News Updates

Painted Dog Conservation 26/06/2018 Painted Dog Conservation 26/06/2018

Celebrating 20 years saving painted dogs together.

Peter Blinston gives an update on whats going on in Phindo where they are trying to capture and relocate a pack of two painted dogs and their pups. The pack had denned in a communal land, Phindo, and...

The Ngamo Rescue: In Phindo

Painted Dog Conservation 26/06/2018 Painted Dog Conservation 26/06/2018

Celebrating 20 years saving painted dogs together.

On their 20th anniversary of working with PDC and saving painted dogs, Peter Blinston, our Executive Director come painted dog expert, and Jealous Mpofu our Chief Tracker are doing what they love most, saving painted dogs. Capturing a pack denned in a communal land and killing goats…who knows the outcome?

The Ngamo Rescue: In Mpindo

On their 20th anniversary of working with PDC and saving painted dogs, Peter Blinston, our Executive Director come painted dog expert, and the experienced Jealous Mpofu our Chief Tracker are doing what they love and one of the most critical exercise in the field they met, saving painted dogs.

We received news of two unknown painted dogs that are denning in a communal land in Phindo, 20 km past Ngamo village along the railway line. The two dogs pack is reported to be hunting down and killing local people's goats in Phindo which has triggered the community to report the issue to us and Zimparks.

Zimparks have since instructed us to move the dogs from the area and our team is now on the ground trying to trap and capture the dogs for possible relocation to a safe area. On the ground in Phindo right now is Peter Blinston, Jealous Mpofu, scouts from our anti-poaching team led by Enock Zulu their supervisor and our APU's longest serving scout Lephius Muyuni.

It's a very volatile situation with an unknown outcome, the team has reported that it's almost impossible to dart these dogs because they are too shy and impossible to get close enough to, which is typical of painted dogs living in communal lands. Capturing and moving the dogs is how we can save them, locals have threatened to kill the dogs.
More details to follow...

Jealous Mpofu, Chief Tracker, 20 years experience tracking painted dogs.

Peter Blinston, Executive Director, 20 years leading a team with a sole purpose of saving painted dogs.

Painted Dog Conservation 06/06/2018 Painted Dog Conservation 06/06/2018

PDC Rehabilitation Facility: Saving painted dogs one at a time.

The intervention by PDC to help one dog, Vusile, has resulted in the formation of five functional packs in Hwange NP and we can trace 137 individual dogs back to Vusile. These constitute more than half of the estimated Hwange NP painted dog population.

Vusile's Story

By Peter Blinston

At Painted Dog Conservation (PDC), we have always placed immense importance on each individual dog. Vusile is perhaps the best current example that illustrates this point. She had a troubled start to life following the death of her parents and she ended up as an orphan in our Rehabilitation Facility for a while with her two brothers. She was successfully released back into the wild but after some months she vanished as her release pack (the Bambanani) floundered

Occasional sightings told us that she was still alive and well though. Until the day she emerged with her new mate, Temba, and six pups.

The alpha female of the Nyamandhlovu Pack, was Socks. She is Vusile’s daughter and Socks had had 33 pups, 16 of them still alive as I write.

Socks pups have formed the BaNyayi pack which have had 23 pups.

Vusile's two sons Whitetail and Kisser, have formed the Broken Rifle Pack, who have had 23 pups to date. Her other sons Vusela and Painted formed the Sammalisha pack and we have reason to believe that they are south of the Wilderness concession, about 50 kilometers from PDC.

Vusile's plaque at the Rehabilitation Facility

Vusile was killed by a lioness when she was seven years old.

The intervention by PDC to help one dog has resulted in the formation of five functional packs in Hwange NP and we can trace 137 individual dogs back to Vusile. These constitute more than half of the estimated Hwange NP painted dog population.

The name Vusile translates roughly as “being clever” in a street smart kind of way. Hard to argue with that, and something I can relate well with.

Peter Blinston is the Executive Director for Painted Dog Conservation. Read his profile on our Meet The Team page. To contact him, kindly use our Contact page.

Painted Dog Conservation 18/05/2018 Painted Dog Conservation 18/05/2018

#EndangeredSpeciesDay

Today is #EndangeredSpeciesDay, an opportunity for people of all ages to learn about the importance of protecting endangered species and everyday actions they can take to help protect them.

Painted dogs are one of the most endangered species in the whole of Africa. They are native to Africa and are not found in the wild anywhere else on the planet. Fewer than 7,000 painted dogs are left across the entire continent. There are roughly 700 painted dogs in Zimbabwe, and we work with local populations of both humans and dogs—via conservation, education, and outreach programs—to help them not only survive here, but thrive.

To learn more and get updates about painted dogs, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

To support our work, you can donate via our Wildlife Conservation Network partner:
https://donate.wildnet.org/…
OR
Support our #SponsorAChild #SaveThePaintedDog campaign for the Iganyana Children's Bush Camp here:
https://www.bonfire.com/pdc-bush-camp-15th-anniversary/

📷@Nick Dyer

Painted Dog Conservation 03/04/2018 Painted Dog Conservation 03/04/2018

Broken Rifle's Simon snared.

Deep into the Hwange National Park (HNP), the Broken Rifle pack thrives with nine fully fledged hunters and four pups led by Cusp, the alpha female, and Kisser the alpha male. Trouble is inevitable and this time is Simon, one of the strong male hunters of the pack.

Deep into the Hwange National Park (HNP), the Broken Rifle pack thrives with nine fully fledged hunters and four pups led by Cusp, the alpha female, and Kisser the alpha male.

Inevitably trouble struck, Peter received an email from Tinashe who works with Wilderness Safaris’ Davison Camp. A painted dog has been seen with a snare wire around its neck at Back pans. Given the location we knew it was one of the 13-member Broken Rifle pack. Without wasting time, the team organised and took off to assess and act accordingly to the urgent situation.

It didn’t take time for our team to locate the pack when they drove south of the Mani Camp. Cusp is collared; Jealous picked the signal after Linkwasha on the Back pan between Davison Camp and Linkwasha Camp. Indeed Simon, one of the males of the pack had a visible copper wire snare around his neck. Every time we see a painted dog with a snare wire around it but walking freely we thank the higher powers and regard the individual as strong and a hero. Certainly a struggle occurred and it paid up, surviving the jaws of an excruciating death but leaving wounds and pain. Sadly we know we will be called out again.

After taking all necessary considerations, Paul successfully darted Simon and the life saving ritual began. The wire was removed, breathing another chance to Simon in the HNP. Our Anti-poaching team has also since been deployed in the area where the pack ranges to scan for more snare wires and remove them.

The grass is currently tall in HNP; it’s not easy to see the pups from any angle now. The kudus and impalas are fit as ever in this time of plenty food and water, it only takes good hunters like the rare and unique painted dogs to take one down.