African wild dogs have a striking appearance, are intelligent, and highly interactive and caring; they are truly one of the most unique species alive today. However, listed as Africa’s second most endangered large carnivore, they are in desperate need of our help and protection.
All of our current efforts stemmed from the Lowveld Wild Dog Project; a research project that was established in 1996 to study a very small and fragile African wild dog population in Savé Valley Conservancy. Our scope has since expanded, and today we monitor, research and conserve resident wild dog populations in not only the Savé Valley Conservancy, but in Zimbabwe’s Gonarezhou National Park too.
We monitor healthy populations of 90-120 adult wild dogs in each protected area (c.25 packs in total), occurring at densities higher than (in Savé Valley Conservancy) and equal to (in Gonarezhou National Park) wild dog densities in other wildlife areas of comparable size. Populations of wild dogs in both areas have remained stable or increasing over the last five years.
