PAINTING A BETTER FUTURE FOR AFRICAN WILD DOGS
Painted Wolf Wines is based in Paarl, South Africa and was founded in 2007 by Emma and Jeremy Borg, with conservation at the core of the company. PWW is dedicated to the production of authentic, distinct, and delicious wines, and to the conservation of painted wolves (African Wild Dogs) and their natural habitat. The company donates 4–5% of their turnover to the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT).[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”6006″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]The Painted Wolf Wines pack lives by the mantra ‘Remarkably persistent, persistently remarkable’. And they have once again lived up to their mantra during a very difficult time, particularly for wine makers in South Africa.
PWW received enormous support from the public during the phase four lock down period, with a significant number of orders being placed for delivery in June. Through these sales, they were able to donate R20,000 to the EWT and specifically towards our African Wild Dog project headed up by Cole du Plessis. Cole is the Wild Dog Range Expansion Project Coordinator and KZN Regional Carnivore Coordinator.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”6007″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]Painted Wolf Wines has been donating to conservation in southern Africa since the establishment of the company in 2007. For the past 11 years, their sales in southern and east Africa have helped to support the EWT. As a major supplier to the safari lodges and the hospitality sector, they were faced with the potential of having to reduce their donations. However, with any sales direct to the public, they were able to increase their per bottle donation, and this will be ongoing.
Cole du Plessis says “Painted Wolves (African Wild Dogs) have written their very own underdog story. A history of deliberate persecution, habitat fragmentation, snaring and disease are some of the threats that have certainly knocked away at the species, but they keep fighting back. The EWT and Painted Wolf Wines continue to work together in this fight. There are however no short-term solutions. We have to mitigate the ongoing threats, raise their profile, and expand their range to increase the population numbers. If we can create this platform for them, then we can leave it to South Africa’s most endangered carnivore to do the rest. Their intelligence, resilience and pack cohesion certainly make them capable of that. Thank you, Painted Wolf Wines, for your support in sticking by the Painted Wolves and for doing your part in saving the species.”
THE BRAVE JOURNEY OF SMOKE AND HER PACK OF AFRICAN WILD DOGS
Cole du Plessis, Wild Dog Range Expansion Project Coordinator & KZN Regional Carnivore Coordinator, EWT Carnivore Conservation Programme
coled@ewt.org.za
In South Africa, most of our reserves (protected areas) share boundaries with dense rural community settlements or farmers – this means that the direct threat to any wild animal significantly increases when they leave a protected area. Deliberate persecution, snaring, hunting, disease, and roadkill are some of those threats.
In 2018, the Nqolothi Wild Dog pack, led by a female named Smoke, left the protection of the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park and settled in nearby communal land. To the communities, , a predator like a Wild Dog can pose a threat to people or their livelihoods. The latter is far more likely. While there has never been a documented case of a Wild Dog killing a person, they do prey on livestock and large packs can do significant damage, particularly in rural subsistence farming communities.
Unfortunately, there was no functional tracking collar on the Nqolothi pack and monitoring them seemed like an impossible task. It was also almost like the pack had sensed the loss of their protection when leaving the reserve as they became highly elusive…only leaving the odd clue behind when they moved. When there was a sighting or report, we made a valiant effort to get there in time, but the pack was always long gone upon arrival. Tension was mounting in the community. Many goats had been reported dead and, whether there was evidence or not, it all pointed to Smoke and her pack. The community was losing patience and wanted to kill the pack to protect their livestock. It became a race against time to find them.
After almost a year of living in communal land, the pack finally exposed themselves. Smoke had fallen pregnant and went down to den. The weakness here was that the den site anchored them, and they started leaving traces. One day, community members used their hunting dogs to follow the scent back to the den and managed to dig out and kill two of the pups. When we arrived, just the carcasses of the pups remained. The rest of the pack had abandoned their den and took the remaining pups with them. We needed to intensify our efforts.
