Zimbabwe Wild Dogs

Category: Wild Dogs, poaching, zimbabwe | Date: Oct 08 2009 | By: zimbabwewilddogs

Hi folks,

I thought it about time I gave you an update on the welfare of the snared wild dogs that you will have read about in this blog. 

Last year, we managed to remove a snare from around the waist of an adult male dog living in the south of the conservancy. 

The snare was succesfully removed but having cut off the penile sheath we were somewhat concerned about his future breeding ability.  Affectionately known as ‘Willy Wonka’, he has however gone on to do what wild dogs do best and surprised us all by fathering a litter of four puppies this year!! 

Another very positive surprise was the pup from last year who had a horrific injury from a snare tight around his neck:

Despite our best efforts, we actually never succeeded in removing this snare and feared the worst for this little fellow, whom we named Bandit.  However, I’m happy to report that he survived, lost the snare and is now an active member of his pack.  He’s particularly good with this years litter of pups and I often see him checking on the pups or regurgitating for them. 

The adult male (Brownie) whom we de-snared in August is also still doing well.  He was the alpha male of his pack and is now fit and healthy with no sign of injury…

And lastly, Hopalong, the beautiful yearling female from the Bedford Pack who had that horrible deep snare wound under her leg…

She also recovered extremely well and has gone from badly limping to showing no sign of a limp at all….

Despite the happy ending of the stories of these individuals, snaring remains a constant threat to wild dogs and other wildlife in the conservancy.  More than 18 wild dogs have been killed by snares in the past few years and the threat remains undiminished.  Nonetheless, the recent employment of an overall anti-poaching manager in the conservancy, as well as new and improved monitoring systems will hopefully start to make a difference, and I hope we have less de-snaring to do over the forth coming year.

Thanks for the support of everyone who has helped these dogs through their donations to the project.  Given how highly endangered the species is, every single individual matters and saving one can be the making of a whole new pack, as in the case of Willy Wonka!

Back soon,

Rosemary

Tags: pups, snares, snaring, Wild Dogs, zimbabwe

One response so far

Category: Wild Dogs, poaching, zimbabwe | Date: Sep 03 2009 | By: zimbabwewilddogs

Hi folks,

Some good news to report today: we managed to dart and remove a snare from another wild dog a couple of days ago.  She was a beatuful female yearling in the Bedford Pack - tentatively named Hopalong beacuse of the snare wound under her front right leg which made her limp badly. 

Here’s a picture of her with the snare (note the wound behind the front right leg, and the limp):

I was helped by Rafael, together with Karen Paolillo from the Turgwe Hippo Trust and a volunteer of theirs, and the snare removal all went well.  Karen found the dog after she had gone down (they tend to run off into thick bush after being darted and it can take a while to find them!), and quickly blindfolded her and removed the snare.  The wound was very deep and wide, but remarkably clean, thanks to the caring and social nature of the other pack members.

We did what we could - cleaning, disinfecting and spraying something to prevent tick/maggot or screw-worm infection, and gave her a dose of long-acting Penicillin.   

She recovered well from the immobilisation, and the following day when we went back to the den to check on her, she appeared with barely even a limp.  Such incredible resilience! 

This is once again thanks to the support of you folks out there who enabled us to buy the drugs. 

Rosemary

Tags: recovery from snare injury, snaring, Wild Dogs, wound treatment, zimbabwe

6 responses so far

Category: Wild Dogs, poaching, zimbabwe | Date: Aug 22 2009 | By: zimbabwewilddogs

Hi folks,

Sorry we have been quiet recently.  Both Rafael and I have been out in the field from sun-up to sun-down doing our best to remove snares from dogs.  Unfortunately we havent yet been successful - the affected dogs are very skittish and wary and we simnply cant get close to them - but we will keep trying.

On a more positive note, the dogs we have de-snared recently are doing well, and aside from the litter of pups that was killed by lions, the pups are generally doing well as well.  Many of them are now getting to the really cute age where they are curious and inquisitive and come up to the car to check you out - cute photos coming soon I promise!

Hopefully we’ll have some good news to report on the de-snaring in the next few days too, but if it’s quiet on the blog, you’ll now know why!

Back soon,

Rosemary

Tags: snaring, wild dog puppies, Wild Dogs, zimbabwe

2 responses so far

Category: Other wildlife, poaching, zimbabwe | Date: Aug 15 2009 | By: zimbabwewilddogs

Hi folks, 

As I mentioned, I was asked the other day to help rescue a buffalo calf that was caught in a snare.  I was a bit nervous because I hadn’t worked on buffalo before but something had to be done so off I went.  Below is a picture of the buffalo as I first saw him: struggling to free himself from the wire caught tight around his back left leg…

Having estimated drug combinations and doses from an excellent ‘wildlife capture’ book, I darted the little fellow and then moved off to let him relax and go to sleep. 

