DSWF - Painted Dog Conservation project

Welcome to the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation

		PROJECT: PAINTED DOG CONSERVATION PROJECT

		Location: ZIMBABWE in and around HWANGE NATIONAL PARK
		DSWF Support: Since 1995
		Funding to date: £189,000

		Project Summary: Conservation of the highly endangered African Painted Dog and local education project.

Project update - June 2006

After last month's drama, surrounding the translocation of a pack of painted dogs from South Africa, I am happy to report that June has been a wonderful month for dog sightings.

The biggest excitement actually came late in the month when Jealous and I found the den of our Umtchibi pack. For once it is in a reasonably accessible area and so we are eagerly waiting many happy weeks of puppy watching!! The relative ease with which we found the den was testament to the years of hard work we have put in, getting to know dogs and their behaviour. Greg, of course, was our teacher but I am happy to say we were good pupils.

Jealous had seen the female a week earlier, "very pregnant", so we knew she had now denned, the question was where?? We discussed the recent sightings of the dogs and came to a mutual decision on the search area, based on the knowledge gained from Greg that dogs have a typical denning home range of 100 square kilometres, hunting in a five kilometre radius from the den. The sightings discussed, maps scrutinised and a decision made, we set out on a bitterly cold morning, the usual cup of coffee in hand. We dissected the area we had selected, as the roads permitted, using two vehicles as we had visitors with us from the USA. After a couple of hours I picked up the signal from the alpha male's collar, a familiar beep, beep detected by my sensitive ears through the painful static. I stopped, a big grin on my face and called Jealous on the radio.

"I have found the dogs, the signal is strong, what's your location?"

"I have also found the dogs" he replied. "I found them thirty minutes ago and have been trying to call you!! What's wrong with your radio?"

"Nothing's wrong with my radio, where are you?"

He gave me his position and I drove there. They were in the block we had predicted. I picked up the signal from the south side, while Jealous found it on the north side. He was a lot closer to the pack and greeted me with an even bigger grin. We sat listening to the beeps for a while, as the dogs rested, out of sight in the nearby bush. Happy with our find, we headed back to camp. In the evening we followed them as they hunted, only to lose the signal after they entered a huge tract of forest with no roads. We went back to camp a little disappointed. However we knew that the den location would be confirmed if we found the pack in the same spot in the morning. At 4.30am we set off again and were rewarded in the best way possible as the pack came out of the bush to "greet us", confirming beyond doubt that this was the den location. Now we will wait for approximately three weeks, which is when the pups will become active, leaving the den to explore and play.

Our APU were also in the headlines again this month, when they arrested two poachers. As alert as ever, they discovered a series of freshly set snares and so sat in ambush through the night, waiting for the poachers to return. Predictably they did and though they eluded our guys, Sikhosana recognised them and so went with the police to the poachers' village, where the police made the arrest. The snares set, had come from a phone line, which had fallen down. We had reported this to the phone company some weeks before, stating that unless the line was cleared up, poachers would use it. Our prediction was correct and now we insisted on the phone company joining us to clear up the wire. Happily they did so and no animals were killed or even injured thanks to the vigilance and professionalism of our APU.

With our Children's Bush Camp fully operational, hosting two more local schools, and our Arts & Craft Programme continuing to expand under Wendy Blakeley's guidance, PDC is pushing ahead strongly. Our multi faceted conservation programme delivering on its commitments to the local peoples, wildlife and international supporters like never before.