The power of sport – awareness and conservation practice

As we all get back to our lives under the new normal post-COVID-19 and with people being allowed to gather in numbers again, we felt the need for some rigorous outreach to the local communities to catch up and address issues of poaching in particular, which has taken a worrying turn for the worse, induced by the lockdowns of the pandemic period. With support from Tusk, on the 9th of August 2022, we conducted an awareness campaign in Lupote, one of the communities on the boundary of Hwange National Park. We made sure it coincided with the Jane Bubear Sports Foundation (JBSF) sponsored Heroes Day Soccer Tournament final, being held in Lupote, which was organized by our co-sponsored Rhino Cup Champions League Zimbabwe - Iganyana Division with Wild and Free Foundation, and we brought in ZimParks, Forestry Commission, ZRP, Lupote Clinic and local leadership.

Together we mobilised more than 1000 people whom we entertained with a quiz competition (amongst other activities) and delivered an important message to conserve our fauna and flora. It was no surprise that most of the quiz prizes were scooped by kids who had gone through our Iganyana Children's Bush Camp!

Sport and wildlife conservation coming together is perhaps one of the most effective ways to engage with local communities and raise awareness. We are glad the soccer league has taken a centre stage in the community, reaching out to all ages from diverse communities and backgrounds.

The Conservation Award

Beyond the pitch, we encourage teams in our league, to engage in conservation activities such as tree planting, clean-up litter campaigns, and gulley reclamations, to name a few, in their communities. We encourage them to lead by example and teach their communities to live in harmony with nature. To this effect, we introduced the Conservation Award.

The award recognises a team or teams that have engaged in the most conservation activities in their community during the league season. This year’s inaugural award went to Chezhou’s Zebras FC. The team did not only do some of the prescribed activities but also went on to bring a new dimension by patrolling their community boundary as a team targeting and removing wire snares. Coincidentally, the Zebras FC are at the top of the league table! Painted Dog Conservation directly funded this award.

Our appeal is to have a dedicated sponsor to help support this award moving forward as we create an environment where not only painted dogs, but people and the rest of wildlife can thrive. A total of US$1000 annually would take care of this program.

Anti-poaching – a lifeline for wildlife

Anti-poaching units are the first line of defence and direct protectors of wildlife. Painted Dog Conservation anti-poaching scouts go out in the wild daily to remove wire snares set by poachers. During our third quarter, we recorded soaring poaching incidents. A total of 542 patrols resulted in the recovery of 1524 snares between July and September 2022. A steep upward trend compared to the same time in the previous years. Last year’s poor rainfall could have caused the surge in poaching.

We swiftly countered the soaring poaching by increasing the boots on the ground. When they go big, we go bigger, thanks to our collaboration with the Mabale Community Anti-Poaching Unit we swarmed the poaching hot spots.

The Gwayi Patrol

The Mpindothella pack moved 13  Km from a safe denning area into a poaching hot zone and one of the females (Thinnet) was missing. We needed to act quickly; our Anti-Poaching Unit is normally denied access to patrol these areas since they are hunting farms. However, with the pack denning there, we consulted with the farm owners and our scouts were allowed to go in, pausing hunting activities for a while. Enock Zulu, the Anti-poaching Unit Manager, deployed all his available manpower at camp. We already had 15 MCAPU scouts deployed and he enlisted the help of an additional 20, who were on standby. Together with our six regular PDC team scouts, Zulu had 41 scouts on the ground.

This effort resulted in 412 wire snares being removed within the proximity of the Mpindothela pack den.

Meanwhile, the research team, headed by Jealous, kept a daily watch on the pack’s movements. Eventually, the surviving three adults and five pups moved south to a relatively safer but certainly not safe area, and we continue to monitor them as we write. We have also extended the collaboration with the MCAPU for another month. This is the kind of life-saving work you support.

Notes from the Field: Denning and Inbreeding

Clara earlier in the year

The tale of the Mpindothela has taken a better twist this time around. Clara, the pack's alpha female, now has pups, and the pack is denning. The Mpindothela pack is a merger of the four males from the Mathathela pack, which used to roam near our headquarters in Dete and the four remaining females of the notorious Mpindo pack. The pack formed when we released the Mpindo females to join the waiting males outside our Rehabilitation facility last year. 

Looking back, since the pack was formed, the Mpindothela lost its alpha male Khule to a lion attack and a promising female MaDube to a road accident. Their future looked bleak following these incidents. The pack regrouped well, and now with pups comes new hope for the pack and the painted dog population in Hwange.

