African wild dogs kill 16 animals at West Midlands safari park

12 African wild dogs escaped from their compound due to damage caused by Storm Ciara

Sixteen animals were killed at a safari park after a pack of African wild dogs escaped from their compound due to damage caused by Storm Ciara.

At West Midland safari park in Bewdley, Worcestershire, staff were left “extremely saddened” by the loss of six deer and 10 sheep last weekend.

A spokeswoman for the park said 12 wild dogs were able to enter a neighbouring compound in the early hours of 9 February as the storm hit the country.

The compound housed Persian fallow deer and Barbary sheep.

“At no point was there a risk to public safety and there was no danger of any animals escaping the park’s perimeter fencing,” the spokeswoman said.

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She said the wilds dogs were returned to their compound unharmed.

“The wild dogs entered the neighbouring compound through a gated entrance which had been damaged in the storm which hit Worcestershire earlier that morning,” the spokeswoman explained.

Continued

The 'painted wolves' of Zimbabwe

By Jonathan Amos BBC Science Correspondent

9 November 2018

They are stunning; there's no question. And the name, "painted wolves", seems so apt.

Their dappled tan and black fur, shot through with flashes of white, dazzles in the sunlight.

You're going to become very familiar with these creatures; you may even fall in love with them, because they will feature in David Attenborough's new blockbuster TV series, Dynasties.

The BBC spent months filming the endangered African wild dogs of Mana Pools National Park in Zimbabwe, and wildlife photographer Nick Dyer says viewers will be enthralled by the result.

The former London fund manager and marketing executive now dedicates his time and his camera to promoting the animals' conservation, walking with three packs as they roam the floodplain of the Zambezi River.

"During the day, they're mostly asleep but when they wake up, they leap and dance with absolute joy," he tells me. "They have this great social bonding thing we call a greeting ceremony. They're so full of play, especially with their pups, so they're always chasing and pulling each other's tails, which is really great fun to watch."

The first thing you need to know about painted wolves is that they're not wolves, nor, as their more boring name suggests, are they dogs.

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Freezing breakthrough offers hope for African wild dogs

Date:  April 5, 2018

Source:  James Cook University

James Cook University researchers in Australia have helped develop a new way to save endangered African wild dogs.

Dr Damien Paris and PhD student Dr Femke Van den Berghe from the Gamete and Embryology (GAME) Lab at James Cook University, have successfully developed a sperm freezing technique for the species (Lycaon pictus).

The highly efficient pack hunters have disappeared from most of their original range across sub-Saharan Africa due to habitat destruction, human persecution and canine disease, leaving less than 6,600 animals remaining in the wild.

Dr Paris said population management and captive breeding programs have begun, but there is a problem.

"One goal of the breeding programs is to ensure the exchange of genetic diversity between packs, which is traditionally achieved by animal translocations. But, due to their complex pack hierarchy, new animals introduced to an existing pack are often attacked, sometimes to the point of being killed," he said.

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Swansea Uni study: African wild dogs 'sneeze to vote'

6 September 2017

African wild dogs vote over pack decisions by sneezing, a new study has found.

The joint research by academics from Swansea, Australia and the United States monitored endangered dogs at the Botswana Predator Conservation Trust.

They found the dogs used sneezes to decide when to move off to hunt after making camp for greeting ceremonies called "social rallies".

Dr Andrew King, of Swansea University, said the sneezes acted as a "quorum".

The study was carried out by zoologists from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, Brown University, in the United States, and Swansea University's College of Science.

Previously it had been thought the dogs, which are among the world's most-endangered species, were simply clearing their airways.

But, while zoologists recorded the details of 68 social rallies, they noticed the more sneezes there were, the more likely it was the pack moved off and started hunting.

Dr King said: "The sneezes act as a type of quorum, and the sneezes have to reach a certain threshold before the group changes activity.

"Quorums are also used by other social carnivores such as meerkats."

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Hot dogs: Is climate change impacting populations of African wild dogs?

July 19, 2017

Climate change may be harming the future of African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) by impacting the survival rates of pups, according to one of the first studies on how shifting temperatures are impacting tropical species.

Led by scientists from ZSL (Zoological Society of London) and published in the Journal of Animal Ecology, the study highlights how African wild dogs - already classified as Endangered by the IUCN Red List - raise fewer pups at high temperatures.

Three concurrent studies, undertaken by ZSL, the Botswana Predator Conservation Trust, and the African Wildlife Conservation Fund, monitored a total of 73 wild dog packs at sites in Kenya, Botswana and Zimbabwe, over a combined 42 years of study.

