Top dog Aladdin hears the call of the new wild
African wild dogs are endangered, but creating artificial packs from adults and pups may boost the species, writes Claire Keeton
IT was while he was sleeping that Aladdin got his face and butt rubbed together with those of two females. But this wasn’t a case of Aladdin getting lucky: it was a way of ensuring he and his pack of three male wild dogs survive as a species.
The rubbing of body parts was to ensure that Aladdin and his mates became part of the newest wild dog pack in South Africa. This process of artificially bonding African wild dogs into breeding packs and releasing them into fenced reserves has saved the endangered species from dying out in South Africa. We have only about 530 of the painted dogs left in the country.
Aladdin is the top dog in the “Blue Canyon” pack and wary of people. His old pack suffered a fatal blow when its den, in the community outside of Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park, was set alight, killing the pups.
Following this loss, the males were chosen for relocation in January to the Blue Canyon Conservancy in Limpopo, along with two females as well as eight pups from the nearby Zimanga Private Game Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal.
Wild dog researcher David Marneweck, co-ordinator of the National Wild Dog Metapopulation Project for the Endangered Wildlife Trust, supervised the journey.
It started on a misty dawn in Hluhluwe with an impala carcass being dragged into the boma where the quartet had been moved. The dogs started twittering in excitement when they scented it and soon pounced, disembowelling the buck within 10 minutes.
Dr Jacques Flamand, a wildlife vet for about 40 years, fired his first dart before 8am and within 20 minutes three of the dogs went down.
But not Aladdin. The last dog standing, he played a game of hide-and-seek, with the vet suggesting he had become the alpha not only for his brawn but also his brain.
After he evaded them for almost an hour, resting only to cool down in a water trough, extra people were called to corral Aladdin, who was finally darted and sedated. He was lifted by his paws and placed in a ventilated crate next to the others’ crates.
Marneweck and his wife, Courtney, another researcher at Hluhluwe bush camp who is studying black rhino, and two monitors from Wildlife ACT drove the dogs to Limpopo. The pups were together in a trailer.
At midnight on January 8 the wild dogs reached Grant Beverley, co-ordinator of the Kruger Park Wild Dog Project, in Blue Canyon.
Before dawn the next day, the researchers bonded the dogs using the rubbing technique and left them in a heap. When the adults were awake, the nine-month-old pups were released into the boma with them. At first the pups would gang up on the males, chasing them around and biting them. But when the adults united to put them in their place, the pack started feeding without aggression.
Beverley said the dogs had bonded successfully.
“During the resting times they would lie nuzzled up nose to nose and rubbing up against each other. They stopped making frequent ‘hoo’ contact calls, looking for members of their old packs.”
Six weeks later, on February 20, the Blue Canyon pack were ready to move out of the boma into their 15 000ha home.
Before sunrise that day they were running along the fence and twittering, having seen a carcass. When the boma gate was opened they surged out towards the buck, with only one female hanging back.
As soon as the impala was devoured, the wild dogs began to sniff around and splash in a water hole.
After two weeks of freedom in their new home they have hunted impala, nyala and even a kudu — wild dogs are the most efficient big predators in the bush, catching about half of their targeted prey.
They have not yet bumped into the pride of lions in the reserve. Hyenas and lions are known to kill wild dogs to eliminate competition.
A male lion is roughly 10 times the size of the dogs, which weigh about 25kg.
The pack are socialising in a relaxed way and have not tested the fences. A younger male called Langa is nuzzling up to the collared female while Aladdin has not shown much interest in her.
“Langa is showing a bit of attraction, lifting up Clukwazi’s back legs and nuzzling her. He may be keen to breed, and mating starts in March,” Beverley said this week.
If so, Aladdin’s days as the top dog may be running out. The mate of the dominant female becomes the dominant male. But a litter strengthens bonds in the pack and South Africa may have new pups in the next three months to boost its population, which has been at risk of vanishing.
Aladdin’s old pack suffered a fatal blow when its den was set alight, killing the pups