Zimbabwe Wild Dogs

Category: Uncategorized, Wild Dogs, zimbabwe | Date: Nov 18 2009 | By: zimbabwewilddogs

Hi folks,

We recently had an incredible sighting of the wild dogs in the Bedford Pack.  Misheck and I went out to find the dogs in order to download the GPS collar on the pack.  It was a stifflingly hot day, and given the strength and direction of the collar signals we guessed we’d find the dogs under a large baobab tree we could see ahead of us.  Getting close enough however meant going in on foot…   

Fortunately the wind was in our favour and the ground was bare, which allowed us to creep up on them undetected.  They were all sound asleep and didn’t notice us even when we were right up next to them!  We approached from behind the baobab and I was less than a meter from the closest dog when I took these photos. 

How’s this for a carpet of wild dogs?!

The pups were closest to the tree and were all in an interlinking pile of tails, paws, ears and fur….

What a privilege to see this.

Rosemary

Tags: African Wild Dogs, bedford pack, zimbabwe

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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

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

Hi folks,

I’m back briefly from the first phase of field work in Gonarezhou National Park.  We just spent 12 days working in the south of the park, attempting to find and collar lions (to test for TB), and hoping that we may be lucky enough to find some wild dogs.  We were not specifically looking for hyenas, but got to see lots of them too!!

Our approach with the lions was to look for fresh tracks along the roads, follow the spoor for a while until we could guess where the lions might be resting up, and then that night go and play lion-attracting noises on loud speakers, along with setting up a bait, to try to lure the lions within darting range… The first night we tried we attracted a hyena, a civet and a large herd of elephants who were not best pleased by the noises of squealing pigs and dying buffalos, so we had to abort our efforts rather abruptly!

The following night, we had only been calling for about 15 minutes when a beautiful lioness stalked up.  Unfortunately she came over to my vehicle which was playing the sound, rather than over to the bait where the vets were waiting to dart her!  Eventually she got the idea and went towards the bait, but by this time a large clan of hyenas had been attracted to the bait and did a very thorough job of keeping her away!  Even had we had an opportunity to dart her, we could not have done so with so many hyeanas around, as they may have attacked her once she was too drugged to defend herself and before we could get to her.  So we contented ourselves with observing the interactions for a while and then packed everything up and left them in peace.

We didnt get many other opportunities to dart lions there - although we will be continuing to try over the next week or so - but did manage to track and find a pack of wild dogs which was MOST exciting!  We found fresh spoor early one morning and followed it for a few hours until we came across where the dogs were resting.  Unfortunately, as wild dogs tend to do (!), they saw and smelt us before we had a good look at them and bounded off.  Nonetheless, from the tracks and the number we actually saw, it seems to be a good sized pack - at least 15 adults and 10 pups.  It was also the first pack of dogs I have seen in the park and was thus doubly as exciting! 

Anyway, I’ll be heading back into the park on Sunday for another week or so, to continue to look for both lions and wild dogs and will post again when I’m back.  Hopefully I’ll have some more exciting pictures to show you then!

Rosemary  

Tags: call-ups, Gonarezhou National Park, hyenas, lions, spoor, Wild Dogs, zimbabwe

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Category: Carnivores general, Wild Dogs, zimbabwe | Date: Oct 11 2009 | By: zimbabwewilddogs

Hi folks,

This blog will be quiet for the next couple of weeks I’m afraid: I’m going into Gonarezhou National Park to see if we can find some lions (no tigers or bears hopefully) to help some vets who want to survey the lion population for bovine Tuberculosis (bTB).  Obviously this is largely a disease of bovids, but lions can get it from eating infected carcasses and it has been a big problem for the lions in neighbouring Kruger National Park in South Africa. 

The lion population in Gonarezhou seems to be very low at the moment, and we will be starting a project to investigate why this might be, alongside our work on the wild dogs in the park.  Helping the vets with the bTB survey and getting some collars on at the same time will be a good place to start.  It will be no small challenge though!

Anyway, I’m going down to the south of the park tomorrow where there are no communication facilities, so wont be updating this blog for a while.  Rest assured we won’t be slacking though (!) and will post again with all the news when I’m back somewhere with internet connection. 

I have Reuben with me to help track the lions and wild dogs if we do find fresh spoor, and have left Misheck monitoring the wild dogs in the Save Valely Conservancy….

Back soon (hopefully!),

Rosemary

Tags: bovine TB, bTB, Gonarezhou, lions, Wild Dogs

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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: Carnivores general, zimbabwe | Date: Oct 05 2009 | By: zimbabwewilddogs

Hi folks,

Just a quick post this time (and apologies but no photos!), as I am flat out with the carnivore spoor survey.  We’ve been starting at 5:00 every day to get to the start of the transects in time for sunrise when we begin driving slowly along the roads. The trackers scan for spoor and we record any fresh carnivore tracks we see - however big or small. 

We are finding a lot of evidence of lions and hyenas, supporting our belief that the populations of these two higher carnivores are increasing considerably in the conservancy.  Good for their numbers but bad for wild dogs with whom they will compete for prey and even kill the pups…  

Leopard numbers are good but we have seen virtually no sign of cheetah.  I’ll let you know more when we’ve finished and got some firmer results.  In the meantime, I just wanted to let you know why we are a bit quieter than normal here…

Back soon,

Rosemary  

Tags: Carnivores, cheetah, hyena, leoards, lion, spoor, tracks, Wild Dogs, zimbabwe

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Category: Uncategorized, Wild Dogs, zimbabwe | Date: Sep 22 2009 | By: zimbabwewilddogs

Hi folks,

We have some exciting news to report.  A new pack of three wild dogs has shown up in the south of the conservancy.  Rueben has once again proved his incredible skills as a tracker.  Faced with the seemingly impossible task of locating a small, un-collared pack of wild dogs across a range of hundreds of square kilometers with long grass hampering off-road tracking, he persevered and a couple of weeks ago found the dogs resting in a reasonably accessible location.  He managed to take a some photos before going to tell Lin Barrie (the wildlife artist and conservationist who lives on the property), who also managed to get some great photos.

As usual with wild dogs, given that they can be individually recognised by their coat patterns, photos are crucial to our understanding of which dogs are where and who is in which pack.  Excitingly, I don’t recognise any of these three dogs, which means they are not simply a breakaway group of another pack, but an entirely new group.  Add 3 to our conservancy wild dog population!!!

Moreover, the dogs seem to be settling in the south of the conservancy, where they have been seen several times recently.  This is wonderful, as they considerably augment the rather depleted population that was down in that area previously!

I’ve asked Rueben if he would like to name the pack, so once he has decided what to call them, I’ll let you know,

Back soon,

Rosemary

Tags: Wild Dogs, zimbabwe

2 responses so far

Category: Carnivores general, Other wildlife, zimbabwe | Date: Sep 20 2009 | By: zimbabwewilddogs

Hi folks,

We recently had an amazing opportunity to go to a spotted hyena den with some film makers on Malilangwe Conservancy - a wildlife area to the south of the Save Valley Conservancy.  The hyena clan was a large one with six 8-month old cubs who were wonderfully curious and playful.  It was a real privilege to be able to spend some time with them at the den and they were very relaxed, being habituated to the filming car.  I just wanted to share these photos with you….

They aren’t quite as cute as wild dog pups, but they aren’t far off!

Have a look at Kim Wolhuter’s blog site (wildcast.net) for more photos and videos about the wild dogs and hyenas they are filming…

Back soon,

Rosemary

Tags: malilangwe, spotted hyenas, zimbabwe

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