 adults and 41 pups), in eight different packs.  We do suspect there are maybe one or two additional packs as well.

In Gonarezhou National Park, there are at least 36 individuals in at least 2 separate packs, but I would not be surprised if there were 50 or more – we just need to do some more work in the area to confirm.

Malilangwe Trust, a private wildlife area situated between the Save Valley Conservancy and Gonarezhou National Park, also has wild dogs.  They currently have only one pack which numbers about 19 individuals. They used to have over 40 dogs in three packs, but these were unfortunately wiped out by rabies in 2007…

Unfortunately, most other areas in the south-east lowveld of Zimbabwe that used to support wild dogs no longer do, after having been re-settled during Zimbabwe’s fast-track land reform program.  One exception is Bubye River Conservancy which apparently hosts between 20 and 40 dogs.  Occasionally, there are (reliable) reports of wild dogs seen outside of any protected area, which is encouraging for dispersal and increasing genetic variation within the overall population.

Anyway, I just wanted to give you a summary of the situation here in terms of wild dog numbers.  Key protected areas are still supporting reasonable populations, but the story in much of the remaining landscape is bleak.  Snaring remains a constant threat to the dogs, both within and outside protected areas, as does rabies and other diseases which can be spread from domestic dogs.  However, increased anti poaching efforts in SVC and Gonarezhou should start to make a noticeable difference and efforts are being made by the Tikki Hywood Trust and AWARE Trust to vaccinate domestic dogs for rabies, which will also help to reduce that threat.

Anyhow, I will be taking some time off from tomorrow until the 13^th November, so this blog will be quiet for the next couple of weeks.  Unfortunately I don’t have anyone who can keep it updated while I am away, but I promise I’ll get back to you all as soon as I get back.

Rosemary

Tags: carnivore populations, Gonarezhou National Park, Wild Dogs, zimbabwe, Zimbabwe's lowveld

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Category: Gonarezhou National Park, Other wildlife, zimbabwe | Date: Oct 30 2009 | By: zimbabwewilddogs

Hi folks,

Apologies for the deviation from wild dogs - yet again!  I just had to share this story with you.

The Zimbabwean lowveld has been struggling with some major bush fires in the last month.  Much of the southern half of the Save Valley Conservancy was burnt, tragically including Senuko Lodge which was one of the most stunning places it’s possible to imagine. 

Gonarezhou has also been fighting fires… In the process, Hugo and Elsabe van der Westhuizen from Frankfurt Zoological Society (which works with the Zimbabwean Parks and Wildlife Management Authority to help conserve the Gonarezhou ecosystem) noticed a baby porcupine fleeing from the fire.  He had badly burnt feet and was never going to beat the fire, so Hugo (amidst much cursing I would imagine!), used his shirt to grab the spikey little fellow and took him back to their camp for rehabilitation.

He adapted well to his new home, enjoying the darkness of his box during the day time and coming out at night to potter around and eat the offerings Elsabe put out for him (porcupines are naturally nocturnal).  He seems to be particularly keen on potatoes, apple and sadza (the local staple food of maize meal).

With the use of gardening gloves and oven gloves (!) we managed to treat the wounds on his feet and give him an injection of long-acting antibiotics - no small challenge, I might say! He seems to be a lot better already, and his feet are healing nicely.

Bless him!

I’ll let you know how he does and how his re-introduction back into the bush goes. 

Rosemary

Tags: bush fires, Gonarezhou, porcupine, zimbabwe

One response so far

Category: Carnivores general, Gonarezhou National Park, Other wildlife, Wild Dogs, lions, zimbabwe | Date: Oct 29 2009 | By: zimbabwewilddogs

Hi folks,

I’m finally back from three weeks in the wilderness of Gonarezhou.  As you will see from the last two posts, I did actually have a few days at park HQs in the middle of the stay, so this is the story of what happened in phase two of the trip…

After a few days of ‘admin’ at HQ, I set off once again with Rueben and a National Parks research assistant Julius, for the three hour drive across the park into the eastern area where we were hoping to find signs of wild dogs, and if we were lucky to get a collar on to a lion.  The first evening we were there, we drove out to a stunning water-filled pan full of birds and surrounded by groups of impala, warthogs, baboons, zebra, wildebeest and even the rare and spectacular sable antelope. 

We saw no fresh lion or wild dog spoor, but it seemed like a good place for predators, so we decided to set up a calling station in an open area nearby and see what came.  To attract predators, the usual method is to play the sound of a dying buffalo calf over loudspeakers and see what comes to investigate.  In this instance, however, instead of attracting predators, we attracted a large and rather anxious herd of buffalo, come to save their calf!! 

They were very persistent and we could do nothing for the next hour or so, until they moved off to drink.  After that, our call-up attracted 3 black-backed jackals and a civet, but no larger predators…  

At least until I changed tactic and played a lion roar, at which point an immediate and very load answering roar told us there was in fact a lion not too far away!! Although the moon was only half full it was bright enough for me to make out the lion through binoculars – a beautiful male with a half-black mane.  Great!  It was wonderful to know he was around, and we decided we would try to lure him to bait the following night to try to collar him.

As it turned out, he could not have been more co-operative!  Early the next morning, I was woken up at 4:30 by the sound of a lion roaring.  I got up to investigate, and there was the lion strolling along past the camp (maybe 150m away)…  So I flung on some clothes, jumped into the car, prepared the drugs and a dart and went after him.  We followed him for a while but then lost him in thick bush, so decided rather to wait for the evening when lions become active again.   We called him again, and he came to the bait around half past eight.  I managed to dart him, and discovered (to my great surprise to say the least!) that he already had a very old, dysfunctional collar on.  Bizarre!!  This turned out to be from the wildlife reserve neighbouring the park, in which he had been collared in 2002, and from where he went missing in 2005! It turns out he is 10-11 years old, which is OLD for a lion, and evidenced by his very worn teeth.   

Despite this, he was in good condition, albeit slightly thin, and it will be great to be able to keep an eye on him now that he is collared.  The collar will hopefully also prevent him getting shot on one of the hunting concessions outside the park.  We also took some blood samples to be able to test for various diseases - Bovine TB is a particular concern, and for genetic analyses to help us establish whether there is any inbreeding in the lion population in the park. 

We are doing all this work (by the way) because there are worryingly few lions in Gonarezhou National Park, which should be a prime area for the conservation of the species, and we need to find out what factors are keeping their population so low, so we can try and do something about it.  Lion and wild dog populations are also linked in many ways, so getting an idea of the abundance and distribution of the lions in the park also has key significance for understanding wild dog populations. 

On that note, we also found evidence of more wild dogs in the park, which was extremely encouraging, and which I will report on in a separate posting. 

Back soon, 

Rosemary

Tags: call-up stations, Gonarezhou, lions, sable, Wild Dogs

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