Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Wednesday 27 June 2018
African wild dogs make comeback at Mozambican wildlife park

By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA flood meters to monitor wa-
Associated Press ter levels and their duration
GORONGOSA NATIONAL "as these have a major in-
PARK, Mozambique (AP) — fluence on the vegetation
The African wild dogs are production and animal
back. movements," according
There are just 14 of them, to Stalmans, the science
far fewer than those that director. They are also
roamed Mozambique's searching for fossils to get
Gorongosa National Park an idea of species and the
before the nearly two-de- environment in the Goron-
cade civil war that started gosa area in the very dis-
in the 1970s. As up to a mil- tant past, which could help
lion people lost their lives to inform decisions about its
violence and famine, much future.
of the park's wildlife also "Ecosystems come back
was wiped out — including and there's restoration, but
the wild dogs, an endan- they're almost never the
gered species vulnerable same as they were before,"
to snares and disease. said Rene Bobe, an Oxford
Now they have been re- University paleobiologist.
introduced to Gorongosa, "So what comes back is
carnivores unleashed on In this undated photo supplied by Gorogosa Media, a pack of wild dogs make their way down a something new," said Bobe,
plant eaters as part of an road in the Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique. a Chilean who has also
intricate conservation proj- Associated Press worked on paleontologi-
ect that aims to restore a cal projects in Kenya and
diverse ecosystem at the In its heyday, before the The center of everything, livered to Gorongosa by Ethiopia. "You cannot go
southern end of Africa's end of Portuguese colo- what we are doing, is the the Endangered Wildlife back in time, in a way. We
Great Rift Valley. nial rule in 1975, the park people," Muagura said at Trust, a group that inten- see this in the fossil record,
It's complicated. Archi- drew celebrities like John the park's main camp at sively manages the species happening over and over
tects of the project — a Wayne and Gregory Peck Chitengo, where a bullet- in South Africa, promoting again."
joint venture between a to central Mozambique. pocked wall segment still genetic diversity by moving Gorongosa's new pack of
non-profit group founded However, it was located in stands as a reminder of the males around fenced, rela- wild dogs, meanwhile, is
by American philanthropist one of the poorest areas in civil war. tively small wildlife areas settling well. The "alpha"
Greg Carr and the Mozam- a country ranked among Baboons wander the camp that are not connected to female is pregnant and is
bican government — are the world's poorest, and and are plentiful outside its each other. probably looking for a safe
wrestling with big picture black Mozambicans were fence. Leopards, a particu- "We try to mimic natu- den to give birth, said Paola
ideas about what restora- excluded from meaning- lar threat to baboons, were ral processes," said David Bouley, the park's associate
tion even means in a world ful involvement, according thought to have been ex- Marneweck, head of the director of carnivore con-
whose wild places face in- to warden Pedro Estevao terminated in Gorongosa. group's carnivore conser- servation. The groundwork
tensifying pressure from hu- Muagura. On March 29, however, a vation program. The wild for reintroduction of the
man encroachment and He said education, farm- Mozambican guide driving dogs will keep herbivore species began long ago
climate change. ing and other programs with Finnish and American populations healthy by tar- with intensive efforts by
"We can't go back to what designed by Carr's Goron- tourists at night spotted a geting old or weak animals, rangers to curb poaching
exactly it was," said Marc gosa Restoration Project male leopard in a possible he said. and make the habitat safer
Stalmans, science director to help the 200,000 people sign that the elusive species The work at Gorongosa was for animals, she said.
at the 4,067-square-kilo- living around the park are is returning. praised by Stuart Pimm, a "That's an important lesson
meter (1,570-square-mile) critical to success within More lion cubs have been Duke University conserva- in restoration," Bouley said.
park. "Has the environment its boundaries. About two- born in the park. And on tion scientist who is not in- "A system has to be ready
changed over the last 50 thirds of the project's $12 an April morning, the newly volved and said the rein- to receive these species so
years in a way that certain million budget this year is arrived wild dogs — six fe- troduction of key predators we succeed not just for one
previous states can no lon- being spent outside the males and eight males — will restore "the sort of mix of month, or one year, but for
ger be attained?" park; major donors include trotted and lazed in a large species that you would ex- 10 years and onwards."q
Anti-poaching efforts have the United States Agency enclosure where they were pect" even if it is difficult to
helped populations of sa- for International Develop- getting to know each oth- predict the exact impact
ble, hippo, elephant and ment. er, establishing a hierarchy on various species of flora
other species to begin re- "To me, restoration means before being released into and fauna.
covering. But there is more to recover what was de- the wild on June 16. Gorongosa's team is ex-
to it than trying to revive stroyed. Not only to recov- The tawny, big-eared pred- panding restoration re-
the natural order. er, but to improve. ators were darted and de- search, this year deploying