It’s a rare sight; the Wild Dog darts across open savanna, working with other pack members in a sort of choreographed frenzy. The hunt is synchronised, each dog takes its turn, chasing and taunting. Before long the pack has worn down their prey; where only moments ago excitement and loud calls could be heard across the landscape, now silence remains. “The lonely wolf dies, but the pack survives.”
How is it then, considering the skill and practised accomplishment of an event so well planned and executed, that the “painted wolves of Africa” could be facing extinction?
Reproduction
The African Wild Dog, or Lycaon pictus, is a social creature which lives in a pack of 10 to 40 members. These packs consist of an alpha male, an alpha female and several male and female subordinates, but the alpha female is the only bitch in the pack allowed to reproduce. All members of the pack provide and care for the young.
Whelping can occur for the dominant female every 11 months, between April and September, with litters of approximately 11 pups. These pups reach sexual maturity at close to 2 years of age, but begin leaving the pack six months before that. Interesting to observe, Wild Dogs have a built-in characteristic to avoid inbreeding and will avoid opposite sex, biological family members even when in close proximity.
Threats
Considering that there are approximately 500 Wild Dogs in the Kruger National Park and a smaller pack in the Waterberg, and that they are considered to be the only viable breeding populations of Wild Dogs left in South Africa, these breeding habits make for poor population growth. Wild Dogs are also notoriously shy animals, who roam over large territories and rarely “claim” land to settle down. This means that habitat loss to farming and development of human infrastructure has largely affected migration patterns for the species; coupled with Lions and Hyenas as the Wild Dogs main enemies, who often kill pack members or steal their food sources and the future for these “painted wolves of Africa” begins to look rather bleak. The past 20 years have also seen their numbers drastically plummet as farmers continue to target and kill Wild Dog populations, out of a feeling of hate for their ruthless hunting methods, or concern for killing livestock. While the number of farmers killing Wild Dogs is on the decline, it is still a concern for the population. As highly sociable creatures, Wild Dogs are known to roam into developed areas and make contact with domestic dogs; this oft times results in illness, distemper and rabies within the susceptible species.
Conservation
It is estimated that less than 6 000 Wild Dogs remain in Africa, with approximately 1 500 mature individuals. Figures across sources fluctuate drastically, due to the difficulty in tracking the species as they roam across large territories. As a result of the declining number of Wild Dogs across Africa, many conservationists and conservation groups have banned together to find ways to re-populate the species and save our “painted wolves of Africa” from extinction.
Wildlife ACT is on a mission to preserve and re-establish the African Wild Dog population in Africa and, in 2017, assisted in sponsoring and releasing eight Wild Dogs into the Kruger National Park. Their projects include monitoring and studying small populations within various nature reserves.
The Endangered Wildlife Trust has sponsored a long-term project, which commenced in 1989, to study and understand these creatures and to use the knowledge gained to improve on strategies to manage the Wild Dog population. Along with this initiative, is their Waterberg Wild Dogs Conservation Project aimed at protecting this young population and landowners, game and the environment the pack calls home.
World Wildlife Fund for Nature is actively seeking ways to expand on Wild Dog’s territories to re-establish the habitat which was previously lost to them; this includes creating buffering zones between reserves and working with private game farms.
This incredible species represents yet another fragment of African heritage, slowly being eroded by human habitat disruption. The “painted wolves of Africa” are such a sight to behold and it would be tragic for their imprint to be lost to the world.