We immediately set up remotely triggered field cameras to monitor the area and spent nights in the field closer to where the Wild Dogs operated. A vet was on call and would be flown by chopper as soon as we received reports of sightings or discovered fresh signs. Eventually our luck changed. The pack made a brief appearance back in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park. The team responded immediately and for the first time the pack stuck around long enough for us to see them. One of the Wild Dogs was immobilised, and a satellite collar finally fitted. This was the game changer. We could now monitor the pack and plan their capture. We would normally call the pack in using recorded Wild Dog “hoo” calls and free dart them from a vehicle. Unfortunately, this pack had become far too skittish to use this method. Capturing this pack would involve careful planning and preparation, large capture nets, experienced game capture staff and a helicopter to guide them into the capture site. This operation needed to be perfectly executed, and it was. In one go, all the pack members were safely captured and transported to a holding facility nearby. At last, they were safe.
But the pack now needed a new home. Fortunately, Madikwe Game Reserve in the North West, was in a position to take them and the ever supportive Bateleurs offered to fly them there. Three months later, when all the permits were in place and preparations made, the pack was re-anaesthetised and driven to the Mkuze airstrip. The plane was prepped and ready on arrival. We carefully transferred the sedated Wild Dogs into the plane, and we were ready to begin our four-hour journey with our VERY SPECIAL cargo. Once we touched down, the pack was transferred to vehicles and driven to the boma. They had arrived at their new home. What we only realised on the plane was that Smoke had fallen pregnant again and only had a few weeks before she would have her pups. Normally, we use the soft-release method, where the pack stays in the boma to acclimatise to their new environment. This counteracts their instinct to return to their former territory and ensures that they will establish themselves in their new home. But Smoke needed time to explore her new territory and scout a safe den site. So, the pack was only in the boma for a brief period before they were released.
Using the satellite collar data, we were able to remotely monitor the pack as they started to explore their new home. And, after a few weeks, the collar data showed that the pack kept returning to the same point. Smoke had started denning and the rest of the pack was hunting and bringing food back to her. The pack was given their space to live in peace – they had the code to survival and didn’t need anyone checking in on them. But after weeks of eager anticipation, one of the researchers on Madikwe was given the green light to go in and check on the pack. Much to our excitement, they were all present and healthy, with the new offspring stumbling around at their feet.
As a result of an increasing human population and development, Wild Dogs no longer have the space that they need to thrive. South Africa is quickly approaching its relatively small Wild Dog carrying capacity. Many of the Wild Dog reserves are surrounded by farmland, so when Wild Dogs choose to expand their range or disperse, by default, they come under threat. In order to save our most endangered carnivore, we need to keep working at expanding safe space by reintroducing Wild Dogs into South Africa’s many fenced reserves. These reserves, in turn, serve as source populations as we work with partners such as African Parks, Peace Parks, and the Carr Foundation to recover former Wild Dog range across the continent.
It wasn’t ideal that we had to relocate Smoke’s pack, but we owed it to them to give them refuge. They can, once again, be at peace.
Thank you to our long-time partners Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, Wildlife ACT, the Bateleurs, North West Parks Board and Madikwe Game Reserve, and donors Richard Bosman, Painted Wolf Wines, Tania Ihlenfeldt, Tata Consultancy Services, and the Relate Trust. It is a pleasure to work alongside you and share the common goal of conserving our most endangered carnivore.
THE WILD DOG RELOCATION DIARIES
Derek van der Merwe, Limpopo Regional Coordinator, EWT Carnivore Conservation Programme
DerekV@ewt.org.za
Recently, Derek van der Merwe and a dedicated team undertook an essential Wild Dog relocation in the Waterberg. This pack has been monitored over the last two years and at first consisted of just two individuals in the Vrymansrust area of the Waterberg. They denned on a property called Kamonande and successfully raised five of their six pups in 2018. We collared the pack in 2018, and have been tracking their progress ever since. Last year, they denned on a property called Thaba Lesodi and had a further eight pups, bringing the pack to 15 strong, before three males dispersed from the pack earlier this year, bringing the pack to 12 members. Due to the size of the pack and the small area they were living in – 22,000 ha compared to two other free roaming packs that we monitor, namely the Melkrivier Pack (90,000 ha) and Mokgalakwena pack (140,000 ha) – the pack’s impact was beginning to be felt financially by local landowners in the area. The pack was travelling further way from their core range and started taking livestock – probably due the to the fact that they were stuck on small farms and nothing else was available. After exhausting all options, including placing livestock guarding dogs, as well as training and using a rapid response team to use telemetry to chase the Wild Dogs off farms where they were not wanted, the Wild Dog Advisory Group decided to capture and relocate this pack to a safer place. Derek shared this incredible experience in his Wild Dog Relocation Diary:
Pre-capture
We had managed to comfortably collar this pack in October 2019, and even while we were working on the darted individual at the time, the rest of the pack continued feeding on the carcass we had used to bait them. However, we knew straight away that this capture would be a difficult exercise. The pack was suddenly very wary of us and did not respond to the first call up. A call up is used to get the target animal for relocation treatment or collaring into an accessible position for a vet to dart/sedate it so that the wild animal can be worked on in a safe and unobtrusive manner. We later found out that the pack had recently been shot at and as a result were very mistrustful of us. Over the next three days, we managed to coax them into a call up and started habituating them to our presence. Eventually, after three days, we got them feeding within 40m of the car.
