Painted Dog Conservation - July 2018 View this email in your browser Every individual matters but recently we had to take that ethos to another level and rescue an entire pack that was in danger having denned in an adjacent communal land area. Read about our Daring painted Dog Puppy Rescue and also follow this https://youtu.be/b1YS8aCKlf4 link to watch the video.



The Destiny Pack denned very early and have ten boisterous pups but denning season has its challenges for the dogs.



Celebrating 15 years of life-changing work at our Iganyana Children’s Bush Camp. DONATE NOW ! Daring Painted Dog Puppy Rescue They say success comes in many forms but none can be as appealing as the story of these three-week old pups!



Five weeks ago, Jealous followed up on reports that two painted dogs were predating on livestock in a village. The village is Pindo, and it’s 100 km south east of PDC as the crow flies, or three hours by road. As such it’s not a community we interact with. However, they knew about our work and in particular our Children’s Bush Camp. Jealous reported back that, indeed, there was cause for concern and so we were not surprised when a second report came in last week saying the dogs were denned and definitely predating on local livestock. This time it was Zulu, the head of our anti-poaching units, who investigated the report and met with the local representatives on the ground. The sentiments expressed were simply that the predation was just too much and the impoverished villagers were prepared to take their own action to solve the problem unless we removed the problem. Unless we removed the dogs. As harsh as that sounds, we viewed it as a hugely positive step forward. In the past, the villagers would not have informed us of the presence of dogs in the community. They would simply have killed the dogs. The fact that they knew about our work, despite being so far away, and that they went to the considerable trouble of contacting us, is tremendous progress and a testament to our belief that changing attitudes and behaviour is working. Indeed, the villagers showed patience and understanding as Zulu explained that we would not pay compensation for the lost livestock and it might take us a few days to get permission and make preparations for the tricky capture and relocation of the dogs.



Back at PDC we agreed that the safest place for the pups was at our Rehabilitation facility. The team at the Rehab Centre worked around the clock to prepare for the new arrivals, while Jealous and I prepared for their capture. From experience, we know that painted dogs that live in these settings of communal or farm land are typically very, very nervous. Not at all relaxed like the packs we see on a daily basis in Hwange National Park or Mana Pools. This is because the latter see people all the time and have never been threatened by them. Indeed, in Mana Pools you can even approach the painted dogs on foot without alarming them. Our Rehabilitation facility is a critical feature of the PDC infrastructure and, quite literally, has saved the lives of dozens of painted dogs. We are committed to protecting the life of t each individual painted dog. Because saving the life of one can, and does, make a significant difference to the population. The story of the orphaned dog, Vusile, whom we housed at our Rehab for a few months while she recovered, illustrates the point. We can trace more than 130 painted dogs back to Vusile’s lineage. Without the Rehab, the rescue mission that lay ahead would be impossible. When we are ready our small team sets out before first light for the three-hour drive to the village. Upon arrival, we meet with Moyo, the local guide who will direct us to the den and also with the local Headman, Mr Nyathi, informing him of the operation that will remove the painted dogs from the area.



Moyo takes Jealous and me to the den so we can assess the situation. A male painted dog watches us from a distance of 60m. The only sound he makes comes from his rhythmic footsteps on the dry leaf litter. The clock is now ticking so Jealous gets to work. Assisted by two of our APU scouts he sets the traps that will capture the adults. The pups, hiding deep inside their den, are the “bait.” Here’s how it works: Jealous sets snares, just like a poacher would, only our snares are custom made, from high grade cable and have a stopper on them so the snared dog won’t choke to death. The snares are carefully and strategically set on the trails created by the painted dogs as they walk to and from the den. This is intense work and hugely stressful for the painted dogs, who are painfully aware of the disturbance around the den and the apparent threat to their precious pups. It’s not something we undertake lightly and certainly not a method to be used for something as simple as fitting collars. It is a last resort used only for saving lives. Once the snares are set we move away and wait. And wait. Now it’s all about patience and silence. Jealous and I sit quietly some 150m away. Hand signals, a nod of the head, and an occasional whisper are the only forms of communication as we wait in the freezing cold of a bitter winter’s night. Temperatures in this Kalahari sand ecosystem can, and do, drop below zero degrees but we have to wait.



The painted dogs know that their den has been located and disturbed, however the desire to get to their pups eventually overrides their nervousness. They will not abandon their pups and eventually they quietly approach the den in an attempt to reach them. We have blocked the entrance to the den with leafy branches. The pups are thus trapped inside. As I said, we are aware of how hugely stressful this is for the dogs, but the alternative for them is death. The male is caught in a snare at 10:30 PM. We have been waiting, silently listening, for eight hours when we hear the distinctive sound of the dog’s struggle as the snare closes around his neck.



Unlike a poacher, our mission of course is to save life, not take life, and we quickly race in to grab the struggling dog by hand and administer an immobilizing injection.



