Amid Kenya’s breathtaking Tsavo landscape, African painted wolves (African wild dogs) face critical threats. Their population plummets due to disease, snaring, and human-wildlife conflict. A groundbreaking partnership between Tsavo Trust, the Painted Wolf Foundation and the new Painted dog fund now aims to protect these endangered predators with innovative conservation efforts
As the setting sun shifts shadows over Kenya’s vast Tsavo landscape, Joseph Kyalo Kimaile, Tsavo Trust’s Chief Conservation Officer, watches four painted wolves drinking from a drying waterhole – the last remnants of the Triangle Pack.
“Last year, this pack was 18 strong, and now only four are left,” says Kimaile. “No one knows what happened to the others, although personally, I suspect rabies. They have always been my favourite animal,” he adds “and I have made it my mission to keep them safe.”
A vast landscape for wild dogs
Tsavo East and Tsavo West are the largest National Parks in Kenya. The wider Tsavo Conservation Area is over 40,000 km2 – larger than Belgium – and represents one of the world’s largest wildlife sanctuaries. Lions, rhinos, and ‘super tusker’ elephants call this landscape home.
Painted wolves (Lycaon pictus) also reside in Tsavo, although their numbers have fluctuated widely as they repeatedly succumb to snaring, disease, and human-wildlife conflict. Until recently, these endangered predators seemed to be doing well here, but their population is rapidly declining. No one yet knows why, and there are no safeguards in place to protect them.
Late in 2023, the Painted Wolf Foundation (PWF) and Tsavo Trust partnered to bring a painted wolf conservation programme to this iconic area of Kenya and help protect this important population.
Rising to meet the challenge
How to do this was a big question in such a vast landscape where virtually nothing is known about these wild dogs except from occasional reports of sightings by rangers and guides on the ground. Detailed, relevant and accurate information is in scant supply, yet this could be one of the most significant strongholds for the species in Africa.
“The real opportunity here was to play to the strengths of Tsavo Trust, which has significant resources and extensive operations, as well as a strong collaborative philosophy,” explains Nick Dyer, CEO of the Painted Wolf Foundation. “Having been here for more than a decade, the Trust has built superb partnerships with the Parks’ Authorities and local communities as well as playing a significant role in protecting the iconic elephants and Kenya’s largest rhino populations. On top of this, its 12 ‘Tembo’ anti-poaching teams are already tackling one of the painted wolves’ most destructive threats – snaring.”
Knowledge of wild dogs is key
When entering any new landscape, PWF believes that the priority is to first get a handle on the population. “You cannot protect what you don’t know,” says Will Donald, PWF’s Conservation Training Manager. “You must ID every dog in every pack and map their territories. And this is not a one-off exercise as the dynamics are forever changing, so regular monitoring is also critical.” Before joining PWF, Donald spent four years doing this successfully in the Musekese area of Kafue National Park in Zambia.
Adopting this approach in an area the size of Tsavo is a huge challenge. Camera trapping provides limited information and would be prohibitively expensive. A single dedicated team cannot be everywhere all at once, and security concerns in some areas mean that it will not always be safe.
After several months of discussion, PWF and Tsavo Trust developed a strategy with three parts: 1. build expertise; 2. gain knowledge; and 3. tackle suspected threats. Further, to be effective, a decision was made to initially narrow the project area to Tsavo East. This is a more challenging area than the rest of the Tsavo landscape, and it is where the wild dogs seem to be in greater danger. It covers over 14,000 km2, which is still daunting when starting from scratch.
Building capacity for monitoring wild dogs
The first part of the strategy will involve having good, knowledgeable painted wolf experts on the ground, and Tsavo Trust agreed to employ a dedicated painted wolf conservationist who will work under Kimaile. “Such specialists are thin on the ground in Kenya, and we want to avoid removing a person who is already doing valuable work in another area, so a new ecologist will have to be trained,” says Dyer. Will Donald will provide this training at PWF’s planned training facility and spend time on the ground in Tsavo.
“The plan is also to support Kenya’s Wildlife Research and Training Institute (WRTI) in taking a keen interest in the species and support its passionate researcher, Grace Waiguchu, by providing her with the same conservation training,” says Dyer. “In addition, the project will supply her with the critical equipment needed to be effective in the field.” Waiguchu is currently studying for a PhD on painted wolves and would naturally form part of ‘Team Wild Dog’ on the ground.
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Gaining the knowledge to protect wild dogs
With this dedicated team, Tsavo Trust’s broader resources can come into full effect to understand the local population – the second part of the strategy. Its 12 ‘Tembo’ teams (some with attached ecologists) are always in the field and will be trained in conducting spoor identification during their daily patrols. This will be supplemented by air cover from the Trust’s slow and low-flying Super Cub aircraft fleet.
“This will be a fantastic challenge,” says Kimaile, who is also one of Tsavo Trust’s experienced pilots. “ID’ing them from the air will require some good flying skills, a good telephoto lens and a steady hand, but I know it is all possible. We often see the painted wolves from the air, but now there is a purpose when we do so.”
This combined approach will help the team find, ID and monitor the wild dogs and provide opportunities to put GPS collars on the most vulnerable packs in an area where the road network is sparse. The terrain makes driving off-road almost impossible.
PWF believes that, from a conservation perspective, there is no point in gathering information on the movements and composition of the packs unless this is used to protect them. Thus, the monitoring programme aims to identify the threats so that the project’s next phase can introduce appropriate conservation mitigations as soon as practicable.
