Page 86 - KGR 2020-21 Annual Report

THE FIRST INTER-MOZAMBIQUE ENDANGERED WILD DOG TRANSLOCATION

In 2019, Karingani was identified as an ideal site for an endangered wild dog population reinforcement by the
Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT). A pack of wild dogs was introduced into the Karingani landscape. Within the first
year, the pack successfully bred and raised puppies. Those puppies, now two years old, have reached sexual maturity.
Being genetically related to their pack mates, these young females would soon most likely naturally split from their
natal pack and disperse in search of males to form their own pack. To aid in a larger dispersal, in collaboration with
the Wild Dog Range Expansion Project, the three females were specifically selected to form part of a wild dog re-
introduction into another protected area. Think of it as a very large dispersal with a little extra help.

The Wild Dog Range Expansion Project, a project spearheaded by the EWT aims to continually increase wild dog
safe space and population numbers in Africa. With the success from Mozambique at both Karingani and also in
Gorongosa National Park with wild dogs, the project was now able to utilise wild dogs from the respective reserves
and allow them to become wild dog pioneers in new safe space that has become available through large restoration
efforts.

Unrelated males were selected from Gorongosa to accompany our Karingani females. At the beginning of March,
the males were flown from Gorongosa to Karingani in the first ever internal wild dog relocation in Mozambique.
The males were placed into the Karingani predator holding boma. The next phase of the project will be to capture
and place the females in an adjoining compartment of the boma, with the hope that they bond with their new
acquaintances. When there is evidence of cohesion between the two groups, they will be allowed to interact and
strengthen that bond as a new pack before being flown to their new home.

C1 | 83 STRICTLY PRIV ATE AND CONFIDENTIAL