Research in the Field

This year Alex Barrett, Afrikeye principal, was able to briefly visit AWDC in the Lower Zambezi to gain first hand experience in how the project works on the ground. Together with Kellie and her research assistant Trish, he went to survey vegetation and hunt for one of the two packs of dogs with the aid of equipment to pick up the signal from one of radio collars fitted to individual wild dogs.

Vegetation survey

One of the striking things was the basic level of ground research. The vegetation survey actually involved counting individual trees and other flora in predefined areas determined using global positioning satellite (GPS) co-ordinates. At 45 degrees Celsius this task is pretty tiring and takes a surprising length of time.  In order to gather sufficient information to provide a valid profile of the variety of flora in the valley a considerable number of these samples need to be taken and there are no shortcuts or speedy techniques that can be adopted without compromising good science. One begins to get an idea of why this work takes so long to produce results. The data gathered will eventually be plotted onto computer to tie in with a satellite map of the region and then can be correlated with information about dog pack movements to indicate preferred environments.

Monitoring wild dog movements

On of the major problems of studying the habits of the wild dog is the huge range over which they roam. A pack of dogs can move 60 kilometres in a single day. It would be next to impossible to monitor pack movements without the benefits of some modern technology. In particular the use of radio collars has become established as one of the most effective methods of keeping tabs on particular animals. Even then though the environment works against the researcher. By its very nature the remoteness and huge size of the Lower Zambezi area limits the areas that can be accessed even by four wheel drive vehicles. It can be very frustrating hearing a distant blip on the receiver and knowing that there is no way to approach the animals and precisely pinpoint their movements.  Fortunately Conservation Lower Zambezi have a small plane that they sometimes fly Kellie in to monitor the wild dogs from the air and this is often the only way that the dogs can be located, particularly when they are denning far into the escarpment. By monitoring the movement of the dogs it is hoped that relationships between different packs and movement between them can be analysed.

DNA research

One of the main aspects of the AWDC project is the analysis of DNA obtained from wild dogs. This, rather unattractively, is most easily collected from the faeces of the animals and distilled out through the use of various chemical processes. Hopefully information gained from analysis of the DNA will indicate whether the gene pool of the Zambian dogs is sufficiently diverse to allow for a sustainable long term population and indeed whether the dogs are related to other dogs in other Southern African countries. Some research, for example, indicates that some wild dogs in South Africa are related to dogs in Tanzania.

© Afrikeye 1999 - 2007 (certain items under permission of original copyright owner)

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