After about 15 minutes he was pretty much out although still twitching his ears and moving his head occasionally.  We blindfolded him and blocked his ears to reduce stressful stimuli (light and noise) and then removed the snare from around his leg.  It had dug very deep into the skin but looked like it would heal: we washed it out and disinfected it, and gave him some long-acting antibiotics (although I later found out from a wildlife vet that I should have given him a much higher dose of antibiotics and perhaps some anti-inflammatory: oh well, we live and learn).

Unfortunately this story does not have a happy ending though.  After we finished treating the buffalo I reversed the drugs and we moved off to watch him recover.  He was close to water and the rest of the herd was not far away so he would have had a good chance of making it, but unfortunately as soon as he came around it became clear that something was wrong.  We had ascertained that his leg was not broken while we had him immobilised, but it turned out that he had dislocated it at the hip trying to pull out of the snare.  He was evidently in a lot of pain and such an injury would not heal naturally, so very sadly he had to be put out of his misery.  Another waste of an animals life by these cruel snares.

But despite the sad ending, I learned a lot, which will equip me better to deal with such incidents in the future, and for the buffalo, it was a lot better than a slow death from dehydration and starvation in the snare, coupled with the pain of a dislocated leg, so I do believe that we still helped him.

Hopefully the next post will bring some cheerier news!

Rosemary

Tags: buffalo, buffalo calf, poaching, snaring, zimbabwe

4 responses so far

Category: Wild Dogs, poaching, zimbabwe | Date: Aug 08 2009 | By: zimbabwewilddogs

Hi folks,

Rosemary here again - sorry I have been quiet recently; I was away for a while and then have been busy in the field since I got back.  Anyway, the day before yesterday I got a call about a badly snared dog.  We rushed straight out but didnt manage to find the dog again, although our tracker Misheck did manage to follow the tracks from where the dogs had been seen and locate a den site.  This was good news: not only was that another den site located but it would give us a chance of finding the injured dog again.  So yesterday morning I went out again and fortunately we found the snared dog near the den.  The wire from the snare was all around his neck and clearly irritating him, and the wound looked bad (note the wire in the photo below)…

 Luckily we successfully managed to immobilise the dog and remove the snare.

The wound was pretty bad but fortunately had not cut through the wind pipe and was fairly clean, so I think we got there in time…

Fortunately I had my family visiting me and all were very helpful ensuring the dog got the best possible care.  We cleaned and disinfected the wound and gave him a dose of long-acting penicillin to prevent infection.  Then we gave him the reversal drugs and watched him until he was safely on his feet again.

When I checked on him this morning, he was with the other males in the pack and looking fine - it was clearly a relief to him to be able to rest his head without the snare wire catching on things. 

So that was a pretty busy morning, but about half an hour after I got back home, I got a call to come and rescue a buffalo calf caught in a snare.  Again we successfully managed to do this, and I will post a blog about it in a few days.  But I just want to thank those who donated money for the drugs because had I not had those drugs I would not have been able to help either the dog or the buffalo.

Back soon,

Rosemary

Tags: darting, injury, poaching, snaring, wild dog immobilisation, Wild Dogs, zimbabwe

2 responses so far

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: 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

2 responses so far

Category: Rhino, poaching, zimbabwe | Date: May 15 2009 | By: zimbabwewilddogs

Hi folks,

I’m deviating slightly here from the wild dog theme to publicise an art exhibition being held for an extremely worthwhile cause.  A friend of mine in the Save Valley Conservancy, Lin Barrie, is an incredible artist as well as a dedicated conservationist and is holding an exhibition in South Africa next week in aid of rhino conservation.  Entitled “My tears they came down”, this is a moving exhibition focussing on the plight of the rhino - both black and white - in Southern Africa today.  Lin’s paintings were prompted by the death of a young rhino cow in the conservancy named Ice, killed with an AK47 in November 2008, a year after her mother met the same fate. 

The Save Valley Conservancy was established in 1990 as a rhino intensive protective zone (IPZ).  Twenty black rhino were reintroduced from the Zambezi Valley, and the number had increased to 140 individuals by 2005, illustrating the success of the conservation intitiative.  Tragically, over the past three years, 33 of these magnificent and valuable animals have been poached for their horn, which is used in the Far East for traditional medicine.  In neighbouring South Africa, 2008 saw a minimum of 76 rhino deaths, 37 of which were in the Kruger National Park.  This is now a desperate situation that needs immediate focus and attention.

