Saving the painted dog from jaws of extinction

Peter Blinston
Zimbabwe is one of the only few countries in Africa still having the painted dog and preserving it as the last vestige. It’s bitterly cold at 4:00am in Hwange during the month of July. It’s also dark, the sun only rising at 6:00am. I climbed into my Land Rover with a familiar cup of coffee in my gloved hand and drove the short distance to pick up Jealous, who was wrapped up in an array of jackets, gloves, hats and scarves.

He warmed himself with a cup of tea in his hands. We exchanged the usual pleasantries and wise cracks as we drove deep into Hwange National Park.

Following the trauma and eventual tragedy surrounding Ester, one of the female painted dogs that we had noticed missing, we were desperate for something positive for the dogs.

Jealous was as buoyant and optimistic as ever and instructed me to drive towards Guvalala, a waterhole 50km inside the park. He had been seeing the Nyamandhlovu pack in that area. The last time he saw them, the alpha female “Socks” was heavily pregnant. He was confident that they would den in the locality.

All we had to do was find it! Tough enough with a collared pack, extremely tough with no collar to help us.
The dogs helped us though. My headlights illuminated the ghostly shadows of four male dogs as they slipped past us.

We followed them along the road for three kilometres, enjoying the opportunity to observe them, careful not to disturb their hunt. They moved past a herd of buffalo and a small herd of zebra into the thick forests where we could not follow.

We sat drinking our respective cups of tea and coffee, waiting. Then the commotion of an interaction between a hyena and a dog reached our ears. We heard the familiar high-pitched, almost bird-like twittering of the dogs and the deeper rolling cry of the hyena interspersed with the familiar hyena whoop.

The dogs emerged from the scrub in front of us. Bloody muzzles and necks and distended stomachs told us all we needed to know. They had made a kill and despite the intervention from the hyenas they had eaten their fill and were now heading back to Socks, the pregnant female, who was presumably waiting at the den. We had to stay with them, restricted of course to the road, as they cut corners and went through the bush in an unerringly straight line, to the den.

They came out onto the road again ahead of us and paused momentarily for a drink at a small waterhole before cutting of to the right along a well-worn game trail.

Jealous and I scrambled out of my Land Rover onto the roof. We knew we would hear any interaction between the four males and Socks if the den was near. We waited and waited, but heard nothing.

We checked the ground and tracks around us. Jealous found the outgoing spoor from the dogs where they had come onto the road in the morning just before we first saw them. The fresh spoor heading back, as we presumed, to the den soon crossed the outgoing spoor and thus we had our lead to the den!

It took two hours for us to cover the two kilometres. Jealous led the way, signalled for me to stop and stood still when he lost the spoor, circling around until he picked it up again.

I would like to think that I was of some help to him, as I occasionally located a print that set us on the track again. As we walked forward the dogs betrayed their presence, giving a loud warning “bark”.

Jealous and Fran, our visitor from Australia, took a few quick photos, a GPS position and then we walked away smiling.
A den and pups is a perfect antidote for the loss of Ester, lifting our spirits and bolstering our resolve. The real highlight came six weeks later when we returned and were able to count ten pups.

The Kutanga pack was obviously in turmoil following the death of Ester.
The two remaining females, MK and Shoulder Patch, stayed near our Rehabilitation Facility, while the two males, BT and Surf, searched far and wide for Ester. Their haunting hoo calls betraying their location almost daily. Thankfully they are reunited now and I saw BT mating with Shoulder Patch, so we may have a late litter of pups this year.

This isn’t the end of the good news because we are beginning to see an increase in the painted dog population in Hwange.
Jealous is currently keeping a watchful eye on the Kutanga and Nyamandhlovu packs as well as Vusile and her Sisele packs.

We have been delighted by the emergence of a fourth pack of seven dogs in the locality, now named the Makwa pack and the recent sighting of five adults with four pups in tow, which we believe to be the ever resilient Kanondo pack.

With sightings also coming in from the Wilderness Safaris Concession to the south of us, the painted dog picture has not looked this good in a long time. This includes the eight packs in the Western region of Hwange numbering at least 84 dogs.

A ration quota system was introduced into Hwange National Park more than fifty years ago as a way of feeding the National Parks staff.
Kudu, which are a key prey species for the dogs, have always been on that quota and I am delighted to report that thanks to our lobbying of National Parks kudu have now been removed from the ration quotas. This may not be directly responsible for the increase in dog numbers but it is believed to be related and certainly every little bit helps.

Peter Bliston is the Director of Painted Dog Conservation in Hwange.