![\"A](\"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/759607\/original\/file-20260914-50-5sonu.gif?ixlib=rb-4.1.1&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip\")
<\/a><\/p>\n The Zambian wild dogs\u2019 movement map.
\n Courtesy Scott Creel.<\/p>\n
Known as EWD-1355, she began her journey from her pack\u2019s home range in eastern Zambia\u2019s South Luangwa National Park<\/a>, becoming one of thousands of wild dogs we\u2019ve studied and tracked in Zambia over a period of nearly 20 years.<\/p>\n Since EWD-1355\u2019s journey, we have recorded other extraordinary journeys. One group of three male wild dogs covered even further \u2013 they walked 4,126km to connect with female dogs, a record for any African mammal.<\/p>\n I\u2019m a conservation scientist, and have studied African carnivores for 36 years. Together with Matt Becker and the Zambian Carnivore Programme<\/a>, I\u2019ve spent more than 16 years studying over 500 African wild dogs from over 50 packs every year, fitting them with GPS tracking collars.<\/p>\n Read more: African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) are one of the world\u2019s most endangered large carnivores<\/a>. Only around 6,000 remain. Despite the name, they are not closely related to domestic dogs, having split off from the rest of the 34 species of canids more than 3 million years ago. <\/p>\n Small, isolated groups of any endangered species are highly vulnerable to local extinction because there are fewer individuals to withstand inevitable changes and threats to a population. In the case of wild dogs, most do not breed \u2013 only an alpha male and alpha female typically breed in each pack.<\/p>\n Over recent decades, we have seen several small wild dog populations in the Serengeti, the Lower Zambezi, and most recently, western Zambia\u2019s Liuwa Plain<\/a> blink out. <\/p>\n In a recent paper<\/a> we set out our findings based on tracking individual dogs across their entire lives, recording their position by satellite every few hours to build up a picture of where packs live, when young dogs leave home, where they go, where they thrive, and where they die.<\/p>\n These journeys are vital because wild dogs need large, connected areas to find mates and breed with dogs from other populations. When their habitat is broken up, conservationists may have to capture and move them between reserves to prevent isolated populations from dying out.<\/p>\n Read more: To find out whether these were the longest journeys any African mammal had made, our study documented dispersal (one-way movements to find mates). Most record long-distance movements are migrations (seasonal return journeys). For example, the UN Convention on Migratory Species<\/a> identifies Africa\u2019s longest round-trip migrations as blue wildebeest (650km), Burchell\u2019s zebra (588km) and white-eared kob (400km). <\/p>\n Our study recorded a 4,126km travel distance, far longer than documented African migrations, but representing a different behaviour. <\/p>\n Read more: Our finding<\/a> that African wild dogs are still travelling vast distances to find mates means there is still hope of maintaining natural processes. The dogs\u2019 natural movement keeps populations going that might otherwise have gone extinct.<\/p>\n However, we also found that the journeys of African wild dogs are fraught with danger. One of the biggest dangers is wire snares set for bushmeat. The dogs are also at risk because they are young, inexperienced, and travelling through areas full of threats such as lions, other packs, and river crossings full of crocodiles. We found that more than half we tracked did not survive.<\/p>\n What the journeys revealed<\/p>\n Wild dog pups in Zambia. Our data shows that wild dogs move very differently depending on where they are. Inside protected areas, they move, hunt and rest at moderate speeds. But when they disperse out of protected areas, they shift into a faster and straighter \u201ctravel mode\u201d that lets them cover ground quickly, and rest in thickets or rocky areas where they are less likely to be disturbed. <\/p>\n The same instincts that let wild dogs slip past a pride of lions also let them slip past a village or a highway and move on quickly to safer ground.<\/p>\n Read more: In 2025 and 2026 our research found that seven young dogs \u2013 four females and three males \u2013 left the Mayukuyuku Pack in Kafue National Park<\/a> within two weeks of each other. They were all related so weren\u2019t likely to mate with each other, and each group set off on their own dispersal path. <\/p>\n Both groups eventually approached three of Zambia\u2019s largest cities, amazingly skirting the Copperbelt industrial areas of Zambia, before turning back the way they\u2019d come. <\/p>\n Remarkably, our tracking shows that the two groups met up again after several weeks. By this time, each group had moved more than 1,000km in an unprotected area about 75km from Kitwe and Ndola, both major cities.<\/p>\n Read more: One of the female dogs was wearing a radio collar and we were able to find out that she later died in a snare. We then lost track of her sisters as they weren\u2019t collared.<\/p>\n The collared Mayukuyuku brothers group kept travelling (by themselves) and made it to eastern Zambia\u2019s Luangwa Valley, a record journey of 4,126km.<\/p>\n They\u2019ve been there ever since and seem to have met up with females, as they are no longer dispersing (moving around).<\/p>\n A wild dog pup in Kafue, Zambia. Information like this is one of the strengths of intensive field studies – we begin to understand where animals are likely to die, and why.<\/p>\n Overall, the movements we observed show that dispersing wild dogs have connected every major population in Zambia. Wild dogs from Zambia have also walked into Mozambique and Malawi and to within a few kilometres of Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola. They also continue to move<\/a> long distances in Tanzania, Kenya, Botswana and Zimbabwe. <\/p>\n Our genetic studies<\/a> had already suggested that populations across the region were linked; our GPS data now show, in real time, exactly how that linking happens. <\/p>\n Read more: However, moving isn\u2019t the same as connecting. Wild dogs usually fight, sometimes fatally, when they meet unfamiliar dogs. Migrating to a new group remains difficult, and often fails. <\/p>\n For example, EWD-1355\u2019s story ended badly. Although she found another pack in the Lower Zambezi National Park<\/a>, she failed to entice a mate to leave. Because she could not join the group, she kept moving. In June 2022 she died in a wire snare. Wild dogs cannot recognise or avoid snares. As they travel in packs and are reluctant to leave an injured packmate behind, this often means several animals are injured or killed in a single event.<\/p>\n An opportunity and a challenge<\/p>\n About 40% of Zambia has some form of legal protection for wildlife, and corridors such as the Luangwa Valley remain highly effective. Identifying ways to allow wildlife to continue to disperse through other areas that are also important to humans is a priority. <\/p>\n Ending wire-snare poaching for bushmeat needs sustained, well-resourced anti-snaring patrols in national parks and buffer zones, and support for communities living alongside wildlife so bushmeat hunting becomes less necessary. <\/p>\n Read more: Fortunately, the Zambia Department of National Parks and Wildlife<\/a> is working with partners like African Parks<\/a>, The Nature Conservancy<\/a>, Musekese Conservation<\/a>, Conservation South Luangwa<\/a>, the Frankfurt Zoological Society<\/a>, and the Zambian Carnivore Programme<\/a> to address snaring and the needs of people who live adjacent to parks.<\/p>\n As protected wildlife populations recover, more young animals will undoubtedly disperse in search of new territory. This is good news for the species, but only if the routes they travel are safer than the one that EWD-1355 took.<\/p>\n This project was supported by partners at the Zambia Department of National Parks and Wildlife and NGOs including The Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund, National Geographic, the National Science Foundation, Dazzle Africa, Painted Dog Conservation Inc., and Tusk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 2021, a three-year-old female African wild dog spent a year travelling more than 2,300 kilometres across southern…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[61,60,82,263],"class_list":["post-626710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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