International Painted Dog Day is on August 26th, and this year WCN was delighted to celebrate it with Nicholas Dyer, Director of the Painted Dog Fund and CEO of the Painted Wolf Foundation. Nick joined us to host a Closer Look to talk about everything that the Fund is doing to protect this incredible species. And he also broke some very welcome news about new grants, and new progress.
Support Across Landscapes
WCN’s Wildlife Funds work across landscapes and international borders, with targeted grants to help save key species. This is a model that is ideally suited to the challenges faced by painted dogs—a species scattered across vast stretches of the African continent.
During his Closer Look presentation, Nick announced new grants all across these landscapes. In Zimbabwe’s Savé Valley, that includes support to respond to an outbreak of canine distemper—a disease which can spread from domestic dogs and devastate entire packs of painted dogs—with an emergency vaccination campaign. And in Zimbabwe’s Gonarezhou National Park, the Fund will expand painted dog conservation efforts across 5,000 square kilometers of wilderness.
Moving west to Namibia, the Painted Dog Fund will also provide support to the Kwando Carnivore Project to establish the country’s first-ever large-scale painted dog conservation program—a major breakthrough in a region bordering Africa’s southern population stronghold. Meanwhile, up in Kenya, the Fund will provide a grant to launch the Suyan Conservation Alliance, which will help protect painted dogs across the roughly half a million square miles of northern Kenya. It will also be the first ever African-led painted dog conservation project.
Nick’s entire presentation is well worth listening to—it includes more information about the Fund, its approach to saving painted dogs, and a bounty of Nick’s stunning photography. You can watch it here.
Checking in with a beloved pack
Some of you may remember that this summer we told you about the struggles of the beloved Umkhonto pack of painted dogs in Zimbabwe. Painted Dog Conservation, a WCN Partner, remains hard at work protecting this pack in the wake of a devastating vehicle collision that killed two of their members. And so we were happy to get an update from Nick about this incredible extended family of painted dogs.
The good news is that the Umkhonto pack has remained safe since we last checked in on them. But the less-good news is the pack has denned right next to a busy highway—about as risky a location as possible. Painted Dog Conservation has mobilized a large team to protect them, and have helped establish speed bumps and roadblocks on the highway. They are determined not to lose a single animal this season. And the Painted Dog Fund has joined the effort with an emergency grant to Painted Dog Conservation, to help protect the Umkhonto pack.
This is a powerful example of how WCN is so much more than the sum of its parts, and how our Wildlife Funds and Conservation Partners can work together to help save wildlife. We know that we’ll be hoping for the best for the Umkhonto pack, and all of the dedicated conservationists working to protect them.