They
hunt in family groups over great distances, chasing mostly impala, kudu and
duiker until the prey tires and can be caught.
Hence
they have earned a well-deserved reputation for being efficient, indefatigable
hunters who will disembowel prey in a matter of minutes, before lions or hyenas
get a chance to move in.
Yet,
less known about them is the fact that the sick and wounded, together with the
young members of the pack, are looked after, fed on regurgitated food and nursed
back to health.
Painted
hunting dogs, also known as Cape hunting dogs or African wild dogs, so named for
their individual and elaborate skin markings, were some of the most maligned of
Africa’s predators.
What
is known about them now is that they are very social animals living in large
packs numbering up to 40. There is usually one breeding female in each pack,
which gives birth to a litter of up to 10 pups at a time that the whole pack
takes turns in looking after.
The
dogs used to be a common feature of the African wilderness. But with the advent
of European colonization, they were branded vermin and mercilessly persecuted,
to the extent of being eradicated from national parks. Their numbers were
reduced from some 500,000 to a mere 2,000 to 3,000.
Now
they are an endangered species.
Protecting
the Painted Hunting Dogs
Between
1956 and 1961, about 2,700 painted hunting dogs were killed in Zimbabwe alone
for a bounty paid by the government to protect livestock. And those were just
the recorded deaths.
This
kind of slaughter went on throughout the continent where previously the dogs had
been sighted even on the snows of Mt. Kilimanjaro and often wandered into the
Sahara Desert.
The
Zimbabwe population fell to a low of 150 in the early eighties. The total for
Africa now stands at about 3,000. The Zimbabwe dog population, spread through
three locations: Hwange and Gonarezhou National Parks and the Zambezi Valley,
was the largest in the world.
But
that was before poachers moved in. They have reduced the dogs’ population from
about 850 to the present 600. Tanzania has about 800 dogs, Botswana 500 and
South Africa 200.
At
the forefront of the species’ survival in Zimbabwe is zoologist Greg
Rasmussen, whose Painted Dog Research Project has existed since 1989. Operating
from the southwestern part of the country, in and around the 14,000-hectare
Hwange National Park, Rasmussen and his team have been quite successful in
allaying ranchers’ concerns about the dogs and also bringing about a high
level of awareness within the population.
Monitoring
with the help of radio collars and translocation has brought the dogs in areas
where they had not been seen in decades.
The
project has three main focus areas: identifying through research the problems
facing painted hunting dogs in Zimbabwe, disseminating information regarding the
problems facing this species and actively reducing known causes of mortality and
preventing those that are looming.
A
considerable percentage of fatalities are caused by motor vehicles as the dogs -
moving in packs - frequently fall victim to road accidents, especially when they
move in and out of game reserves.
Thus,
apart from erecting road signs warning motorists of the dogs’ crossing points
along the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls highway, Rasmussen has developed a special
collar for the dogs with reflective strips and a stainless steel plate that
makes it easier for motorists to see them in the dark, and also protects the
dogs' windpipe should they get caught in snares.
Transfrontier
Parks: A Lost Hope?
The
results of extensive tests on improved survival of dogs wearing the collars have
shown that the protectively collared dogs had significantly higher survival
chances than the rest.
However,
given that each pack needs about 750 square kilometers in order to thrive, the
dogs’ future is far from secured since this exceeds what most game reserves
can provide.
Some
experts say the only long-term solution to the problem is the creation of
trans-frontier parks that will give wild dogs enough room to roam. Not only
would this minimize habitat loss to humans, it would also prevent inbreeding, a
phenomenon that bodes ill for the survival of the species.
The
proposed Gaza-Kruger-Gonarezhou Transfrontier Park, a wildlife reserve spanning
South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe has been thrown in doubt due to the
reported occupation of the Gonarezhou game reserve by land-hungry Zimbabwean
peasants.
For
Rasmussen’s study packs, however, the problem has been less academic.
Poaching, fuelled by Zimbabwe’s chaotic land reform programme, has led to the
demise of three out of five study packs, or over 30 dogs, in the last 18 months.
Since
February 2000, scores of Zimbabwe’s white farmers have been pushed off their
land as the government sought to redress colonial land imbalances in an
unplanned populist programme driven more by the ruling party’s fear of losing
power than a desire for genuine reform.
In
many instances, government-supported war veterans of Zimbabwe’s liberation
struggle have moved in, sharing the land among them. Other farms have been
partitioned for “new farmers”- blacks - many of whom are content with being
absentee landlords or are still trying to find their feet.
Zimbabwe’s
Wildlife In Danger
“We
need an indication of who should live here and who shouldn’t,” Rasmussen
says of the Gwaai Conservancy, part of his study area consisting of several
ranches within which game can roam, but now without careful policing. “A lot
of people have moved in merely to collect wildlife.”
Apparently,
the wild dogs are not the only wild animals falling victim to poaching. The
Zimbabwe Wildlife Producers Association estimates that half the country’s
wildlife has been killed in the last two years, when the country’s land
programme gained steam.
Rasmussen
notes that 16 members of his project’s anti-poaching unit are removing 1000
snares a month and fear that in six months they will have no jobs since the game
might be wiped out by then.
“Now
everyone has left the ranches, the poachers are having a free lunch,” he says.
“Most of the poaching is for selling meat and nothing else. There is
absolutely no control.”
He
bemoans the fact that Zimbabwe’s reputation of having the best wild dog
programme has suffered a major setback.
The
worst poachers are South African hunters whose “reputation from hell” is
well known, Rasmussen says. “The South Africans destroyed their own wildlife
and had to restock with animals bought in Zimbabwe. “Now there is this window
of opportunity in Zimbabwe.”
Yet,
to stem the tide, Ben Kaschula of the Commercial Farmers Union, which represents
mainly while landowners, says the rule of law has to return to the farms. “If
poaching were to cease, the game would recover given time.”
For
the endangered painted wild dogs, there might be no third chance.
Sources:
-
‘Poachers
Run Riot at Conservancy’, The Chronicle, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, July 14, 2003
-
Painted
Hunting Dog Research Project fact sheets
-
Tafi
Murinzi, ‘Africa’s Wild Dogs Face Extinction’, July 1997, Daily Mail
and Guardian, Johannesburg, South Africa
Wilson
Johwa is an independent journalist and photographer based in Zimbabwe.
You can reach him at: wilsonjohwa@yahoo.com
