Project Update Third Quarter 2019: A War Against Poaching

By Peter Blinston, Painted Dog Conservation Executive Director

Bring in the troops is an expression I have used before. It is literally the case as we continue to face the challenge of mitigating the threat of illegal hunting activities.

Lephias, on the left, has been recognised for his dedication and is the recipient of The Paradise Found African Ranger Award.

We have collected more than 2000 snares this year. Taking the total to well over 30,000 since we began this life-saving work in 2001.

Project Update Third Quarter 2019: The Threat of Rabies

By Peter Blinston, Painted Dog Conservation Executive Director

Rabies is an ever present threat to the painted dogs in our region. We suffered the loss of the Mabuyamabhema pack in 2017 and to help combat this we have stepped up our efforts to vaccinate as many domestic dogs against rabies (and distemper) in the surrounding villages.

We are supported in this vital work by Wildlife Vets International

Most importantly is the collaboration with our local Veterinary Department, who we also assisted recently with the donation of a solar system and refrigeration at their offices in near Dete.

During the campaign, we vaccinated more than 1500 domestic dogs.

The Legendary Browny has joined Socks

©Will Burrard Lucas: Browny and Socks’ (his alpha female) pups in 2013 at the den.

It is with deep sorrow that we inform you about the death of Browny, a member of the Destiny pack and Sock's alpha male of the then Nyamandlovu pack. He was found dead on Sunday by our Executive Director, Peter Blinston. Browny was more than nine years old.

Below, Peter gives a detailed account of how he found Browny and the alpha's contribution to his kind over the years...

 “He was seen the morning of Sept 14th by PDC staff and they reported to me that he looked weak and struggling to keep up with Lucy and Lily, who stopped to wait for him. When I heard this I suspected that his time was nearly up. Nine is old for a painted dog.

©PDC: Browny at 9 years old.

I drove out on Sunday afternoon to look for Browny, basing my search on 20 years of acquired knowledge and gut feelings. I started my search where he had been seen on Saturday morning and drove north towards Elephant Eye Safari Camp. As the road forked left towards Elephant Eye itself, instinct told me to go right. Right was right. I picked up the signal from Browny’s collar after approximately two kilometres. I drove towards the signal, knowing he was near the road or maybe on the road itself. The signal from his collar changed from resting (30bpm) to moving (45bpm). But his actual location did not change. Maybe he was lying down, irritated by mopane bees?

I drove as close as I could get to him and estimated he was still 500m off the road. I checked for the signals from Lucy and Lily, but there was none. Browny was on his own. 

Without hesitation I drove in, manoeuvring my way around trees until I was really close. I knew Browny would not get up until I was right next to him because he has become so accustomed to our vehicles and dare I say he got to know us.

As I stepped out of my Land Rover I saw a hyena running away, approximately 150m in front of me, the same distance I estimated Browny to be “resting”. As I walked forward I could care less about the hyena, I knew, deep down, that Browny was dead. In my head, I kept repeating, “please, don’t let it be snare.” I’m sure I said it out loud as well.

©Will Burrard Lucas: Browny and his Nyamandlovu family

I walked up to what remained of Browny; the hyena must have been hungry. I estimated that he had died on Saturday morning, not long after our guys had seen him. It was fitting that PDC staff were the last people to see him alive and that I had found him. I loaded his remains into my car and drove him back to our Rehab, where he was buried alongside Socks. He had been her mate, father of 36 pups and grandfather to many more painted dogs that still roam Hwange NP and beyond. He had certainly played his sole in maintaining his kind and we already miss him.”

The Mpindo pack: Translocation to Chikwenya at Mana Pools

Together with Capmount Lodges, Wilderness Safaris Zimbabwe and Painted Dog Conservation (PDC) have joined forces to translocate a pack of painted dogs, aka wild dogs, named the Mpindo pack from Hwange National Park to Chikwenya at Mana Pools National Park on 23 September. A feet that further demonstrate Wilderness Safaris ‘s conservation commitment, the move will help to increase the current painted dog population in Mana Pools while mitigating the threat of human-wildlife conflict in Hwange.

