It’s about making sure wild dogs are still here in 500 years Cole du Plessisīut the bonding of the animals has already gone better than expected. ![]() We only put animals back where they used to be. After 18 months of planning, the translocation was postponed by several weeks due to Covid-related complications and border closures, then delayed again when unrest in South Africa over former president Jacob Zuma’s arrest led to road closures – a “scary experience”, recalls Du Plessis. The process has been long and fraught this was the third attempt. The project to bring the dogs to Malawi was a collaboration between the Endangered Wildlife Trust and African Parks, which manages Liwonde and Majete in partnership with Malawi’s department of national parks and wildlife. The dogs were sedated and kept in purpose-built crates for part of their journey to Malawi The translocated dogs, which include four genetically different groups, were driven in crates, then sedated for the flight to Malawi, before being put in bomas (enclosures) in Liwonde and Majete, where they will settle in for several weeks before being released into their new wild spaces. If we don’t intervene, the species will become extinct.”Īlthough there have been a few sightings in Malawi of wild dogs, and some are known to divide their time between Malawi’s Kasungu national park and Zambia, Du Plessis says there have been no stable established packs of wild dogs in Malawi for more than 20 years, possibly since the 1980s. By increasing their safe space, we can increase pack numbers, population numbers and biodiversity. “We only have about 700 breeding pairs left in the whole of Africa. ![]() “Wild dogs are the second most endangered carnivore in Africa and the most endangered in South Africa,” says Du Plessis. Only an estimated 6,600 individuals are believed to be left on the continent. As well as helping repopulate both parks, establishing a viable population is part of an international effort to conserve the African wild dog – Lycaon pictus, meaning painted wolf – in the wild.
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