Zimbabwe Wild Dogs

Hi folks,

Before the year continues to run away with us, I wanted to let you all know how your donations were used in 2009.  Altogether the project received about $2800 which we used mainly to buy drugs (and associated accessories) to help to de-snare wild dogs or help other wildlife, such as this buffalo calf which we rescued from a slow and agonising death caught in a snare.

Just one bottle of the main drug used to immobilise herbivores costs $575, so we were very grateful for the donations that allowed us to purchase this.  We still have plenty left for this year as well.  Fortunately, all the other drugs are much cheaper, and we spent a further $1000 buying carnivore immobilisation drugs, reversal drugs, human-antidote drugs, antibitoics, antihelmintics etc.  We spent another $250 or so on darts, needles, antiseptic sprays and gas cannisters for the dart gun.  All of this was put to good use many times during the year, helping to remove snares from wild dogs and remove a collar that was was too tight from a lioness.

As many of you know, Rueben’s wife tragically died in August last year, leaving a 2 week old baby daughter.  Many of you donated money to help Rueben buy the powdered milk that he needed for his daughter. The total amount raised for Rueben was US$220 and this kept his daugher fed for 6 months – we just spent the last of that money last week, on another tin of milk powder.  His daughter, Chiedza, continues to do well, and Rueben wanted me to thank you again for your donations. 

US$500 will go towards our rabies vaccination efforts this year (more on this to follow), and the rest of the money raised (c. US$280) was put towards Rueben and Misheck’s salaries in 2009.

So thank you all once again for your support.  Please keep it up.  We have big plans for this year, and need your support to help us achieve them.  Donating is now quick and easy (and totally secure), and every little helps.  Specifically we are still trying to raise funds for vaccination campaigns, and for Rueben and Misheck’s salaries.

Thank you from us all at the Zimbabwe Wild Dog Project

Happy New Year to all our readers and supporters.  I would like to start this post by thanking all those who have supported us during 2009.  Your donations have really helped to get us through some sticky financial patches and have made a very real difference to the conservation of the wild dogs.  We couldn’t have done what we have without you.

I also want to welcome those relatively new to this blog; thank you for your interest and I hope you continue to enjoy the site over 2010.

We have very exciting plans for 2010 – ambitious and challenging, but with your support and the continued dedication of the team in Zimbabwe we believe we can meet our goals.  We plan to focus on three main branches of conservation this year; environmental education, vaccination campaigns in domestic dogs to prevent the spread of rabies and canine distemper to the wild dogs, and increased investment in anti-poaching.

Education

We aim to expand our current environmental education efforts signifcantly this year, with more schools being included in our program, teacher training workshops planned and the hiring of a local environmental education officer.  We believe environmental education is crucial to any long term conservation initiatives and that well designed, long-term and sustainable education programs are extremely important.

Vaccination Campaigns

Together with vets from the Aware Trust, we plan to carry out vaccination campaigns in the domestic dogs surrounding key wildlife areas in the south-east lowveld of Zimbabwe where we work.  Not only will this considerably reduce the threat to the wildlife from diseases such as rabies and canine distemper, it also has significant health benefits for the domestic dog and human populations.  We also plan to vaccinate as many wild dogs as possible against rabies over the forthcoming year (thanks again to those who donated funds to help buy the vaccines).

Anti-poaching

Snaring is one of the major causes of death for wild dogs in Zimbabwe.  In 2009, over 80% of recorded wild dog mortality was due to snaring.  Many other dogs did not immediately die from the snares, but carried them around their necks or legs, suffering from horrific injuries.  And it is by no means just wild dogs; animals of all species are killed in a terrible way by these indiscriminate snares, in unsustainable numbers.  We plan to help support and expand current anti-poaching efforts, and specifically to focus on keeping wild dog home ranges and den site areas free from snares.  This is the sort of thing we are trying to prevent…

We will also be working more in Gonarezhou National Park next year, with the aim of trying to understand why the wild dog population (and the lion population) is so low there.

I hope you will stick with us during 2010 and I will do my best to keep you updated with our progress in these and other areas.

With best wishes from all of us at the Zimbabwe Wild Dog Project for a peaceful and happy 2010.

Hi folks,

Just a quick post from me today, as I’m actually busy with a 5 day intensive advanced first-aid course.  For the work I do, especially when I’m in Gonarezhou which is fairly remote, I do need to be trained in emergency first aid procedures.  So I’ve temporarily left the wild dog field work in the capable hands of Rueben and Misheck and instead will be spending the week doing this course.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that a couple of days ago, we unfortunately found the collar of the Mapari pack collared male, Darky, lying on the ground.  There is no way that the collar could have come off by itself, but nor did we find any carcass anywhere nearby where the collar was located.  This leads us to suspect a human-caused death of the wild dog, with the collar being removed from the carcass to prevent us finding it.  But we will probably never know for sure.  Darky was collared almost a year ago to the day – the 4th December 2008…

Darky immobilised for collaring whilst a curious pup checks him out

For now, given the loss of the collar, the pack is now virtually impossible to find and so we will struggle to keep an eye on them until we get an opportunity to re-collar.  I only hope that if it was a snare that killed Darky that he was the only one that was caught.  On occasion, snare lines can catch and kill many indivudals in a pack.  I’ll let you know what we find next time we manage to locate the pack.

Rosemary

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

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

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

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

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

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

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