By: Mary Thomas, Coordinator of Conservation Biology
Collaboration between partners is essential to making a conservation effort successful, especially when working with highly endangered species, like The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens frequently does.
One of our longtime partners is the Painted Dog Research Trust (PDRT), located near Hwange National Park and Victoria Falls. Dr. Greg Rasmussen founded the organization to better protect the critically endangered African painted dog, through a holistic approach. The Living Desert’s Vice President of Conservation, Dr. James Danoff-Burg, and Dr. Greg Rasmussen agree that when working to save this species, the local communities are just as important to engage with as the painted dogs themselves.
Earlier this summer, Dr. Danoff-Burg and the Zoo’s Conservation Social Scientist, Katie Shaw, hosted a social science workshop at PDRT headquarters where 28 individuals from several organizations attended, including the University of Namibia, the Zimbabwe Republic Police force, and Matetsi Game Reserve. In this workshop, our team taught participants how to design and implement behavior change studies and surveys in their respective vocations.
With the pan-African painted dog population declining from half a million individuals to just 5,000, the painted dog has been listed by IUCN as critically endangered. Zimbabwe serves as a wildlife corridor between neighboring countries Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, South Africa, and Mozambique. Linking wildlife populations, Zimbabwe’s painted dogs are a keystone population for the species as a whole.
The Living Desert has also partnered with PDRT to develop a highly effective curriculum for their bush camps. The camps, geared toward students ages 12 to 16 years old, teach children to set up game cameras, identify local flora and fauna, and basic conservation techniques.
In their ongoing partnership with the local community, PDRT employs women artists to create snare art. Through their work, PDRT collects snares, a trap made of wire that either suffocates or causes insurmountable trauma to the captured animal, such as painted dogs. Once these traps are disabled, the wire is taken to women in surrounding areas who turn this crude tool into beautiful art.
Together, The Living Desert and PDRT are working together to learn more about the other species that interact with and live alongside painted dogs. PDRT uses camera traps to assist in monitoring the painted dog populations near Victoria. These images are then sent to The Living Desert where volunteers help analyze each one and identify the animal(s) in the image. Volunteers train to identify animals within the images from lions to Southern ground hornbills or, hopefully, painted dogs.
Please join The Living Desert in supporting this unique species on August 26, World African Painted Dog Day. In celebration, Panda Express will donate 28% of sales placed online or through their app that day.
Go to Panda Express Community Programs Fundraising or use code 924215 in the Fundraiser Code box at checkout.
