WILD DOGS ARE NOW BACK IN SERENGETI

A 5th batch of wild dogs was released in the park last week in the West. Two batches were released in 2012, one in 2013 and one in 2014; another one will be released in the future.
Wild dogs had disappeared from the park in 1992 but ‪#‎TAWIRI‬ (Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute) initiated the ‪#‎Serengeti‬ Wild Dog Project in 2000.
The project started officially in 2005 with the support of Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS), Vodacom Tanzania, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, BIOTOPE T Limited, Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA), Wildlife Division, Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority and the Office Of The President.
The released wild dogs come from the adjacent ‪#‎LoliondoGameControlledArea‬ and ‪#‎Ngorongoro‬ Conservation Area.

The African wild dog is a highly social animal, living in packs with separate dominance hierarchies for males and females. Uniquely among social ‪#‎carnivores‬, it is the females rather than the males that disperse from the natal pack once sexually mature, and the young are allowed to feed first on carcasses. The species is a specialised diurnal hunter of ‪#‎antelopes‬, which it catches by chasing them to exhaustion. Like other canids, it regurgitates ‪#‎food‬ for its young, but this action is also extended to adults, to the point of being the bedrock of ‪#‎Africanwilddog‬ social life. It has few natural ‪#‎predators‬, though ‪#‎lions‬ are a major source of mortality, and ‪#‎spottedhyenas‬ are frequent kleptoparasites.
Although not as prominent in African culture as other ‪#‎Africancarnivores‬, it has been respected in several hunter gatherer - societies, particularly those of the predynastic Egyptians and the San people.


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