Samburu Laikipia Wild Dog Project
In the last few years, Loisaba has become an important area for conserving the endangered African wild dog. The wild dog, with its long legs, big ears and colourful patchwork coat is unique to Africa and only very distantly related to the domestic dog: the two species separated several million years ago and cannot inter-breed.
Wild dogs were once found throughout Africa south of the Sahara, but today they remain in just 7% of that former range. Like most of Africa, Laikipia lost its wild dogs in the 1970s-80s, and the species was thought to be gone for good. Amazingly, though, wild dogs have naturally recolonised the area in the last decade. Today, the area is unique not only because it hosts a globally important population of around 300 dogs, but also because these dogs are thriving alongside people and their livestock, spending their lives entirely outside national parks. Until recently, nobody thought that this was possible: Laikipia’s success shows that this endangered species could potentially be conserved in many other areas of Africa.
Loisaba is especially important for wild dogs because it provides a “bridge” between Laikipia’s commercial ranches and community lands owned by local Masai and Samburu pastoralists. Several packs use Loisaba, with one pack returning each year to raise their pups safe in Loisaba’s rocky escarpments.
Loisaba collaborates with the Samburu-Laikipia Wild Dog Project to conserve the region’s wild dogs. This project works with local communities, farmers and tour operators to encourage wild dogs’ recovery, identifying and protecting important habitat, discouraging wild dogs from killing livestock, and trying to reduce the transmission of potentially fatal diseases from domestic dogs to wild dogs. The abundance of wild dogs in the area is a testament to the project’s success, and wildlife authorities throughout Africa are watching progress with interest, in the hope of repeating Laikipia’s success in other countries.
As well as being globally endangered, wild dogs are elegant, engaging, and even entertaining to watch – and Loisaba is one of the best places in Kenya to see them. Better still, watching wild dogs at Loisaba ultimately benefits the species’ conservation, because guests can help with the project’s monitoring work. Every wild dog’s coat pattern is unique; Loisaba staff can identify many of the dogs individually, and project staff can learn even more from photos and sightings that guests share with them. As with so many aspects of Loisaba Wilderness, the collaboration with the wild dog project genuinely combines tourism with successful conservation.
Dr Rosie Woodroffe
Samburu-Laikipia Wild Dog Project
Mpala Research Centre
PO Box 555, Nanyuki, Kenya
Tel: +254 (0)62 32758 Fax: +254 (0)62 32750
E-mail: rwoodroffe@wcs.org