By Wezi Tjaronda
WINDHOEK
The African wild dog will go extinct in Namibia unless drastic measures are taken to protect them, the Wild Dog Project has said. Should this happen, it will be the first large carnivore to go extinct in the country.
Seventy-five years ago, they could be seen across all of Namibia except for the far western desert areas.
In the past, wild dogs were present in 39 sub-Saharan countries, except the Congo basin and true deserts. Their population was estimated in excess of 250 000 with pack sizes reported in excess of 100 individuals. However, they are now extinct in 25 countries and are the most endangered large carnivores in Africa.
“Many populations are isolated and facing extinction with less than 5 000 individuals left in the wild. Pack sizes now average eight to12 adults and yearlings,” said Robin Lines, Wild Dog Project Manager in a presentation last Wednesday on Conflict, Communities and Conservation: The African Wild Dogs in Namibia, which formed part of the Namibia Nature Foundation’s 20th birthday anniversary.
African wild dogs are the most endangered large mammal in Namibia and exist largely outside of state protected areas in the far north-east of Namibia. There are between 200 and 400 adults remaining in Namibia in approximately 25-50 packs.
Current research in the core area around Nyae Nyae Communal Conservancy in east Tsumkwe indicates a declining population over the past four years. “The wild dog population is likely to be at the lowest it’s ever been. Only five percent of the area where they exist has state protection,” said Lines.
The manager told New Era on Friday that the African wild dog has been absent from Etosha National Park for 20 years, largely because of human persecution, poor management and diseases contracted from domestic and wild animals. In the 1920s, the population in Etosha was estimated at 2 000.
Highest densities are found where dominant land use is wildlife-based, human population density is low and livestock/game farming is minimal.
However, with large areas of the remaining wild dog habitat being converted into small-scale livestock farms, the African wild dog will suffer from reduced availability of wild prey, increasing the area they need to use to find food, resulting in increased conflict and persecution with farmers and decreasing population density.
Persecution of wild dogs is widespread because communities living with them have a poor understanding of their ecology, believing they are habitual livestock killers, a threat to humans and existing at much higher numbers than reality.
A pack can travel 50 km in one day, crossing dozens of farms and are hard to count accurately and thus one pack is often seen by many people over a wide area and believed to be many packs. Inflated population figures combined with inherent prejudices and inconsistent, incoherent support from government agencies, are used to justify their persecution.
Ironically, 97 percent of what the wild dogs eat is wild prey and not livestock according to the best available data.
“For every cow killed by wild dogs 30 were stolen,” said Lines, referring to research conducted in Okakarara district in 2003.
“The situation is perpetuated by generally poor livestock management – stock are left to roam about the bush, unattended and subject to many easily preventable mortality causes. If wild dogs are in the area, they are often blamed incorrectly for stock losses. With the value of livestock so high, farmers are losing a fortune through a lack of attentiveness,” he added.
African wild dogs rate highly on tourists’ wish lists, and their conservation, according to Lines, should provide Namibia with a very good opportunity to earn additional revenue, especially if they were reintroduced to Etosha and specialist tours set up, and assist with conflict mitigation on the park boundaries and diversify revenue for Namibia Wildlife Resorts.
Lines said action that needs to be taken to conserve the wild dog species include maintaining, expanding and refining monitoring of the core population and formalising human-wildlife conflict mitigation on farming communities adjacent to core areas. Reintroductions to their former range can also be an important conservation tool.
The Wild Dog Project would host a National Wild dog Conservation Workshop in 2008 to discuss conservation and management options for the species with a view to developing strategies and implementation guidelines for reintroduction to Etosha National Park and the formation of a meta-population management programme such as the successful Black Rhino Custodianship Scheme.