Unfortunately, the COVID-19 lockdown put an end to our habituation process and we needed to arrange permits in order to complete this critical relocation. We monitored the pack via satellite collars and noticed one of the dogs was stationary. I was concerned that the dog might be in a snare and asked the landowner to go and check. My assumption was correct and Wildefuffi, the first dog we collared in the area, was found dead in a snare on a cattle farm. We immediately realised that this capture needed to be done as soon as possible! The lockdown meant that there would be no more monitoring on the ground and was a good opportunity for landowners to shoot or even poison the entire pack while there was little police presence or conservation officials working in the area. We started planning the capture, but, while the Wild Dog pack was on a property that is very Wild Dog tolerant, unfortunately we could not gain access. So, we had to wait for them to move off…
Day 1
After arranging access to all the surrounding properties, I decided to go and continue the habituation process. While driving up to the Waterberg, the Wild Dogs moved 8km, crossing two farms, and again I had to arrange access. Fortunately, they were close to a property that was tolerant to them, as they had denned on the neighbouring property the year before. I collected three impala carcasses kindly provided by Lapalala Wilderness and made my way to a farm called Vrymansrust. I was met there by farm manager, Timon Dreyer, and his fiancée Alexi Rough. We then drove up the fence line to get as close to the pack as possible, where we proceeded to call them up. We managed to coax them through the fence and the first call up was a success. However, I forgot to bring wire with me and luckily Timon found a small piece lying next to the fence to secure the impala carcass to a tree. That didn’t hold very long and the Wild Dogs ripped the carcass from the tree and dragged it into the bush. There were some very curious giraffes nearby and they came in to investigate the strange noises of the Wild Dogs feeding. I arranged with Timon and Alexi to gain access before first light and continue the habituation process in the morning…[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”5270″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]Day 2
04:20 An early start as the property was an hour’s drive from where I was camping, and I didn’t want the pack to start moving. The pack had overnighted not far from where we fed them the previous day and we started calling just before 06:00. While calling the pack in, I warned Timon and Alexi that sometimes the Wild Dogs circle and approach you from behind and after about 10 mins that’s exactly what they did. Alexi got a huge fright as she spotted a dog 15m from her behind in the bushes!
It was such a lovely setting as the mist came in. We were able to spend an hour with these magnificent animals. I was so pleased as the whole pack came in to feed on the carcass. Not only the youngsters, even the grumpy old alpha male came in to steal a leg.
We knew from the start that the alpha male would be the key. If he could be darted, we could get the whole pack. After the pack had eaten their full and played with each other, chasing one another up and down, we got to witness something really special – the alpha pair mating. I had to laugh as the male dropped off some food and then continued to mount her while she was eating.
Waterberg Wild Dogs breed later than their Lowveld and KZN counterparts, usually having their pups in late July. That means we should see some pups in about 70 days which is so exciting.
Confident that the pack was habituated enough to try and dart them, I arranged with Dr Zoe Glyphis and Dr Andy Fraser to try to dart them the following morning. Lapalala Wilderness kindly agreed to provide a bigger carcass (a Wildebeest) to lock the pack down. Our plan was to meet with both vets so that we had the best chance of completing the capture.