We carry the dog out to the waiting team and place him in a holding crate after taking some routine samples for our DNA analysis work with Stanford University. Jealous resets the snare and we continue our silent vigil until the female is caught at 5:00AM. We have been waiting for her for more than 14 hours. The guide had told us there were just two adults. If there had been more we would have continued our vigil until each one was caught. Now the digging can begin. We discover that the den is two meters below ground and reached by a tunnel that extends down at a 45-degree angle for more than seven meters! The female has dug this den herself in the soft Kalahari sand. At the end of the tunnel is a wider chamber where she gave birth to the pups and suckles them for the first few weeks of their lives. We carefully remove the pups one by one and place them in the crate with their mother. They happily crawl all over her as she licks them enthusiastically, allowing them to suckle. They have been separated for almost 24 hours and I know they need to be reunited for the drive to our Rehabilitation facility. Their lives saved, it is now just a matter of time before they are ready to be released back in to the wild where they belong. We will begin this process in three of four months when the pups are big enough to follow their mum and dad on their nomadic wanderings. You can watch a video of this intense capture operation by following this link https://youtu.be/b1YS8aCKlf4 Destiny Pack We reported earlier in the year on the fighting and apparent turmoil in the Destiny Pack, which seemed to result in Jambo becoming the alpha male. Jealous witnessed all of this and predicted that the alpha female, Lucy, would give birth to pups towards the end of April. He was correct.



On April 21st, Lucy gave birth to ten pups. We were concerned about her den site selection in the teak woodlands adjacent to Hwange Safari Lodge. Though we were also pleased that the den was only 6 km from our office so we could at least employ our full resources to protect them. We engaged our Hwange Lion Research neighbours and they promised to alert us if any lions moved towards the den.



Happily, this didn’t happen and the pack enjoyed two months of relative peace and quiet. They hunted daily through the teak woodlands to provide ample food for their growing pups. We witnessed many hunts, a notable and rare interaction with three cheetah, and often enjoyed (or maybe endured) the privilege of “babysitting” the pups on bitterly cold mornings. Nursing a warm cup of coffee while sitting in a Land Rover on the road just 60m from the den, we stayed alert for any unwanted intruders such as hyena or lion.



Everything was going smoothly until Jambo went missing. His expensive GPS collar, which we had fitted on him in March, had stopped working. It took us a week to confirm that it was more than just a technical failure. Jambo is indeed missing and we can only speculate about his fate. The remaining five adults are so far doing well to raise the ten pups. Apart from their mother Lucy, the other four adults are Jambos father, uncle and his two brothers. We have no doubt that they will do their very best to raise the pups that are not actually their own, something we recognise as special and possibly unique about painted dog behaviour.



They are just at the point now when they are ready to leave the relative safety of the den and take up their nomadic lifestyle. We will continue to employ our full resources to watch over them as long as possible. Jealous leads the way, observing them every day and we deploy our anti-poaching units to keep the forests around them as free of deadly snares as possible. Denning Times and Locations This year has pulled on our resources and emotions as ever. After rabies wiped out the Mabuyamabhema Pack last year, and the BaNyayi pack dissolved after the death of their alpha female Senna, we have been left monitoring the Destiny pack and the Broken Rifle pack.



We were delighted to locate the Destiny pack’s den and be able to keep a watchful eye on them. As reported above, they actually denned very early this year, with alpha female Lucy giving birth to her pups on April 21st. It’s more typical for painted dogs to have their pups in early June and then den until late August. Our joy for the Destiny pack was tainted by the tragic death of Cusp, the alpha female of the Broken Rifle pack. Our colleagues at Imvelo Safaris informed us that she had denned near their Bomani camp. This is situated close to communal land, so immediately we asked the Conservation Wildlife Fund (CWF) APU to patrol in the area because our own anti poaching unit was patrolling far away in the western side of Hwange.



The CWF scouts found Cusp dead near her den. Her cause of death was unclear but it resulted in this once productive pack disbanding. Jealous investigated the den site and reported that it had been abandoned. There was no trace of the pups that would have only been a few days old when Cusp was killed, and thus they would not survive without her. With no pups to care for the rest of the pack would indeed abandon the den and resume a nomadic life style.



Hopefully the males will unite with another female and create a new pack, but even if they do so soon, it’s unlikely that they will have another litter of pups this year. In Mana Pools the dogs den in the same locations each year and as such are always “discovered” by safari guides. Typically this does not present a problem but it’s always a nervous time and over-enthusiastic guides can disturb the dogs.



A bigger threat, however, comes from lions who have particularly impacted the Nyamatusi pack. This pack has been reduced from 12 adults to just five in less than three years and have failed to raise a single pup because of this predation.



They typically den in an area of thick riverine bush, which is rarely visited by safari guides, but the lions find them time and time again. There is nothing we can do about this. As such, it’s nature in the raw. It’s so sad to witness and increasingly a cause of decline in the apparently thriving Mana Pools painted dog population. Iganyana Children's Bush Camp Our Children’s Bush Camp celebrated its 15th birthday in May. “Iganyana” is the local SiNdebele name for our beloved painted dog. The camp, but in reality, the painted dog, has changed the lives of more than 11,000 children.



During the four days spent at the camp the 11 year-old children, who come from the primary schools in the nearby villages, experience and learn about nature in a way they have never done so before.



Most of the children have had no interaction with wildlife before, or if they have, it was probably a negative experience, such as lions eating livestock or elephants crop raiding. The camp broadens their experience and aims to create a deep love for and understanding of wildlife among these children. And it works. The children leave our camp with a newfound passion and appreciation for nature that stays with them for life.



We know this because those children who attended the camp when it opened in May 2004 are now adults. Some of them work for us now and others with whom we engage still talk with passion about everything they learnt.



That’s how you change lives and make a difference. So much so that a village more than 100km away knows about Iganyana Children’s Bush Camp, and because of that they chose not to kill the painted dogs that were killing their precious livestock. That’s a success that you have helped us achieve and with your continued support we will continue to change lives.

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