Arthur Greene
On a rainy day in October last year, three sisters in a pack of African wild dogs separated from the group, and embarked on a record 2,000 km journey across southern Africa.
Their journey from eastern Zambia to Zimbabwe was tracked by Dr Scott Creel, an ecologist at Montana State University, and their story was told this week by the New York Times.
Creel and his team at the Zambian Carnivore Programme fitted a collar on one of the three sisters, three-year-old EWD 1355.
The team recorded EWD’s movements over a period of seven months, and watched as she and her two sisters evaded the perils of crocodiles, lions and poachers in their quest to form a new dynasty.
African wild dogs, also called Lycaon pictus, are among the most endangered mammals on the planet. They are ravaged by poachers’ snares, human development and diseases such as rabies. Even within their own habitats, in the apparent safety of their packs, they’re at risk.
When EWD and her sisters set off heading south-west from the Luangwa Valley in eastern Zambia, there was a high risk they wouldn’t survive the odyssey.
“It’s miraculous they survived,” Matthew Becker, chief executive and a manager of the carnivore programme, told the Times.
“There were so many human and ecological threats that could have ended this incredible journey.”
The first great threat they faced was the Luangwa River. The three dogs paused and looked across the 90 metre-wide crocodile-infested obstacle. African hunting dogs are formidable creatures but in water and fighting against a strong current, they wouldn’t stand a chance if they encountered a crocodile.
Still, the river couldn’t be rounded, so they pressed on.
By Christmas Eve, the sisters reached the Great Rift Valley. Finding little promise of establishing a pack there, they turned around.
Two months later, they reached the Great Easter Road, a motorway connecting Lusaka, Zambia to Lilongwe in Malawi. They managed to dodge the traffic to get to the other side, where they had to weave stealthily around the local human settlements to cross the Mozambique border.
After treading the borders of Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Zambia through April and May, the sisters found themselves on the fringes of Lusaka.
They were drawn away from the dangers of the city by another pack of wild dogs, hoping to tempt away some of its male members to form their own pack.
To this day, EWD and her sisters continue to shadow the Zambezi dog pack. They have travelled over 2,000 kilometres and counting – well over twice the previous record among African wild dogs.
Image Source: New York Times
