African Wild Dog

The African Wild Dog (Lycaon pictus) is an endangered species with only 3000 to 5000 wild dogs remaining in around 14 countries in Africa. Also variously known as the Cape Hunting Dog or Painted Wolf it has a characteristic mottled pattern of browns, black and white that is unique to each individual and provides a way of identifying them.

Wild dogs need a large hunting territory of at least 30,000 hectares to survive and some packs are known to range over areas exceeding 1000km². There are very few private or national game reserves that can provide this vast hunting space and even these run the risk of the dogs escaping into neighbouring farm land where they are often killed by farmers to protect their livestock. On Limpopo-Lipadi the 140km electric fence is patrolled daily to mend any potential escape routes opened up by industrious warthogs or other species digging with the goal of ensuring that our dogs avoid coming into conflict situations.

Even if wild dogs have the necessary hunting area, they are still threatened by lion and hyena which compete for the same prey. Whilst they don’t stand a chance against lion which would easily kill them to take over their prey, they are able to defend against hyena if they work together as a team. Limpopo-Lipadi aims to introduce lion in the future, depending on carefully managed availability of prey for all predators and advice from experts in the field.

Other threats to wild dog survival include illnesses such as rabies and distemper, which could wipe out an entire pack, since wild dogs often regurgitate their meat to feed their pups or older dogs that cannot participate in the hunt. That is why inoculation is necessary for sensitive wild dog breeding packs - something we have undertaken with our dogs.

You can find more pictures of wild dogs in our photo gallery and videos and news items in the blog. Visitors to Limpopo-Lipadi also have an incredible opportunity to track these endangered predators on foot through the bush, hopefully culminating in a very personal encounter.

Limpopo-Lipadi Wild Dog Pack

During August 2008 we were asked by Cheetah Conservation Botswana to adopt nine wild dog pups whose parents had been killed, with the hope of reintroducing them to the wild. Attempting something rarely done successfully to date we gave these pups hope and brought them to Limpopo-Lipadi. After 19 months of natural feeding in our 4 hectare holding pen they were old enough to be released. We introduced two new males from a different pack (exchanging our 5 male dogs with another reserve to help preserve the genetic diversity of wild dog populations). Our new hunting pack of these two males and our three females bonded well and were released in April 2010. You can read more on the history and progress of our wild dogs and see video clips in the news blog.