Zimbabwe Wild Dogs

Hi folks,

We were lucky enough to spend a lovely half an hour yesterday evening with the Star Pack, and I’m glad to report they are all doing extremely well.  The pack still consists of 12 individuals; three adults, two yearlings and seven pups.  Here they all are resting by the water pan.

All the dogs looked fit and healthy – no sign of any snare injuries, disease or even a limp.

Star pack pups

Cornflakes, one of the yearlings and one of the boldest dogs we know, was as usual at the front of the pack, approaching the vehicle with utter nonchalance and then waiting patiently for the others to finish drinking and follow her off on a hunt.

Cornflakes – a female yearling wild dog

Excitingly, there were definite signs of interest by the alpha male in the alpha female – behaviour that is a pre-cursor to mating, which should take place within the next couple of months…

Alpha male and female wild dog interacting

Not quite a traditional way to spend Valentines day evening, but it could certainly have been worse!

Back soon,

Rosemary

Hi folks,

A couple of weeks ago I reported on a new pack of six dogs that formed when some of the Bedford males left the Bedford pack and joined up with two unrelated females… We saw this pack several times over the course of about two weeks, using Bingo’s collar to find them.

Bingo, one of the collared wild dogs in the Bedford Pack

So imagine our surprise when on Friday, Rueben was following up on a signal from Bingo’s collar and found not only six dogs, but 31! We spent a long time that afternoon and evening with the dogs, and I managed to get an ID on all of them. It seems that the four Bedford males have re-joined the majority of the Bedford pack again, and their new females were nowhere to be seen.

Members of the Bedford pack resting by water

The pups were very playful – chewing on old bones and ambushing then pouncing on one another…

Bedford pack pups chewing on some old bones

Stretching before leaving on a hunt…

The other collared dogs from the original Bedford pack were not in this group, and we are continuing to try and locate these collars so we can see what the group composition is, but we haven’t had any luck so far.  Unfortunately, our equipment is starting to let us down – our tracking antenna is broken in 3 different places now, and we really need a new one.  A replacement costs $199, plus shipping, and if anyone feels they could contribute towards the purchase of a new antenna, we would be extremely grateful.

Thanks,

Rosemary

Hi folks,

A few days ago, five lions were moved from Malilangwe Trust down to Gonarezhou National Park.  Malilangwe Trust is a relatively small conservation area, and managers needed to reduce the number of lions there.  Neighbouring Gonarezhou NP seemed the sensible place to move some to, given the low lion population densities in the park at the current time.

So on Tuesday night, a pride of five lions were moved into the park.  They were released in an area by a river with plenty of prey, but no other lion prides.  The pride structure was one adult female, two subadult females and two subadult males – all beautiful and healthy lions. 

The five lions at the release site – just prior to being woken up with the reversal drugs (all are blindfolded to protect their eyes from damage).

Lion whisker spots – can be used for identification

The translocation and release went smoothly, and when I checked on the pride the following day they were all doing well. 

Julius tracking to locate the lions

By Thursday, they had moved off and we were unable to locate them from the ground - hampered by very few roads and the fact that the rivers were uncrossable.

The Runde River at the base of the Chilojo Cliffs – not crossable at this time of year

There is a GPS collar on the pride however, so they will be located from the air in the next week or so, and the collar downloaded, so we will be able to see where they have moved off to and settled down. 

Back in the conservancy we continue to have hot, dry days with no sign of rain.  Rueben came back from annual leave yesterday, so hopefully we will have more luck with our efforts to find and count the wild dogs now!

Back soon,

Rosemary

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

Hi folks,

I’m now back in the conservancy after a couple of weeks in the UK with my family.  I was supposed to be back on Saturday, but was delayed in Harare because none of the luggage arrived due to all the snow-related chaos at Heathrow airport.  I eventually drove down to the conservancy yesterday (still without any luggage), to check up on the dogs.

Misheck has been here for the last week or so (Rueben is still on his annual leave), and has been checking up on the dogs.  His reports of pack sizes are encouraging – most of the dogs seem to be doing okay still, and more importantly, there does not seem to be any sign of rabies in any of the packs he has seen. This is still very much a concern though.

However, because the scouts are not in a vehicle (they use motorbikes or mountain-bikes) it’s sometimes hard for them to get really close to the dogs, so I will be going out every day to check up on all the different packs, do a proper head count and check for new snare injuries, signs of rabies etc.  January is also a good time to do a very thorough population census, so we’ll be making every effort to find and properly count all the packs.  I’ll let you know what we find.