We set off at 16:00, this time only using an impala’s hindquarters as bait, as we wanted them to be hungry the next morning. The wind direction was not in our favour and we called for 30 minutes to no avail. We decided to move closer and went to the same spot we left them that morning. As we rounded the bend, all the Wild Dogs jumped up not far from the morning carcass. I quickly turned around and drove off slowly with ten hungry Wild Dogs in tow.
From not responding to the first call up to having the dogs running after my Ford Ranger in just ten days is an amazing achievement. We quickly tied the hindquarters to a tree and watched the pack come into feed. While the alpha male was cautious and stayed in the background, Dr Glyphis, who had spent the previous week with me, could not believe it was the same pack. We left the scene feeling very confident that we could dart at least a large proportion of the pack in the morning.
Day 3
04:00 Another early start as the team set off with our Wildebeest carcass. The dogs had moved to the centre of the farm; we got there early and started calling immediately. I was getting a very weak signal from the telemetry, so we knew that the dogs had already moved off. We later learned that a farm employee had set off at 05:30 on a Sunday morning to go and check the farm’s rain gauges, and that the pack had followed his bakkie. The signal continued to get weaker but fortunately the satellite collar sent us a pin.
We rushed to the location and just below us was a large buffalo herd and we could see that Wild Dogs had disturbed them. Finally, we caught up with them hunting on the ridge and managed to lure them into following the bakkie.
We offloaded the carcass and the dogs came in. They sniffed at the carcass but weren’t interested at all, settling down next to it. We tried to get within darting distance, but the pack just moved off. What a downer – we needed to come up with a new plan and fast.
We radioed Alexi that we required an impala carcass ASAP and she was only too happy to oblige – 30 minutes later the carcass arrived. Andy proceeded to tie the carcass to a nearby tree. This time the dogs were very excited, to our relief they came in and started feeding. Within 15 seconds they had removed the carcass from the tree and Andy had to retrieve it and re-tie it. The various disturbances meant that the alpha male had enough and led the pack off. Unfortunately, the morning just hadn’t run to plan, so we decided to back off. We would have been able to dart perhaps one individual – if we were lucky. So back to the drawing board. We decided to try again that afternoon. Our return to camp saw us a little deflated!
Fortunately, the dogs didn’t wander far, and we were back at 16:00 calling them in. They still took their time coming in, but eventually some started feeding and we decided to just get whatever we could. Zoe shot the first dart, which set the precedent for the rest of the capture. A perfect dart, then Andy quickly let off a second dart. The pack was a bit bewildered and the alpha male clearly did not like what was happening, so he moved the pack off.
We quickly gathered the two darted pack members who had fallen asleep not too far away and moved them both next to the carcass in order to lure the pack in again. We then decided to drive off in the hope that the pack would return to find their pack mates. It worked. Not long after they returned, we were able to get a third individual darted. With the light fading we quickly retrieved the third darted dog and moved off again, with Dr Fraser climbing into a tree to see if he could get one last dog. We were parked a good 100m away when we heard the fourth dart go off. Unfortunately, after a long search we couldn’t find a fourth darted individual, so we called Lapalala Wilderness to inform them that three dogs were on their way.
It was already dark as we drove to Lapalala, with Zoe looking after the dogs on the back of the bakkie. An hour later some very excited Lapalala staff, Glenn Phillips, Herman Muller and Annemieke Muller, joined us at their boma. We waited for the dogs to wake up after their trip and left once we were happy; they would be fine after their immobilisation. Three out of ten dogs meant we were 30% done. We left Lapalala in good spirits arriving back at camp after 21:00. We knew the next morning would be key. We had made real progress but knew there was a lot more to be done.
Day 4
04:00 Day 4 and another early start. After checking the pack’s movement throughout the night, it was clear that they were searching for their missing pack members and were pretty much where we last saw them. We arrived on the farm at 05:30 and placed the impala carcasses in the same spot as the previous day. The pack was on the move early and it seemed as if they were hunting and heading off in the wrong direction. Another pin location showed us that the pack was not far off in an open field. We quickly reloaded a carcass and left Dr Andy Fraser in a tree with the remaining carcass. Alexi spotted the pack moving off up the ridge. We were hoping that the pack would come to the vehicle as they had the previous three days, but they showed little interest and moved off in the opposite direction, led by a very unhappy looking alpha male.