Pregnant Clara feeding with her pack

In Mana Pools, Boas, the son of Taku and Tafara (born 2020) of the Rucomecci pack, has joined the Nyamepi pack with a male we believe to be his brother, Dickson. In the video below shot by our researchers in Mana Pools, Boas and alpha female Whisky are mating.

Boas and Whisky Mating

While, on the one hand, it's good to see "new" males join the Nyamepi pack after the disappearance of alpha male Gamma in early May and the other four males, it is still a concern because Taku and Whisky, are sisters. So Boas is a close relative, indeed nephew of Whisky.

This continues a worrying trend in Mana pools of an apparent lack of "new blood" migrating into the area.

Boas and Whisky

In Partnership with the Community

Mabale Community Anti-Poaching Unit Volunteers

No matter how much progress we make with the dogs, it’s no use if we work in isolation from the surrounding communities. In 2020 and in 2021 we had a mutually beneficial and successful operation in collaboration with the Mabale Community Anti-Poaching Unit  (MCAPU) This year, we have again got funding to engage the MCAPU for another six months. Keeping our foot on the pedal, so to speak, by having and maintaining a solid presence on the ground.

In 2020, we saw an escalation of poaching activities in the areas bordering Hwange National Park due to hardships caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. We formally engaged the 45-strong MCAPU, mainly women, whose children benefit most from our Children’s Bush Camp. We deployed the MCAPU  in areas outside their community to assist our 16-strong professional Anti Poaching Unit. We gave them a daily stipend for these patrols to support their families. This collaboration resulted in a record +5000 snares being recovered in three months, more than double the average number of snares collected annually.

In 2021, thanks to your generous support, we again engaged the MCAPU for six months. We managed to maintain a presence and pressure in the field, which reduced poaching activity. As a result, only 2000 snares were collected. The MCAPU's life-saving work provided a blanket of protection for all wildlife in the area. The stipend they received significantly boosted the local economy at a time when opportunities were scarce from the impacts of lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is worth noting that many communities in our core operating area are replicating the efforts of the Mabale Community and making their villages safe for livestock and wildlife. These communities living on the edge of Hwange National Park are prone to human-wildlife conflict incidents. Sianyanga community is the latest to show interest and set up a voluntary community anti-poaching unit.

PDC Anti-Poaching Unit Manager Enock Zulu Addresses Community Volunteers

We haven’t been spared from the escalating costs of operations due to fuel price increases. A huge financial backing is needed to do the work we do. We were very pleased and grateful to receive 296 food ration for our Anti-Poaching scouts from the French Embassy in Zimbabwe. The work at hand is still daunting, we continue to call for increased support for us to continue with this critical and life-saving work not only for us but for the generation to come.

Local Kids Excel: Wildlife and Environment Quiz Competition

Kids During a Computer Lesson at Iganyana Children’s Bush Camp

The greatest threat to painted dogs isn’t from large predators or other natural causes—it’s from humans. Because of this, we put a lot of energy into working with local communities, farmers, and children to improve the perception and awareness of the painted dogs. Beyond our flagship Iganyana Children's Bush Camp, which teaches conservation concepts to kids from surrounding communities, we have created Conservation Clubs and run Conservation Education Quiz competitions in schools. The aim is to keep the kids connected to conservation education even after they have left the Bush Camp.

In the period under review, PDC conducted cluster and district wildlife and environment quiz competitions. Ndangababi Primary School and Mazwa Primary School came 1st and 2nd in the district competition finals respectively. PDC will be sponsoring these two local schools to represent the Hwange district in the regional competitions that will be held in the second largest city in Zimbabwe, Bulawayo, in October 2022.

St Francis Primary School (Dete), Makwandara Primary School, Chezhou Primary School, Ndangababi Primary School (Cross Dete), Mabale Primary School and Mazwa Primary School from Mazwa, battled out their knowledge of wildlife and their environment at Miombo Safaris Lodge in Dete.

The Iganyana Children's Bush Camp imparts critical wildlife and environmental education to local kids giving them the confidence and ability to compete with some of the elite schools in the cities. For some kids, this will be the first time they leave their rural homes to visit a city. We take pride in the support you give us, which enables us to avail opportunities to the local people. In turn, it enhances their appreciation of the wildlife around them and creates an environment where painted dogs and other wildlife can thrive.

Special thanks to the following: Miombo Safaris for generously offering the venue for the competition, all the kids who participated, all the schools and teachers for taking their time to coach the kids for the competition, the Iganyana Children's Bush Camp staff, and last but not least to Ashleigh Moore from Tusk as our guest of honour and sending a critical message about how we should "...look after it (nature) for the future..."