On the Trail of Africa's Endangered Wild Dogs
AZA Communiqué
Conservation and Reintroduction
African wild dogs, also known as painted hunting dogs, are intensely social animals, living in packs of as many as 25 individuals. Litter size in the wild dog is remarkably large, averaging 10 pups with occasionally as many as 20 pups in a single litter.
While reproductive potential is impressive, numbers of free-living wild dogs have decreased dramatically across Africa in the past several decades because of persecution, disease and competition with other carnivores.
Dr. Micaela Szykman, Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Zoo's Department of Reproductive Sciences, is in South Africa studying the stress physiology and health in these African wild dogs.
Dr. Szykman is working together with South African researchers and wildlife managers to create a second viable population of wild dogs in South Africa, the only other occurring in Kruger National Park.
Maintaining viable populations in their native habitat, reintroducing wild dogs into protected areas to bolster source populations and allowing wild dogs to disperse naturally into not-formally protected areas are the top priorities of our current plan.
These goals are being accomplished by simultaneously evaluating carnivore physiology, behavior, movement and prey species in South Africa. Our approach is unique because of our emphasis on measuring animal stress through hormones, and because we integrate a diversity of data (physiological, behavioral, ecological) to identify the factors influencing wild dog population decline.
Complementary studies of wild dogs are being conducted in North American zoos to begin to understand the reproductive biology of this unique species in a more controlled environment.
Highlights:
African wild dogs, also known as painted hunting dogs, are intensely social animals, living in packs of as many as 25 individuals. Litter size in the wild dog is remarkably large, averaging 10 pups with occasionally as many as 20 pups in a single litter.
While reproductive potential is impressive, numbers of free-living wild dogs have decreased dramatically across Africa in the past several decades because of persecution, disease and competition with other carnivores.
Dr. Micaela Szykman, Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Zoo's Department of Reproductive Sciences, is in South Africa studying the stress physiology and health in these African wild dogs.
Dr. Szykman is working together with South African researchers and wildlife managers to create a second viable population of wild dogs in South Africa, the only other occurring in Kruger National Park.
Maintaining viable populations in their native habitat, reintroducing wild dogs into protected areas to bolster source populations and allowing wild dogs to disperse naturally into not-formally protected areas are the top priorities of our current plan.
These goals are being accomplished by simultaneously evaluating carnivore physiology, behavior, movement and prey species in South Africa. Our approach is unique because of our emphasis on measuring animal stress through hormones, and because we integrate a diversity of data (physiological, behavioral, ecological) to identify the factors influencing wild dog population decline.
Complementary studies of wild dogs are being conducted in North American zoos to begin to understand the reproductive biology of this unique species in a more controlled environment.
Highlights:
