 For
all the previous project newsletters please go to the links on the left of this
page. To find out about the latest new work please click on the
New Project 2005 link above.
In 2003 and 2004, Project Director Kellie Leigh has been focussed on the
completion of fieldwork and writing up her Ph.D. thesis at the University of
Sydney. The completed project will produce a comprehensive ecological study and
threat assessment of the Lower Zambezi wild dog population, derived from six
years of extensive research.
When Leigh started the project in 1999 there was one breeding pack of eight
adults and a handful of pups, and a separate group of five orphaned yearlings in
the Lower Zambezi area. As a result of the project's presence and close
monitoring, five of the adults in the breeding pack and two of the orphans had
snares removed on at least one occasion. The subsequent survival of these dogs
resulted in the stabilisation of one pack, and the recent formation of a vital
second breeding pack in the area. In 2002 the second pack produced eleven
offspring, eight of whom still survive over a year after birth, and are
currently producing a second litter this year. In such a small population any
improvement in adult and therefore pup survival rates is essential for
increasing population numbers and breeding potential.
AWDC's overall aim is to identify the threats to the survival of the African
wild dog in the Lower Zambezi National Park and surrounding area. Wild dogs are
a flagship species for the area .
Each pack has a large home range, which when combined covers a large area of the
National Park and Game Management Area.
As a declining, endangered species and
due to their unique and fragile energy balance, the dogs are very sensitive to
fluctuations in their environment and impacts by man, more so than most other
species. Loss of habitat, disease and poaching threats affect many species,
therefore any efforts to preserve an animal such as the wild dog automatically
benefits other species by managing a large area.
Of course the work will not end with the completion of the academic study.
Leigh is in the process of drawing up a Species Management Plan to look at
strategies for ensuring the survival of the Lower Zambezi dogs in the longer
term.
She has already shown that one of the biggest causes of adult mortality
has been snaring, and that contact with domestic dog populations has exposed the
wild dogs to canine distemper, parvo virus and other infectious diseases found
in the local  dog
population.
The plan will address these man-made issues and also contain a
comprehensive ecological threat assessment, including information on: population
genetics; assessment of the impact of competing predators; wild dog habitat and
prey competition and utilisation; plus other information on the densities and
distribution of related species and their effects on the movements and survival
of the wild dogs, particularly in combination with the man-made threats.
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