PROTECTING A HIGHLY ENDANGERED CARNIVORE

There’s nothing quite like the thrill of encountering African wild dogs, especially when a pack is on the hunt. With their unique patterned coats resembling paint splotches and their intricate social structures, these endangered carnivores are on everyone’s safari bucket list.

The African wild dog is also known as the ‘hunting dog’, ‘African painted dog’ or ‘painted wolf’. No two animals have identical colouring or coat markings. Their vocalisations include alarm barks, rallying howls, and bell-like contact calls that can be detected over long distances. Elaborate greeting rituals are accompanied by twittering and whining.

Wild dog packs require vast areas of habitat to sustain themselves. Aside from the Kruger National Park, which has the largest connected population in southern Africa, their distribution and numbers are increasing in conservation areas that can support the pack’s need for a large home range to roam and hunt. As the largest privately protected area in South Africa, Tswalu Kalahari Reserve is one such reserve providing space for this nomadic species.

Once widespread across sub-Saharan Africa, wild dogs are now the second most endangered carnivore on the continent and the most endangered carnivore in South Africa. These animals are classified as Endangered on the IUCN Red List. Their historic range has declined by more than 90 percent due to habitat fragmentation, human encroachment, disease spread by other canids, snaring, loss of prey, and persecution by farmers due to livestock killings.

Tswalu shares its population information with the Wild Dog Advisory Group and the Endangered Wildlife Trust. Everyone was cautiously optimistic when 12 wild dog pups were born on the reserve in 2023, swelling the existing pack and adding an exciting dimension to game drives. All of them have survived to adulthood. The alpha female gave birth to nine more pups earlier this year, highlighting the vital role of vast wilderness areas in accommodating the critical need for space for this endangered species.

Tswalu’s assistant ecologist, Dr Wendy Panaino, explains some of the challenges of protecting South Africa’s most endangered carnivore: “Wild dogs are capable of escaping fenced reserves and travelling long distances. To monitor their movements, we typically collar the alpha female as the rest of the pack will follow her around. The satellite collar allows us to remotely monitor the pack’s movements across the reserve so that if they do escape, we can track them down easily. The collar updates to Earth Ranger a few times a day for remote monitoring and Tswalu’s field guides and conservation students provide additional information from actual sightings.”

Dr Panaino explains that remote monitoring helps with data collection, specifically what the dogs are eating and how frequently they are successfully making a kill. The data helps the conservation team understand the wild dogs’ impact on herbivore populations.

“We are also interested in understanding how their diet adapts in response to the number of dogs in the pack and to natural herbivore fluctuations,” adds Dr Panaino. “The bigger the pack, the greater the demands especially when there are pups to feed. Our field guides are expected to report all sightings and submit kill reports. Data collection also includes recording mating events so possible pregnancy and denning can be anticipated and locating den sites for monitoring until such time that they can be opened for guests to view. Guides are imperative to wild dog monitoring on the reserve.”

Wild dogs seem to be well adapted to the semi-arid environment of the southern Kalahari. With careful, research-led conservation and wildlife management measures in place, the future of these iconic predators in South Africa’s largest private game reserve looks promising.

Images by Marcus Westberg; Trevor Kleyn, Mark Winckler; Josh Duffus