With the assistance of the European Commission (EC) a fund has been set up (under the auspices of the Lowveld Rhino Trust) to establish an anti-poaching unit and to improve the intelligence base which will increase the success in persecuting rhino poachers.  However, this fund is established with the requirement that the conservancy match the funds…  Lin’s exhibition, and other fundraising attempts are aiming to get support for this critical anti-poaching unit. 

Lin is also passionate about the conservation of wild dogs, and their persecution by snaring is also a focus of many of her painitings.  Needless to say any anti-poaching efforts, even if co-ordinated by the Lowveld Rhino Trust, will help reduce the threat to these incredible animals as well.

I know that most of you are in the States, but if anyone is in South Africa or has friends or colleagues there who might be interested in going to the exhibition, it’s on from 21st to 24th May at the White River Gallery, in White River, South Africa.  There are of course also ways of donating to the Lowveld Rhino Trust without attending the exhibition and I have all the details if anyone thinks they may be able to help.  Have a look at this Times article for more information.  Any donations made through this blog can go directly to this cause as well, just leave a comment in the comments section.

Thanks,

Rosemary

Tags: rhino poaching, rhinos, zimbabwe

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Category: Other wildlife, Uncategorized, Wild Dogs, poaching, zimbabwe | Date: May 01 2009 | By: zimbabwewilddogs

Hi folks,

Zimbabwe’s wildlife needs some help…  Those of you who are regular readers of this blog will know that poaching - especially snaring - in the remainder of Zimbabwe’s wildlife areas is posing a severe threat to the viability of our wildlife populations.  I recently got back to the Savé Valley Conservancy in Zimbabwe’s south-east lowveld from a couple of weeks away in South Africa.  Informally chatting to people back in the conservancy, the scale of the poaching problem facing our wildlife struck me forcibly once again:

“… unfortunately we lost a giraffe to a snare last week”

“… if you see those tracks of the elephant calf dragging the snare, let us know”

“… yesterday we saw a badly injured wildebeest dragging a snare, with a log attached to it; I wish there was something we could do”

“…I found a zebra with a snare round its neck, and told the manager who came to shoot it” (report from one of my scouts)

The desperate situation in the country is one cause of this enormous upsurge of wildlife poaching.  However, whilst some of this is genuinely ‘subsistence hunting’ to feed families, many people have taken advantage of the chaos and lack of law enforcement to turn to commercial poaching.  The scale of this is extortionate and un-sustainable. 

A recent article published in the Times  highlights the problem for the rhino population.  This article is well worth reading. 

The aftermath of rhino poaching

In this blog, I have frequently highlighted the problem for the wild dogs. 

But it is not just these key species which are suffering.  Snaring (the main form of poaching used in this area) is an indiscriminate, cruel and wasteful method of killing.  In my post of 2^nd April, I gave some facts and figures about this, and just want to reiterate the main ones:

In a seven year period, conservancy scouts have removed over 75,000 snares and found over 6,000 animals dead (these included rhinos, leopards, wild dogs, sable, nyala, cheetah etc).  And the wastage, as mentioned, is horrific. Of the 1,421 animals killed in snares during August 2005-November 2008, 60% were found rotten or scavenged, and only 14% were extracted by illegal hunters. 

This  magnificent leopard was caught in a snare in Feburary this year

However, it is by no means all doom and gloom and the good news is that there are a lot of dedicated people trying to help.  Progress is being made at all levels.  Here are some examples of things that are being done:

- The establishment of a project with EU funding to provide a legal supply of bushmeat to the surrounding communities to alleviate some of the poaching pressure

- A creation of awareness amongst the local politicians and at government level, as well as internationally

- Anti-poaching teams on all ranches and efforts to establish a ‘crack-unit’ of highly trained and armed scouts to operate throughout the conservancy

- Efforts by trained and licensed biologists to rescue wildlife trapped in snares and to immobilise and treat injured individuals carrying snares

We at the African Wildlife Conservation Fund are instrumental in helping to achieve all these goals. However, it is to help us achieve the last goal that we need your help.  I recently received training and a license to immobilise all wildlife species within the conservancy for the purposes of desnaring and treatment.  There are two other people in the conservancy who are also now licensed to do this, and between us we hope to be able to help the wildlife. 

Snared wild dog immobilised for treatment

Unfortunately, as mentioned in the post of 2^nd April, the cost of the drugs required is very high.  For example 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 much more 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…).

We are also supporting the conservancy anti-poaching efforts by trying to raise money for incentives for the game scouts, and also for radios and uniforms for them.  Any donations to either of these causes would be extremely appreciated, and we can assure you every cent goes directly to the wildlife or the scouts.

Many thanks in advance,

Rosemary

Tags: poaching, snaring, Wild Dogs, Zimbabwe's wildlife

6 responses 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