African Wild Dogs
Critically endangered conservation status
The African wild dog is a critically endangered species. There are fewer than 6,500 throughout Africa.
These social animals, like all other wildlife, have their niche in the complex web of predator/prey relationships that is Africa’s ecosystem. The African wild dog is an efficient hunter who improves the quality of species by removing the sick and weak and reducing inbreeding by scattering individuals.
The Mkomazi team not only reintroduced over 200 dogs into the Mkomazi/Tsavo ecosystem but is considered an expert in the management of wild dog breeding and reintroduction. The program has been a wonderful success with sightings of large groups of dogs in the wild that started from just a few that we initially translocated. The cost of the captive breeding and translocation program is high. The cost of their loss from the ecosystem would be incalculably higher.