We knew we needed another approach, so we decided to call in aerial support.
Lambert van der Westhuizen from West Dunes Aviation had been on standby over the last two days and was only a 5-minute flight away. We struggled to get cell phone comms but fortunately Timon knew exactly where to go. I set the pin downloads to every 10 minutes. When the first pin came through, the dogs had moved almost 2km west. The chopper was in the air and Lambert, Andy and Alexi were on their way. They located the dogs within minutes and Andy got a few darts off, which unfortunately all missed. Lambert knew they were a little heavy and would need to drop off Alexi in order to increase the performance of the chopper. Alexi was dropped off and joined the ground crew and they set off again and quickly relocated the pack. Andy knew that the alpha male was the key.
While firing a few more missed darts, the chopper flushed a huge leopard male and some bush pigs. A large bush pig boar was running full speed less than a tail length behind the leopard – something you don’t see every day and certainly an added bonus for us!
Finally, we heard the words we had been waiting for – “dart is in”! Wild Dogs are notoriously difficult to dart from the air. Imagine hanging half out of a moving chopper, chasing an animal at 45km/h with a 10 by 10cm target and they turn at 90 degree angle as soon as they feel under pressure! In Andy’s 7th attempt (according to Lambert the first real opportunity he gave to be darted) the dart was in. The ground crew rushed to where the dog was along a pretty challenging farm road. Eventually the alpha went down on the fence line and the air crew informed us where to find him while they continued to try to dart more dogs. When we finally got there, the alpha jumped back to life and Zoe had to put a second dart in from the ground. The next 40 minutes went like clockwork, the chopper located the dogs which had all regrouped, darted another dog and worked the individual onto a road the ground crew could access. Zoe stabilised the dogs on the ground while Andy continued to go locate the pack and dart another two dogs. We managed to get four dogs that morning, all males. It was getting a bit warm, so we decided to transport the four darted males to Lapalala Wilderness and proceed again in the afternoon. We had seven out of ten dogs and were 70% of the way there.
After a great morning we met up again at 16:00. We still needed to get the alpha female, another unknown pup from last year, as well as the collared female. Obviously, we wanted to leave the collared female until last. The remaining dogs had settled in deep kloof and Andy and Lambert located them easily. Andy proceeded to dart the first one in no time at all and eventually shepherded her to a big dam. She went down in some shallow water and Andy made the right call to jump out of the chopper and move her to the road as she could have drowned. Unfortunately, it was the unknown pup, a female, and not the alpha female we were desperate to get.
Then technology started to fail us, so we were having difficulty locating the last two individuals. Andy went up with the telemetry to try locating them from the air. We suspected they had gone underground and were in some warthog burrows. After quite an extensive search with no luck, the chopper landed and then suddenly a pin location came through. Up they went and found the remaining two dogs relatively quickly. Andy darted another dog, and we knew it was the dog we wanted, the alpha female. The chopper followed her until she went down in a dense thicket. They gave us her location and proceeded to try to get the last remaining dog.
We moved into the area where the alpha went down and searched everywhere but could not find her. There was a labyrinth of holes and burrows in the thicket and we had to carefully look for any tracks and disturbed spider webs to see if she had gone into one. The grass was very long and after 20 minutes we still hadn’t located her. Eventually Alexi called from about 200m away, she had found her in the long grass.
In the meantime, the air crew had located the last collared dog and darted her. Andy saw the dart pop out and it probably hit her hip bone. They followed her for a while until she also went into a deep ravine and proceeded to enter a thicket with lots of holes. Lambert made his way back to us and loaded me up with the telemetry to try to locate her on the ground. With virtually nowhere to land, Lambert expertly found a tiny open area and hovered over the ground so I could jump out. There were burrows everywhere and while I was getting a strong signal in the thicket, I couldn’t get a direction. One of the holes smelt of Wild Dog and had fresh tracks – she was in there in my opinion. Unfortunately, we had to return back to the ground crew and we quickly made the decision to fly the two females to the Lapalala boma while the ground crew continued to search for the remaining dog.
