wild dog watch campaign

The Tanzania Carnivore Conservation Project
The Tanzania Carnivore Conservation Project at the Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (TAWIRI) is funded by the Zoological Society of London and the British Government through their Darwin Initiative. It aims to build the capacity of the TAWIRI to monitor and conserve carnivores, with a special emphasis on Cheetahs and Wild Dogs, two threatened species of which Tanzania holds globally important populations.

How You Can Help Us Monitor Wild Dogs
Wild dogs are in decline across Africa. Once demonised and persecuted, they are now seen for what they are - amazing hunters with a complex social life. However they range widely and today they are one of the most endangered carnivores in Africa.
Their endangered status means that it is especially important for us to be able to monitor their numbers so that we can anticipate and hopefully prevent further declines. However in order to do this we need your help…
Your photographs of the wild dogs you see on your safari can help us to keep track of wild dogs in Tanzania. Each wild dog can be individually recognised from photographs through unique white and tan blotches on its coat. If you send us your photographs of as many members of each pack you see as possible, together with some rudimentary information about where and when you saw your wild dogs, you will help us to monitor wild dogs across the country. In return we can tell you whether the wild dogs you see on your safari are known to us, and if so a little of their history.

Wild dogs used to be widespread across Africa, and were found in all habitats except rainforest and desert. However most of the wild dogs surviving today are concentrated in protected areas in sub-Saharan Africa. Few areas hold more than 100 individuals.
Tanzania is a critical country for wild dog conservation, as it holds the largest population of wild dogs in the world, including the largest single population in the Selous Game Reserve. However, despite protection, the world-wide population continues to decline due to disease, habitat loss and conflict with people.

Some Information About Wild Dogs
Whilst wild dogs have a social system similar to that of wolves, they are only distantly related to other canid species, and are the sole species in the Lycaon genus.

Ecology and Behaviour
Wild dogs are most often found in wooded savannah, although they can be seen in habitat ranging from open grassland to thick bush. They live in packs ranging from 2-30 dogs, made up of a combination of adults and yearlings and males and females.

Including puppies, packs as big as 56 dogs have been seen. Packs cover large areas, with yearly home ranges usually between 200-600km2. Despite their large ranges, they are territorial and packs invariably fight if they encounter one another. Wild dogs are always found at low density, probably because of competition from larger carnivores such as lions and spotted hyaenas.

Reproduction
Like wolves, usually only the dominant or alpha male and female in a pack reproduce. The alpha female is usually the oldest in the group, and she gives birth in a den after a 3-month pregnancy. The timing of birth varies among ecosystems, depending on patterns of prey availability. The pups are kept at the den for the first 3 months of their life. The alpha female generally stays with the pups to guard them, sometimes with another member of the pack, while the other members of the pack leave the den twice a day to hunt.

When they return to the den, the pups and their mother solicit food, and all members of the pack regurgitate food for them. Wild dog pups leave the den once they are 3 months and travel with the pack, joining them at kills. They are usually allowed to eat first at a kill, while the rest of the pack waits until they have finished eating before feeding themselves.

Once they reach adulthood, the new pups may choose to remain with their natal pack, or disperse. Wild dogs generally disperse in single sex groups, and either make contact and join another pack, or meet another set of opposite sex dogs and form a new pack. They are old enough to reproduce after 2 years, but rarely do so until they have achieved sufficient status in the dominance hierarchy.

Hunting
Wild dogs are active at dawn and dusk. They are coursing predators, which means that they kill after running down their prey, in their case after a hunt that averages about 600 meters. They kill through disembowelment, There has been a lot of contention over their killing technique, and this has led to their demonisation and persecution and much of their elimination from their former range.

Fortunately, today such prejudices are disappearing, and people now acknow-ledge the important role these remarkable predators play in the ecosystem. Because their hunting technique focuses on weaker prey (unlike stalking predators that rely on surprise rather than endurance), wild dogs tend to remove the old and sick, and hence keep prey populations healthy.

Wild dogs take a wide range of prey from hares to adult zebra or juvenile buffalo, many times their body weight. However in most areas, impala and wildebeest are the most commonly taken prey.

Wild dogs often lose their kills to spotted hyaenas where the density of these predators is high. They very rarely scavenge, possibly because of the danger of meeting other larger carnivores at kills.