Wildlife conservation never stops as the Endangered Wildlife Trust showed over the December holidays; the team took part in several important projects.
South Africa (19 January 2023) – The Endangered Wildlife Trust managed to put some extra time in for a few important projects over the festive season. The team visited the vital Wild Dog Waterberg project at Welgevonden Game Reserve and visited farmers to work on the Livestock Guarding Dog Project.
The team started at the Waterberg Project which is working at boosting the Wild Dog population in South Africa. The Endangered Wildlife Trust has a holding facility on at the Welgevonden Game Reserve property where wild dogs are bonded into packs for reloaction to new areas. It is essential that wild dogs are bonded before placing them back into the wild.
The second project the team visited was the Livestock Guarding Dog Project. They got to meet some of the new puppies going into herds and shared what the important project hopes to accomplish.
“We place guarding dogs with livestock to protect them from carnivores that try to kill them. The dogs are placed with livestock herds when they are still puppies and grow up with their herd, bonding with and becoming protective of the livestock.
This is a highly effective method to reduce the conflicts that may arise between predators and humans, particularly those that result in retaliation killings by farmers who have lost livestock to predators. We had the privilege of meeting a few of the dogs – Percy, Sheeba, and newcomer puppy Rocky.”
You can get involved in supporting this project via the Endangered Wildlife Trust website here.
The work didn’t end there for the team which is spread throughout South Africa. The K9 unit aided searches of vehicles entering the Rietvlei Nature Reserve in Pretoria.
“The Endangered Wildlife Trust’s Conservation K9 team assisted the South African Police Services and Honorary Rangers with a random stop and search with at the entrance to the Rietvlei Nature Reserve. More than 180 vehicles were stopped and searched during this two-day search and Remi and Kisha, the Conservation K9s on duty, found seven declared firearms and two magazines without firearms.
Our Conservation K9s are certified and specially trained to fulfill two critical roles. Firstly, we support anti-poaching initiatives in game reserves using tracking and detection dogs, and secondly, we detect wildlife contraband before it is smuggled out of the country.”
While we all enjoyed the holidays, this team worked tirelessly to make sure our wildlife was protected. We applaud them for all their efforts. Thank you!
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