We struggled to get the two dogs in the chopper but once they were loaded, we continued the search for the last dog. The location was much further than anticipated, after a 20-minute jog we found the thicket and continued to search for the dog using the telemetry. It became clear that she was in one of the burrows. I climbed into the burrow I felt she had entered. It was too narrow, and I couldn’t see well but the soil had been disturbed and the spider webs indicated something was definitely in there. I tried to access the burrow from another, much larger hole. There was a huge system of tunnels and cavities, one large enough to nearly stand on my haunches. I found an old impala leg and plenty of bones and porcupine quills. It was the one of the den sites that the pack used last year, confirmed by satellite data. We still couldn’t locate her, and the sun was now setting so we made our way back to the vehicle with a single torch. We got there after dark and proceeded to collect Andy who had safely delivered the two dogs at Lapalala. We had now caught nine out of ten dogs and were 90% of the way there. It was a good day, it was just such a pity we could not get the last dog. Alexi informed us that the collared female was calling incessantly when we got to camp. We had to catch her the next morning.
Day 5
04:00 I didn’t get much sleep last night – I kept following “the calling lady’s” (aptly named by Alexi) movements. She hardly rested at all last night, as she moved all over the farm in search of her pack. A few of the locations I received were the exact spots that other individuals had been darted and went down, proving just how amazing their ability to relocate each other is. On the way to the farm, I saw that she had left the property and was heading north at quite a speed. I immediately messaged Timon and sent him the calls and asked him to start calling her in. Three minutes later he was calling her in with a huge speaker. I got a pin location and she was still moving away, almost 3km away. I was stressed and contacted that landowner to gain access. Fortunately, she agreed. Then the next pin came in 10 minutes later and she was right at the farmhouse, 300m away – she had travelled almost 3km in a matter of minutes. Very relieved, I stopped calling knowing that she was nearby. She started hoo calling in the most chilling manner I have ever heard. Her call was horse and desperate, it almost sounded as if she had lost her voice and one knew that she had been calling all night. We all looked at each other as the desperation in her call was noticed by the entire team: we had no option but to capture her today. Lambert arrived three minutes later. The vets were ready, and Andy jumped into the chopper and off they went. By now she knew what the helicopter was all about and started running to the same den site she found refuge in the previous day.
The helicopter was able to locate her rather easily and we heard the news we had all been waiting for “dart is in”. The ground crew were on their way and we moved in under the chopper circling on a rocky ridge. Andy had already jumped out and was on his way to find her 100m from the road. Unfortunately, he startled her, and she started to move deeper into the bush. Andy screamed get the chopper in the air! Lambert and Timon sprang into action and soon the chopper located her. She was moving. Zoe instructed Timon to get another dart in and Lambert expertly hovered into position and the dart went in. What a relief! A capture like this is never over until the fat lady sings. She took a while to finally go down and we were all relieved. Zoe and Andy stabilised her and we loaded her into the bakkie for her final journey to Lapalala. It was quite a surreal feeling driving with one of southern Africa’s most endangered carnivores in the back seat, with Zoe monitoring her progress closely. After an hour, we finally arrived at the Lapalala boma. We offloaded her into the boma, and the vets administered the reversal drug. Shortly afterwards, she got up and stumbled drunkenly to her feet and made her way deeper into the boma where she was excitedly greeted by her pack members. She was finally home safe with her pack.
It was only while leaving Lapalala that finally a feeling of accomplishment started to hit me. We had successfully darted and relocated the whole pack. We could not have done it without such a dedicated and professional team. I cannot think of a better place withing the Waterberg for this pack to call home and am so pleased that we finally have a reserve big enough and willing to house this pack, especially as they are the Waterberg’s own dogs and we need to keep them there where they can now survive and roam free from persecution or human induced threats. This pack is safe at last.
This operation was made possible by Princess Charlene of Monaco, Patron of the Waterberg Wild Dogs, the Elizabeth Wakeman Henderson Fund, Tintswalo at Lapalala, Lapalala Wilderness, Ford Wildlife Foundation, and the incredible team members involved – Dr Zoe Glyphis, Timon Dreyer, Alexi Rough, Dr Andy Fraser, and Lambert van der Westhuizen from West Dune Aviation.