Snowtail, alpha female of the Mpindo pack

Jonathan, alpha male of Mpindo pack

With fewer than 7 000 wild dogs left in Africa, it is imperative that we continue to take proactive measures to help secure the future of the species. Wilderness Safaris and Capmount Lodges are excited to work with us, where the combination of their unique skill sets and our conservation values will help drive the success of this vital relocation project.

Wilderness Safaris has also organised a Wilderness Air Caravan to move the dogs from Hwange to Mana, and will pick up the costs to feed the dogs over the next few months. The PDC team will be based at Chikwenya for the duration of the project, and will work closely with Wilderness Safaris’ field team to ensure that all logistical requirements are taken care of.

Photo Credit: Wilderness Safaris

The primary reason for the move is to mitigate a human-wildlife conflict issue on the eastern boundary of Hwange National Park. This pack was reported to be predating on goats in February 2018. We captured them in June under a directive from Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, and held them at our Rehabilitation Centre until December before releasing them back into the Park. Unfortunately, they went back to the same communal land area and we were instructed to capture them again and come up with a location further away. The current relatively low painted dog population in Mana Pools, combined with the support from Wilderness Safaris, has provided the ideal opportunity for this translocation and release.

One of the most positive factors of this project is the opportunity for Chikwenya guests to become “citizen scientists” by actively supporting and participating in the project. Guests staying at the camp on 23 September are able to be part of the translocation experience, from when the dogs arrive at the airstrip and are moved and released into the boma. Our Executive Director, Peter Blinston, will also be available to speak to guests about his research and work on this incredible species. Throughout the rest of the season, until late November 2019, Chikwenya guests will be able to visit the painted dogs in the boma and interact with the PDC researchers in camp, and again next year when they are released.

Photo Credit: Wilderness Safaris

Entirely dedicated to wild dog conservation in Zimbabwe, we monitor more than six packs across Hwange. The Nyamepi research base in Mana Pools assists our efficiency in data collection by enabling researchers to process samples on site on a daily basis. Once the dogs are released from the boma, Wilderness Safaris guests and guides will be encouraged to continue contributing to wild dog conservation by taking photos, and noting dates and times of sightings.

Painted Dog Conservation and Wilderness Safaris: About Our Partnership

• Wilderness Safaris Zimbabwe has partnered with Painted Dog Conservation to help drive the conservation of wild dog in Mana Pools and Hwange National Parks.

"Teach Your Children Well"

Teach Your Children Well

By Peter Blinston

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Tendai Belinda Ncube as a twelve-year-old girl who lives in the rural African village of Gundwane

Gundwane village is located in the Matabeleland North district of Zimbabwe and sits on the border of Hwange National Park. The Gundwane Primary School that Tendai Belinda Ncube attends is one of the 20 primary schools that are the focus of the Iganyana Children’s Bush Camp.

Iganyana Children’s Bush Camp is a flagship programme for the Painted Dog Conservation Organisation (PDC). The 20 targeted primary schools enjoy a free of charge, four-day residential programme, which aims to not merely teach new concepts about the environment, but to promote an emotional attachment to it that will lead to a lifelong attitude of caring for it.

Tendai is an orphan. She has no brothers or sisters, so she lives alone with and cares for her grandmother now as her grandfather died last year. Life is tough for such a child in rural Africa but Tendai is an eternally bright young child with a devastatingly big smile never far from her warm face. She seems to be untroubled by what many of us would consider to be harsh burdens in life.

 She heard about the Iganyana Children’s Bush Camp from her older school friends who attended the “Bush Camp” and regaled her with wonderful tales of three hot meals a day, electric lights, water that runs from a tap and stairs that take you as high as the tree tops.  

She started to count the days until her time would come for attending the Bush Camp. Despite the task of looking after her grandmother, she kept up her attendance at school so that nothing could possibly prevent her from being able to attend the Bush Camp when the time came.

