African wild dogs are social pack animals. (Reuters)
Poachers use wire snares in many parts of Africa to trap wild antelope, but collateral damage occurs too. African wild dogs, one of the world’s most endangered mammals, are often caught by these snares. Due in large part to this poaching practice, the population of African wild dogs has dropped by 90 percent – to 6,660 – in the last century.
So, zoologist Brandon Davis and his team formed the Painted Dog Protection Initiative and designed specialized collars to protect the animals from these deadly entanglements.
The African wild dogs’ susceptibility to snares arises largely from their social nature. They are pack animals that move in groups and look after one another.
African wild dogs are social pack animals. (Reuters)
“They will lick the wounds of the injured,” Davis said, explaining that these animals are “one of the few species that actually care for their injured.”
When one wild dog is snagged by a wire snare, others will return to care for the packmate, and then get trapped or injured as well. If enough traps are present in a snare line, an entire pack can be caught.
Wire snares are lightweight and low cost traps, so they are easy to obtain and use. It takes only a light touch to trigger the wire loop to tighten down on the animal’s neck.
Davis’ team tested the specialised collars on domestic dogs. (Brandon Davis)
Davis’ team noticed tracking collars – used in research to keep tabs on a wild dog’s location – helped animals caught in snares to avoid suffocation. So, the team built custom collars with rivets and clips that allow a trapped animal to breathe and break free.
Now that testing is completed, the Painted Dog Protection Initiative plans to deploy ten collars with wild dogs living in at-risk packs in Zimbabwe. They aim to build 100 additional collars, which could protect 20 percent of the wild dog population in Zimbabwe.
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