AFRICAN WILD DOGS IN SOUTH AFRICA
Image by Elli Stattaus from Pixabay
They are one of Africa’s most endangered carnivores. They are one of Africa’s most successful predators. And they are a species which has had millions of years of evolution, all to themselves. The African wild dog, painted wolf, cape hunting dog or Lycaon pictus for the binomially inclined. They have lots of different names, but the severity of their situation remains the same. This species is in trouble and needs as much help as it can get.
There are around 6600 individual African wild dogs left in the world. That’s low, really low. Just for context, there are roughly 18,000 white rhinos and 400,000 African elephants left in the wild. Historically, there was 39 countries which were inhabited by African wild dogs. There are now only 14 inhabited and the range of this species is believed to have declined by 93%. Unfortunately African wild dogs, like most species, have succumbed to the usual threats of prey reduction and habitat fragmentation. But African wild dogs are particularly disliked by people that live near them. Until recently, they were considered a pest and could be removed like vermin. They are heavily persecuted by famers who do not enjoy their presence and they have an uncanny ability to get caught in any snare they come across.
A study of the South African African wild dog population in the late 90’s found that there was only one viable (meaning, able to cope and thrive without human intervention) population left in the country, located in the south of Kruger National Park. From this finding, the idea of a metapopulation was borne. Metapopulations are essentially a group of small populations of the same species which are separate but act in some way as one unit. They are complex and require intensive management. But they can work and, as a paper which has just been published has shown, the South African African wild dog metapopulation has done just that - you can check out the details of the paper at the end of this post.
The metapopulation approach in South Africa had one key aim, to create a second viable population in the country. For this one key thing was needed….space. African wild dogs are a wide ranging species, really wide ranging, with some having home ranges around 500 km square! As African wild dogs are not welcomed by their neighbours it started to become clear that there were few places that the species would be accepted outside of Kruger National Park. There just aren’t protected areas big enough. Thankfully, the metapopulation approach allowed for this as packs could be moved between protected areas, getting over the problem of habitat fragmentation and genetic inbreeding. This also allowed for the creation of that illusive viable population - albeit with the caveat of continued intensive human management.
“IT IS EVIDENT THAT WITHOUT THE DEVELOPMENT AND EXPANSION OF METAPOPULATION, AND ALL THE INTENSIVE AND COSTLY MANAGEMENT THAT THIS INVOLVES, THE SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL POPULATION WOULD BE SIGNIFICANTLY SMALLER AND MORE VULNERABLE”
Nicholson et al. 2020
And it was a success. In fact, as the wild population remaining in Kruger National Park declined, the metapopulation increased. When the initial metapopulation idea was created the aim was to create 9 new packs - this was achieved in 4 years. This addition to the country’s population has bolstered it - increasing its resilience to disease, genetic problems and events which we deem to be ‘stochastic’ as in random, destructive occurrences. This resilience increases the species chance of survival into the future, where they can hold their niche in ecosystems, maintain a strong roles as carnivores and play an important role in ecosystem diversity.
Amongst other benefits, the metapopulation also demonstrates something valuable. That small units of protected area can hold value and can play a role in future conservation. Conservation isn’t just about the large, grand and globally known protected spaces. Small units of protected land all contribute to increasing our percentage protected land cover. Of course, it would be best if these small packets of land were connected by corridors, but as the wild dog metapopulation has shown, intensive human management can replace corridors for easily moveable creatures. By protecting all patches of land, we leave the option open for innovative solutions to arise in the future. So ironically, it seems that even for a species which has taken such a massive hit in biodiversity conservation, their story is now showing one of the greatest options for hope.