Wild Dog puppies on 3 Reserves!

A total of three of our four Reserves (namely Mkhuze, Thanda and Tembe) have had litters of Wild Dog puppies born to the Alpha females on the Reserves. Wild Dog puppy mortality is usually high, due to other predators like Lion and Hyaena killing the pups, as well as disease outbreaks.  Having all 3 litters doing so well is extremely exciting and we will continue to monitor these puppies intensively to help ensure their survival.

Mkhuze Wild Dog Mortality

At the beginning of July, a male Wild Dog was found dead from unknown causes on Mkhuze Game Reserve. At the first morning's sighting, Mkhuze wildlife monitor Marumo Nene found one of the dogs was missing from the pack. Unable to find a signal from the missing dog's collar, Marumo returned to the dogs' overnight resting spot, and after searching the area along with the Ezemvelo field staff, found the remains of the Wild Dog...

Wildlife volunteers assist with a Lion call-up: 4 days of action at Tembe

This past weekend, Wildlife ACT, the wildlife volunteers and KZN Wildlife staff dedicated their time to complete the much needed lion work on Tembe Game Reserve: Many of the adult cats needed to be re-collared, some of the females needed to be contracepted, and some of the youngsters that needed to be branded, micro-chipped, photographed and officially added to the records. What follows is the story of 4 days of hard work, long nights, and a lot of lion action!

New life on Thanda

The Alpha female Wild Dog on Thanda has given birth to a reported 13 puppies! All are all doing well so far. The puppies are now 4 weeks old (born 20th May). Although our volunteers and monitor, Michelle Swemmer, have reported hearing them from inside the den for a few weeks now, six of the puppies were seen for the very first time yesterday (17 June). Michelle reported that this morning  all 13 pups were counted briefly coming out of the den, which is wonderful news for the Wild Dogs on Thanda. We trust that things will go well for the Alpha and her litter in the weeks and months to come.

Thanda : Wild dogs mating sees a twist

There have been some interesting developments in the African Wild Dog mating activity on Thanda!

Mkhuze wild dog update: A second pack arrived

A new pack of Wild dogs destined for Mkhuze arrived in Zululand this week. This will mean there are going to be two packs of wild dog on Mkhuze in the future - exciting stuff!

Expecting Thanda : Wild dogs mating!

The alpha male was seen mating with the alpha female this last week on a number of occasions. The best sighting was actually of them mating in the car park at the Thanda camp just outside of the volunteer’s rooms!

Cheetah update: New Mkhuze females doing well

Since the last update in January we are happy to report the new cheetah have settled in well. Initially they were making large movements across the reserve to orientate themselves and establish future home ranges.

Two new cheetah from Limpopo released at Mkhuze

History

2 adult female cheetah from Limpopo province were found to enhance the population numbers and genes of the resident population at Mkhuze. Resident population consists of 10 cheetah, with 2 known adult males and 3 known adult females.

Found at last: AWDMG update

It's with great relief that after thousands of driven kilometers, far too many early mornings, some good fortune and some jaw-clenching frustrations I can finally say "we got them" (well that's a bit more polite than our initial thoughts).