African Wild Dog Lycaon pictus
The African Wild Dog Lycaon pictus, also called the Painted Wolf is a very rare predator now only found in a few countries in Africa, where its future is very uncertain.
In October, 2024 I was fortunate to see some of these very special carnivores in South Luangwa National Park, Zambia. Fortunately, in Zambia the ZCP (Zambian Carnivore Programme) keeps a very watchful eye on the Wild Dogs that exist there and some are collared to track their location. Usually I would not be in favour of putting collars and the like on mammals, but in this case I am in favour as due to ZCP keeping tabs on individual animals, many have been rescued from illegal wire snares (every Wild Dog counts!), set to catch 'bushmeat' but these snares do not discriminate between species. However, any animal species caught dies a long and painful death.
This animal is the most successful predator in Africa having a success rate of around 70%. This is achieved by pack-hunting and very special communication between the dogs and their ability to give chase over long distances. The drama that unfolds when the dogs catch an animal is not pleasant (only seen personally on TV) but their actions are necessary to maintain their survival and anthropomorphic views are not appropriate here.
However, despite their hunting prowess they have been persecuted by humans and are regularly killed or their prey stolen by the likes of Lions, Leopards and Spotted Hyenas. Along with the usual habitat loss these very special animals have a tough time surviving.
The Wild Dog's pack has a very special bond and although they don't smell too good (as I had heard and then experienced!) the interaction between these very special animals is a privilege to witness, so I hope you enjoy some of the images I took, whilst parked by the side of them with my guide Sebastian.
This is just a sample of the animals found in Spain's Extremadura and all the images were taken over five days, in April 2017, which just shows the biodiversity of life found in this wonderful place.
The areas covered revolve mainly around the areas of Dehesa, around Trujillo and Cáceres , Parque Nacional de Monfragüe and the Gredo Mountains, but there are many more areas in this province of Spain, which have been visited in the past but for which the resulting photographs are currently on slide format.
