In November, Wildlife ACT was involved in the Black Rhino release on Thanda Private Game Reserve, which saw 15 endangered horned beasts being set free onto Thanda main reserve and the newly joined Mduna section. The Black Rhino are settling in and will hopefully start breeding soon! This has been a great expansion for Thanda, which will allow the growing pack of Wild Dog on Thanda a bigger ranging area!The intrepid Wildlife ACT member Chris Kelly helped Brendan Whiting-Jones, from the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT), in the capture of 7 dispersing male Wild Dogs from Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park. Chris and Brendan were assisted in this 4 week long pursuit by the willing pack of Dave, Kath, Liana and James who, under the watchful eye of Chris, assisted in two captures by helicopter, a capture in the pineapple fields, a capture amongst a herd of cattle and one ‘boring’ capture in a game reserve...Why catch these poor little doggies you may ask? Well the survival rate of Wild Dog outside of protected areas is low and unfortunately in the greater Zululand region there are no available females for the gents to ‘hook’ up with and form a new pack. So the dispersing males are caught and moved to a new reserve and bonded with some females from another area. This means the males are happy to settle down in a protected area, the genetic diversity of the meta-population is enhanced and Mkhuze Game Reserve gets a new, breeding pack of Wild Dog! Schweet!Another similar Wild Dog re-introduction is being done in the Tembe National Elephant Park, with the release scheduled for early 2010. Wildlife ACT has been asked to assist with the post-release monitoring of this new pack and at the same time assist with the long-term monitoring of the Elephant and reintroduced Lion populations. Tembe is arguably one of the most scenic and impressive reserves in Africa, with large tracts of unique Sand Forest and the world’s largest Elephants! We are still oohing and aahing at the prospect of working {okay, running around in the bush...} and being involved with the re-introduction of Wild Dogs in this iconic park.Why catch these poor little doggies you may ask? Well the survival rate of Wild Dog outside of protected areas is low and unfortunately in the greater Zululand region there are no available females for the gents to ‘hook’ up with and form a new pack. So the dispersing males are caught and moved to a new reserve and bonded with some females from another area. This means the males are happy to settle down in a protected area, the genetic diversity of the meta-population is enhanced and Mkhuze Game Reserve gets a new, breeding pack of Wild Dog! Schweet!Another similar Wild Dog re-introduction is being done in the Tembe National Elephant Park, with the release scheduled for early 2010. Wildlife ACT has been asked to assist with the post-release monitoring of this new pack and at the same time assist with the long-term monitoring of the Elephant and reintroduced Lion populations. Tembe is arguably one of the most scenic and impressive reserves in Africa, with large tracts of unique Sand Forest and the world’s largest Elephants! We are still oohing and aahing at the prospect of working {okay, running around in the bush...} and being involved with the re-introduction of Wild Dogs in this iconic park.These releases will help with the network of Wild Dog packs in the Zululand region, meaning dispersing Wild Dogs will have a better chance of encountering other Wild Dogs naturally in the future. We also have one or two plans to start monitoring in other Hip (hint hint) parks in Zululand, but more about that next time.
