Wild Dogs are endangered, and it’s mostly due to humans. Especially in the country of Zimbabwe, the struggling economy caused people to start illegally poaching animals to sell their bushmeat for a profit. An organization called the Painted Dog Conservation is an organization, based in Zimbabwe, dedicated to the protection, health, and rehabilitation of African Wild Dogs. A few of the ways that they help to preserve the African Wild Dog population are anti-poaching units, a rehabilitation facility, and pack monitoring.
Today, one of the biggest threats towards African Wild Dogs are snares used for poaching. African Wild Dogs are so prone to these snares because they have to cover huge distances each day due to hunting. The Painted Dog Conservation has created “anti-poaching units” to help this very issue. The conservation employs highly trained scouts, who work closely with the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority and Forestry Commission to go out each day and collect snares. This anti-poaching unit has collected over 30,000 snares since 2001, saving approximately 3,000 animals, and helping to keep poaching under reasonable control in the area.
The Painted Dog Conservation also has a rehabilitation facility that allows the conservation to care for and house injured, sick, and orphaned African Wild Dogs until they recover well enough to rejoin their families and packs in the wild. Their rehabilitation facility includes eight different enclosures in addition to a veterinary clinic. The facility is also used to house African Wild Dogs that are at risk due to various threats including hostile landowners until the conservation finds a new permanent home for the wild dog(s) somewhere else in Zimbabwe.
Pack monitoring is another huge part of the Painted Dog Conservation‘s work. Using state-of-the-art radio collars, the conservation monitors African Wild Dog packs to gain a good understanding of the wild dogs. Via the radio collars, the conservation tracks the behavior, hunting patterns, and any injuries or deaths of the African Wild Dogs. They also use the collars to keep an eye on packs or individuals that seem especially vulnerable, as well as compile all the data that they collect into an electronic identity register with photo IDs for all the African Wild Dogs that they monitor.
In addition to organizations such as the Painted Dog Conservation, many individuals decide to form groups to try to help the African Wild Dogs as well.
African Wild Dog 