New Wild Dog puppies on Mkhuze Game Reserve

The camera trap which we set up at the African Wild Dog den site in Mkhuze Game Reserve has revealed 4 brand new puppies, which is more good news for African Wild Dog conservation.

The pack of 13 Wild Dogs, released in mid June, has done well despite losing one of the sub-adult females shortly after the release, to a death of natural causes.

With the addition of these 4 puppies the pack total stands at 16 dogs. We will continue to keep you posted on their progress and are hoping for the best chance of survival for these pups.

Tembe Wild Dog Release - Update #5: puppies!

The Wild Dog pack that was released on Tembe Reserve in January, has just produced a litter of puppies. Our monitoring team has counted 6 puppies, seen emerging from the den last week. This is very exciting news but also a dangerous time for the pack given the Lion populations on Tembe.

The Tembe pack have also lost 2 male Wild Dogs since the beginning of the year, one from what was confirmed in post-mortem to be encephalitis, and the other dog killed by a Lion in a predator-conflict situation. Both incidences, although sad, were natural deaths for the animals involved, and not caused by poaching or any other human interference. Our team will continue to monitor the pack and the new pups, and will keep you posted.

Wildlife ACT Fund Community Conservation Project

Currently there are a number of communities bordering on the conservation areas on which we monitor threatened species. We are all too often faced with the consequences of the bush meat and indigenous medicine trade, not only on the targeted species (nyala, impala, wildebeest, warthog, vultures etc.) but also the “by-catch” of endangered and threatened species.

The Wildlife ACT Fund put in an application to the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF), an initiative run by Conservation International, and was awarded nearly USD 150,000 to kick start a rural Community Conservation Project. For each reserve we plan to employ a single community member from the adjacent community to act as the Wildlife ACT Community Conservation Liaison (CCL). The CCL will work closely with the relevant game reserve's own Community Liaison and other established community conservation projects, to ensure that the individual projects can benefit and complement each other, ultimately improving community conservation developments in this area. Our in-school lessons have started already, with Zama Ncube at the helm, while our Wildlife ACTive Kids Camp is due to start in March 2012!

Tembe Wild Dog Release - Update #4

Our monitoring team in Tembe Elephant Park have been kept on their toes with a busy schedule of tracking the pack of Wild Dogs that were released onto the reserve in January. Wildlife ACT participated in a Wild Dog call-up during March, during which the team managed to collar an additional male dog in the pack. The new collar is giving a much stronger signal than the other collars, which is important on a reserve like Tembe with limited road access.

On the 17th March, one of the males from the Tembe wild dog pack (‘George’) was found in a coma. He was...

Tembe Wild Dog Release - Update #3

Yesterday, our Wildlife ACT team on Tembe Reserve once again spent the day following the African Wild Dog pack. By early morning we were chasing the dogs as they ran parallel to the road, just keeping out of sight. They detoured south/west towards the boundary fence on a no-road section of the reserve. Unable to follow them directly, we got around to where they were heading as fast as we could, only to see that we had just missed a another successful kill! The pack must have chased the impala into the boundary fence as a hunting tactic, because the animal had been killed and eaten right next to the fence....

Tembe Wild Dog Release - Update #2

The first few days after releasing or relocating African Wild Dogs into new territory are seen as critical. Not only do the dogs need to contend with unfamiliar surroundings, but they also have to find something to eat while being extra vigilant of more powerful predators like Lion and Hyena. This is especially relevant in the new Tembe pack reintroduced on Tembe Elephant Park 5 days ago, as 4 of the adults in the pack were captive-bred and raised, and have had no experience with these competing predators.

When the Wildlife ACT team headed out to track the dogs on Saturday morning, the hope was that we would find a happy and healthy pack. We found signal for the dogs in the south of the reserve, but because the dogs had gone into thick brush, we could not see them. Just before sunset, the dogs appeared from their hiding place. A quick count revealed that not only were all the dogs accounted for, but that they had in fact made a kill earlier that morning, as their stomachs were nice and full and their faces covered with blood. They had therefore spent their whole day sleeping off their big breakfast!

We tracked them down again on Sunday, and were again surprised......

Wildlife ACT helps in the fight against rhino poaching

Due to the increasing pressure from rhino poaching in the area, Wildlands Conservation Trust and Wildlife ACT decided to work together to implement an exciting new GPS wildlife monitoring system, 'ProTagTor', onto Somkhanda Game Reserve, in northern Zululand, in order to protect these endangered species. After months of planning and the erection of the receiver beacons on the reserve, Wildlife ACT, Wildlands Conservation Trust and the makers of 'ProTagTor' worked together to practically implement the final stages of the system by inserting the transmitters into the horns of all the rhino in Somkhanda Reserve. The transmitters enable the monitors to be updated 24hrs a day, with real-time data and an alarm system that will alert the anti-poaching team if the rhino is being chased or shot. With this system now in place, the rhino on Somkhanda are significantly safer from poachers.

Black Rhino released back into Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park (HiP).

On the 30th of December 2010, an injured Black Rhino that had been destined for a relocation project, was released back into its original home in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park. The rhino had spent a few months recovering in the HiP holding boma. Once at the release site, the veterinarian administered an immobilising drug while the rhino was still in the crate. Just before the drug took full effect, the doors were opened and....

Tembe Wild Dog Release - Update #1

African Wild Dogs exploring their new home: Day 1

The pack of 14 African Wild Dogs (also known as the Painted Dog, or African Wolf) that were released on Tembe Reserve two days ago, are slowly getting acclimatized to their wild new home.

Wildlife Volunteers helped Wildlife ACT monitor Cilla Pickering, load an Nyala carcass onto the back of the monitoring vehicle, and strategically dropped it just outside the open gate of the holding pen ('boma') where most of the pack have been staying for the last year. The Wild Dogs took their time to make their exit from their large holding pen. Interestingly it was the one of the pups, who were all born in the holding pen just a few months ago, to make the first dash into unexplored territory, with the the rest of the pack following suit in drips and drabs......

Tembe Wild Dog reintroduction

Today a pack of Wild Dog were released on Tembe Elephant Park. Wild Dog have not been naturally resident in the Tembe area for approximately 100 years, and this release marks their return. This reintroduction is a major milestone in the conservation efforts of this species. The pack to be released consists of 4 males, 2 females and 8 puppies.

Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife recently made the decision to release this pack onto Tembe, balancing the predator-prey dynamics to include these super-predators. From a biological perspective the large prey abundance on Tembe will easily be able to support this pack and hopefully ensure the breeding success of the pack, allowing Tembe to contribute to Wild Dog conservation in the country. With approximately 450 Wild Dog in South Africa, this will be a valuable contribution to the conservation success of this endangered species....