African Wild Dog

One of the three mammals on the red data list of Southern Africa is the African wild dog, which is also called the painted dog or Cape hunting dog. This amazing predator has been listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List since 1990. In Namibia they are listed as critically endangered and are a protected species. According to the Kalahari African Wild Dog Project there are only 137 to 359 individuals left in the country. They had been for many years listed as problem animals but these days they are now proclaimed as a protected species. Less than 10% of their range is in national parks with most on communal land.

Distribution

Wild dogs are highly mobile predators. According to the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism (MEFT) they occur in Mangetti National Park and on the state-owned Mangetti experimental cattle farm, and occasionally on adjoining communal and commercial farms as well as in the Khaudum and Bwabwata national parks and the surrounding communal areas. Occasionally wild dogs are spotted near Okakarara in the Otjozondjupa Region, and in the Omaheke Region. Most of these large carnivores which live in packs usually numbering from 10 to 15 animals are found in the Kavango and Zambezi regions.

Re-introduction

At the end of the 1980´s there was an attempt to reintroduce African wild dogs in Etosha National Park. Seven pups were found in the Mangetti area east of the park after their parents and other adults had been poisoned. Dr Flip Stander raised the youngsters, brought them together with a captive bred adult and a sub-adult couple and eventually released them all. Within two days they made their first kill in their new home, but after a few weeks their numbers dwindled. The reason, lions. They had never learned to avoid these top predators. The last of the pack was saved but the project was a failure.

Regrettably, many people see wild dogs as brutal killers. But since they run down their prey and instantly pull it apart, they are more successful hunters than lions, for example. They also kill faster than other predators, e.g. lion or leopard. Research shows that wild dogs kill their prey within four minutes whereas lions need an average of ten minutes to suffocate an animal with a bite to the throat.

Conservation

The primary threats to these fascinating animals, which could occasionally be seen a hundred years ago at the Rössing mountain in the Namib Desert, is human-wildlife-conflict and persecution at den sites where they are most vulnerable. Additional threats are prey loss, habitat loss, road mortality, diseases, snaring and secondary poisoning.

Diet

To avoid human-wildlife-conflicts with farmers, these fast (50 km/h) and persevering hunters with a shoulder height of 65 – 80 cm and a mass of 20 – 30 kg should be seen as a highly valuable tourist attraction by the communal farmers in communal conservancies like the Naye-Naye communal conservancy and be marketed as such. On the other hand, farmers could move back to herding their cattle and small stock during the day and to keep the animals in predator-proof kraals at night.

Tourists can play an important role to save these endangered animals by making an effort to see them in their natural surroundings and add value to this species. Places where African wild dogs can best be encountered are the Khaudum National Park, Bwabwata National Park and their neighbouring communal conservancies.

Text and photos Dirk Heinrich