TANZANIA: More Wild Dog Packs Released Into Serengeti

A TOTAL of 17 new wild dogs have just been released in the Serengeti plains, bringing the number of the endangered carnivorous species in the country’s second largest National Park to nearly 325 and counting.

The Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Prof Jumanne Maghembe officially opened the gates of the sanctuary in which the wild dogs were being confined under special care to allow the ferocious animals to begin their free roaming in the 14,763 square kilometres making up the vast Serengeti plains.

That was the last in the series of six packs releases from the Serengeti Wild Dog Conservation Project aimed at replenishing the National Park with its own indigenous species of the endangered animals.

They were initially captured from Loliondo hills, where the dogs were constantly in conflicts with pastoralists. Wild dogs apparently love to tear goats and sheep apart for their meals and this has earned them a coveted top spot in the livestock keepers’ hate list.

Cases of poisoned or speared carnivores in areas like Loliondo Division of Ngorongoro and parts of Monduli District have been common.

“The dogs were going extinct from the early 90s,” pointed out the tourism minister, adding that since the species of African Wild Dogs were facing demise all over the world, it is upon Tanzania to ensure that the carnivores were protected.

Director General for Tanzania National Parks, Dr Allan Kijazi described the latest wild dog pack as gypsy have at one time travelled from Loliondo, through Maasai-Mara all the way to Tsavo before crossing back to Tanzania ending up in Korogwe, then making return trip to Loliondo.

Previously five other wild dog packs had been released from the Conservation Project and these included the ‘Kikwete Pack,’ ‘Vodacom Pack,’ ‘Serengeti Park,’ ‘Loliondo Pack,’ and Nyasiruri Pack all containing nearly 125 wild-dogs between them.

All packs have some wild dogs that are fitted with GPS devices that help conservators and researchers to track their movements.

But the entire Serengeti Eco-system which also encompasses the (former) Loliondo Game Controlled Area, Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA), Maswa Game Reserve and Kenya’s Maasai Mara is reported to have 27 packs of wild dogs with about 325 individuals in-between.

The latest (6th) Wild Dog pack, released from the project was named after Prof Markus Borneran an expert in Genetics and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Glasgow, who has been researching on the carnivores within the Serengeti eco-system.

The Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (Tawiri) has been implementing the project with support from the State House, Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS), Grumeti Fund (GF), Vodacom Foundation, The University of Glasgow, Tanzania National Parks (Tanapa), Tanzania Wildlife Authority, and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority.

Emmanuel Masenga and Joseph Kaboya who have been working at the project in Serengeti revealed that Tanzania was among the only seven countries of Africa that still have wild dogs, others being Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Botswana and South Africa.