“We are not about funding studies that play no role in protecting the species,” says Dyer. “We only invest in programmes that can bring a transformational change to an area and hopefully increase a painted wolf population over the long term.”
Identifying threats to painted wolves
The threats to the painted wolves in Tsavo likely come from two angles. There are the ‘natural’ threats from lions and hyenas, which can cause significant mortalities. Not much can be done about these. However, conservationists can make a difference by tackling disease risk, snaring, and illegal killing and protecting the wild dogs’ prey base. “The existence or magnitude of the threats in Tsavo cannot yet be proven, but strong anecdotal evidence suggests they are real,” says Dyer.
Thus, the third part of the strategy is all about working with local communities. The initial focus will be on the Kamungi Community, which Tsavo Trust supports and has built a meaningful and deep relationship with. Initially, Tsavo Trust will conduct a comprehensive attitudinal survey among the villagers to gain a baseline understanding of how the wild dogs impact people’s lives, together with their views and beliefs towards the species.
Working with the communities
“It is only when we understand how the painted wolves affect the lives of people in the community that we can consider programmes that mitigate against the impact that these animals have on people’s livelihoods,” says Ruth Kabwe, PWF’s new Programme Manager, who previously spent four years working on painted wolves with the Zambian Carnivore Programme. “It would be hard to persuade sheep farmers in the US or Europe to accept these pernicious predators on their farms, and we have to afford the same respect and understanding to Africa’s communities that live alongside our wildlife.”
One aspect in which Tsavo Trust will immediately make an impact is offering local community members a comprehensive rabies and distemper vaccination for their domestic dogs. Rabies, transmitted by domestic dogs, is strongly suspected of decimating the Triangle Pack and, further north in Kenya, a distemper outbreak in 2017 all but wiped out the entire population of painted wolves in Laikipia – nearly 300 individuals.
This vaccination programme will not only help protect Tsavo’s painted wolves, but it is something that the communities will extensively welcome. Alongside this, an information and education programme will run in parallel to ensure that this support is strongly associated with the species, demonstrating the benefit of having these animals in their backyard.
The road forward
“This three-pronged strategy begins a long-term conservation programme for Tsavo’s painted wolves,” says Dyer. “However, none of this will be cheap and requires a significant financial commitment for many years to make a difference.”
Thankfully, the new Painted Dog Fund, a partnership between PWF and the Wildlife Conservation Network (WCN), has made a grant of US$70,000 to Tsavo Trust to get this programme off the ground. The Painted Dog Fund, managed by PWF, forms part of WCN’s Wildlife Fund portfolio, including the Lion Recovery Fund, the Elephant Crisis Fund, the Rhino Recovery Fund and the Pangolin Crisis Fund. These funds have significantly impacted Africa, having dispersed over US$100 million since the programme started a decade ago.
The collaborative efforts of the Painted Wolf Foundation, the Painted Dog Fund and Tsavo Trust bring hope to Tsavo’s vulnerable painted wolves. With strategic conservation, community support, and dedicated funding, this initiative promises a brighter future for these iconic animals and the ecosystems they call home.
With the sun now set, the four painted dogs leave the waterhole to begin the evening’s hunt. Kimaile watches them vanish into the bush with a renewed sense of hope. “For too long, I have felt powerless to defend these incredible canines, but now I see a light at the end of the tunnel. I’m excited that we finally have a strategy and funding to make a real difference.”
More about the Painted Wolf Foundation and Painted Dog Fund
The Wildlife Conservation Network and the Painted Wolf have partnered to create the Painted Dog Fund, the only fund in existence wholly focused on the conservation of this species, to double the number of Africa’s painted dogs by 2055.
“The Painted Dog Fund shares identical goals and values with Painted Wolf Foundation and aims to raise $4 million in its first three years,” says Dyer. “It will act as a vehicle for raising and deploying resources to African painted wolf conservation projects. Acting in tandem, PWF will manage the Fund and provide the analysis, design, training, and continuous support for the projects in which the Fund invests.”
PWF and the Painted Dog Fund follow the same strategy that was articulately laid out in the late Diane Skinner’s seminal report, “Securing the Future of the Painted Wolf”.
“When Nick, Diane and I set up PWF in 2018,” says Peter Blinston, co-founder of PWF and the Executive Director of Painted Dog Conservation in Zimbabwe, “we shared a vision of putting the painted wolf on the top table of conservation and ensuring that proven conservation measures were in place wherever they exist. The combination of PWF and the Painted Dog Fund brings support to brilliant conservationists working across Africa who want to save this species. It’s really exciting to see this opportunity come alive in Tsavo.”
Find out more about the Painted Dog Fund here, and Painted Wolf Foundation here.
Further reading
- Could we double African wild dog (painted wolf) numbers by 2050? With funding, collaboration and recovered territory, it’s possible. Read more here
- This fantastic photo gallery of painted wolves (African wild dogs) will have you contacting Africa Geographic to arrange your next safari
- New research shows that there is order in wild dog hunts. Painted wolf pups are the first to eat at a carcass. Read more about this finding
- Rebranding wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) – new research suggests that the name “painted dog” triggers the most positive reaction from humans. Read more about the science behind rebranding wild dogs here
- Looking for the best place to see African painted wolves? We bring you six of our favourite spots to scout for wild dogs
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