It’s not always easy to count the dogs, having said that, even when you are very close……….!

Also – January/February is the time when all the new wild dog pups (now 6 months +) get named, so I’ll post some photos soon, and if anyone has any good names, do let me know!  These two for example – two of the Bedford larger litter – need names…

Back soon,

Rosemary

Hi folks,

I recently realised that I talk a fair amount in this blog about our two wild dog scouts, Rueben and Misheck.  Given that they are critical members of our small team, I thought it would be appropriate to start the new year with a proper introduction of them, especially for those who are new to the blog.

Rueben

Rueben has been with the wild dog project since 1997 – that’s 13 years!  Prior to that he worked as a rhino scout for several years.  He knows the 3500km2 of the Save Valley Conservancy probably better than anyone else and in this alone he is an enormous asset to the project.  In addition he is an exceptional wildlife tracker, and has an uncanny ability to be able to predict wild dog behaviour.  He’s a loyal, honest, hard-working team member and is a genuine pleasure to work with.

Rueben lives in a village not far from the western boundary of the conservancy.  He has 5 children – 4 boys (all at school) and his baby girl Chiedza who was born last year.  After his wife died shortly after she was born, Chiedza is being looked after by his wifes sister…

Rueben will be taking his driving test in a couple of days – I’m sure you will join me in wishing him good luck!

Misheck

Misheck has been with the project for 10 years, and he too is an extremely valuable member of the team.  He’s a hard worker, and an excellent wild dog tracker. 

Misheck also comes from a local village.  He is married with 4 children and seemingly countless neices and nephews! At home, Misheck and his family grow maize and cotton.

Given Rueben and Misheck’s skills and dedication to the project, along with understanding the difficulties they face with trying to support such a large family during these hard times in Zimbabwe, we would like to increase both of their wages considerably this year, and be in a position to help increase their skills base (like paying for Rueben’s driving test).  We are asking for your help to do this.  Please consider either sponsoring one of the scouts on a monthly basis using the monthly donation tab on the right of this page, or making a one-off donation which we will put towards their salaries.  To do that through this blog is quick and efficient, so it will only take a moment of your time to make a huge difference to Rueben and Misheck and their families.

Given all our exciting and challenging plans for 2010 (see the last post) all of us here at the wild dog team  are going to be working extra hard this year, and we are going to need your support. 

Thank you and best wishes from Rueben, Misheck and Rosemary

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.

All of us from the Zimbabwe Wild Dog Project would like to take this opportunity to wish all our readers and supporters a very merry Christmas.  Rueben asked me to send extra special greeting and thanks to those who helped him to feed his baby daughter during the very difficult time after his wife died.

And I would like to add a personal extra thanks to those who have donated to our project this month: Pirjo (twice!), Russell M, Brenton H, Richard F, Yogatama D, Cathy A and Trish W. All your donations this month will go towards protecting the wild dogs against rabies, which is our current most urgent need, so THANK YOU so much.

Anyone else who would like to help support these incredible, highly endangered and wonderfully charismatic animals, a donation can be made quickly and easily through this blog.  It’s not too late to do it before Christmas – and what a special Christmas gift that would be.

Rueben, Misheck and I will be taking some time off to spend with our families over the Christmas period, so this blog may be quiet for a while, but rest assured there are people keeping an eye on the wild dogs for us, and we will be told immediately if any problems arise. 

So from all of us at the Zimbabwe Wild Dog Project, MERRY CHRISTMAS and wishing you all a very happy festive period.

There appears to have been a scorpion infestation in the conservancy recently…. Here’s one of the very, very, very, very,very painful ones.  It was just making its way into my house a few nights ago, although luckily I saw him before he got inside. 

Check out how fat his tail is, and how (relatively!) small his pincers are….

We saw another one recently too; it emerged from under the sofa in the evening, but fortunately was one of the burrowing scorpions, and lots less dangerous, although it could certainly have given us a nasty sting.

Scorpions aside, the dog project is going well.  We’ve recently had a couple of sightings reported in the south of the conservancy where there are only a few dogs, so it’s encouraging when they are seen.  It’s possible numbers are picking up there, as the last report was of a pack larger than any we know of… So it’s either observer error or an entirely new pack – we’ll follow up and see if we can work out what ths story is.  The collared packs (Bedford Pack, Star Pack and Maera Pack) are still looking healthy, although there is still no sign of the missing individuals.

Back soon,

Rosemary