Wire snare successfully removed from wild dog

AFTER receiving reports of a snared African wild dog in the Western Shores section of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife (EKZNW) Chief Veterinarian, Dave Cooper and his colleagues successfully captured her, removed the snare and sent her on her way.

The small pack of wild dogs has been seen intermittently on the Western Shores of Lake St Lucia, having found their own way there from the uMkhuze section of the iSimangaliso Wetland Park.

One of the pack, a male, is collared for monitoring purposes.

The snared female was seen by a contractor working in the forestry areas.

EKZNW conservation staff kept an eye out for her and called in their ecologist, Brigitte Church, and Wildlife Act’s PJ Roberts.

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Using telemetry equipment to gain a signal from the male dog’s collar, the pair spent three days searching for the pack.

The female was finally located, darted, and the snare successfully removed.

‘Luckily the wire hadn’t caused much damage and she won’t have any negative effects,’ said Cooper.

At the same time, she was fitted with a tracking collar for monitoring purposes.

She appears to have recently given birth, which would make her pups the first known African wild dog pups in that section of the wetland park.