Tracking with high-tech collars showed that wild dog packs spent less time hunting on hot days. When packs tried to raise pups in hot weather, more of the pups died, potentially because they received less food from individuals returning from hunts.

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African wild dogs adapt use of space to co-exist with lions and hyenas

(Phys.org) —African wild dogs share their habitat with other, larger carnivores such as lions and spotted hyenas. In a recent paper, published in PLOS one, it was found that African wild dogs adapt their use of space to avoid some larger carnivores. This allows wild dogs to co-exist with lions and hyenas, provided there is enough space to do so.

Carnivore competition

We mostly think of large carnivores being in competition with the prey they hunt and eat. But recently there has more recognition of the conflicts that occur between different carnivore species. African wild dogs, lions and spotted hyenas are just three of many carnivores that inhabit the Hluhluwe–iMfolozi National Park in South Africa. The park is set over about 96,000 hectares, about the size of a small county.

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Pictured: Boy, 2, mauled to death at zoo after falling into African wild dog pit

• Maddox Derkosh fell over railing about 12pm on Sunday at Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium
• Dogs developed 'pack mentality' and could not be stopped by zookeepers who fired darts at them
• Police officer opened fire and killed one dog that would not stop mauling boy
• Both parents are currently being medicated to deal with shock 

This is the tragic two-year-old boy who was mauled to death by a pack of ravenous African wild dogs after he fell off a zoo railing his mother put him on to get a better view of the animals on Sunday.


Maddox Derkosh had 'no chance' of surviving after falling 11 feet into the dog pit at the Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium while his horrified parents Jason and Elizabeth Derkosh looked on helpless.


Desperate rescue attempts by zookeepers and armed police officers could not deter the 11 aggressive beasts as they savagely attacked the two-year-old, from Pleasant Hills, on Sunday morning.


A medical examiner concluded today that the toddler was killed by the animals, not by the fall.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2227757/Pittsburgh-zoo-death-Maddox-Derkosh-mauled-death-African-wild-dogs-mother-dangles-railings.html#ixzz2BY9L7XdC

Wild dogs photographed on the Masai Mara

Gone to The Dogs

December 2010. In the 1980s the plains of the Masai Mara were not only bigger but also more bounteous in terms of predators. Lions, leopards and cheetahs were its most distinguished predators, but the wild dog was the most mythical. These 'painted wolves' need huge ranges and the vast dotted plains of this prolific eco-system were ideal hunting grounds. Sadly, distemper, encroachment, domestic animals and ignorance led to their extirpation from the Mara ecosystem. The farmers may have got what they wanted but others were robbed of Africa's most enigmatic, yet effective predator.

In 2008 there were rumours of a return of Wild dogs to the Masai Mara. Kicheche Mara Camp's manager, Jarrod Kyte, does not go in for rumour and hearsay, and nor do his guides, but after spending an afternoon in the Lemek Hills they were astonished to find a pack. The pack appear to have been transient animals and they were not seen again, although there was little doubt that a small number had returned permanently, though they were holed up in the close cover of the hills and escarpments of the Northern Mara and were highly elusive. This find had a remarkable effect on Kicheche's Masai staff, many of whom had grown up with the Wild dogs and were enchanted by them. Sadly though, there were no other sightings for over a year, until December 2010.

Wild dog kill

Kicheche Mara's head guide, Daniel Ntoyian, was returning from a local airstrip transfer. Right outside Kicheche camp he spotted two dogs. Hunting. Wild dogs do not ambush their prey like the other principal predators; they are coursing animals, like jackals and hyenas, and will chase prey for many miles to exhaust them. In this case they had singled out a Thomson's gazelle fawn and ran it down in quick time.

Gazelle fawn
One of the BBC's Planet Earth's signatures was the sequence of the dog hunt where despite millions spent they missed the moment of the kill. Daniel did not, nor did his two now breathless passengers enjoying their Dog Day Afternoon. For some reason only known to myopic visitors, the Mara is not very busy in November and early December, the dogs may know this which might explain why they were on the open grasslands. But to find them in hunting, what is more successfully is astonishing and frankly the hardest wildlife currency anywhere. Many said it would never be seen again - they've clearly never stayed at Kicheche.

African wild dogs
African Wild dogs, also sometimes called African Hunting dogs or Painted dogs, are pack animals. Each pack has male and female hierarchies; the oldest females are the alpha dogs, but for the males, the situation is more variable. Only the alpha female will produce litters, sometimes very large ones, with as many as 15 or even more sometimes recorded, though 10 is a more usual number. The whole pack is tasked with feeding and protecting the litter.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/mara-wild-dogs.html