The day finally arrived and Tendai could hardly contain herself. The PDC Bush Camp vehicle arrived as promised to collect her and her 33 class mates plus their teacher. She took a moment to pinch her self and reflect on when someone had kept a promise before. She couldn’t remember if it had ever happened. With her big smile in place she climbed into the vehicle, which was painted in the black, white and brown colours of a painted dog.

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During the relatively short drive to the Bush Camp she saw three giraffe at the side of the road and squealed with delight, along with the rest of her friends. Her best friend, Nomusa, was the only one who really knew they were actually giraffe as her uncle Shadrack, worked as a guide at a near by safari lodge. For the rest of the class it was the first time to see such an animal.

Her four days at Iganyana Children’s Bush Camp flew by in a flurry of activities, games and endless laughter. It was everything she had hoped it would be. Unlike her older friends though it was not the three hot meals, electric lights, water that runs from a tap and stairs that take you as high as the tree tops that she remembered most. Tendai had been given the role of the painted dog Eyespot in the play that selected children performed for the rest of the class. The play, called “Teach Your Children Well” tells a story drawing parallels between the lives of painted dog pups whose father is killed in a snare and that of orphan children. She could relate to it well.

The game she enjoyed most was called the connectivity game, which illustrated and made all the participants state what they could do, to protect painted dogs. Eyespots father had died in a snare and Tendai promised that she would stop poaching in her village.

She was sad to leave the Bush Camp, yet excited to be going home to her grandmother, so she could tell her long, exciting stories about the past four days. Her grandmother prepared a meal of sadza and green vegetables, while Tendai provided a day-by-day, minute-by-minute recollection of all she had done and experienced.

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In the morning Tendai walked to the house of her best friend Nomusa and together they set of into the near by forests. As they walked they talked excitedly about all they had experienced at the Bush Camp and looked at the trees in a new way, as they now understood that a tree was not just firewood. Their exited chatter was cut short when they heard an unfamiliar sound. They stood, as if frozen to the spot and listened to the sound of a young male kudu struggling for its life in a snare. Walking forward cautiously until they could actually see it.

Tendai cried out in horror and started to run for home. Not in fear but in a desperate attempt to get help. Nomusa was not so sure. She was afraid that the poacher who had set the snares would be angry that they were meddling and anyway the people in the village always needed meat.

Tendai shouted at her friend, asking her if she had learnt anything from the Bush Camp? Did she not understand that a painted dog could as easily be caught and killed in such a snare and no one eats painted dogs? Did she not understand that painted dogs need kudus to eat so they can feed their pups and anyway there was plenty of meat in the butchery? It was hard for Nomusa to argue back and she ran even quicker than Tendai. Her uncle Shadrack was at his home and they rushed into his yard shouting excitedly at the same time. Shadrack asked them to calm down for he himself was a calm gentle person. They told him of what they had seen and urged him to help. At first he was reluctant to interfere. Like Nomusa, he was afraid of what the poacher would say but Tendai was very persuasive.  Shadrack had very little choice and with the two girls at his heels and his axe in his hand he strode out quickly to the village heads kraal. The village head was also a kind old man who had toiled long and hard in his fields. It had been many weeks since he had tasted meat. Tendai was relentless. The village head called his two sons and together all six of them strode out, with Tendai leading the way, her stick thin legs coated in dust, her bare feet dancing nimbly across the sandy soil.

They soon arrived at the scene and approached the kudu slowly. It stood exhausted from its struggles but seemed unharmed. Shadrack and the sons of the village head grabbed the kudu by its small horns while the village head himself cut the wire snare to set the kudu free. The kudu ran a short distance and then stopped to look around before finally running away to disappear in the forests. Tendai wore her biggest smile. With the adults helps she searched the forest and found 15 snares. The village head and Shadrack talked quietly as they crouched low to the ground studying a set of footprints.

They recognised the footprints and with Tendai pleading with them to act they did just that, arresting the poacher in the evening and turning him at the police station.

Tendai had kept her promise to the painted dogs to stop poaching in her village.