&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "3 wild dogs, 1 epic journey: African brothers trek 4,000 km through Zambia to find a partner")
In a glaring example of how wildlife can hold its own despite increasing human presence, three African wild dogs travelled a record 4000 kilometres across Zambia to find a mate. Scientists said this is the furthest that any African land mammal has journeyed in search of a potential partner. The research was published in the journal Ecology.
This was a major accomplishment for the three brothers, considering the other wild dogs died after getting caught in illegal snares. Three other female dogs almost completed a journey of almost the same distance, but didn't finish after one of them got caught in a snare.
African wild dogs hunt and travel in packs. They are one of the rarest predators on the continent, but only about 6,000 of them remain today. They are known for covering huge distances to breed and to find new territories. The animals follow strict social rules and cannot breed within the pack. This leads them to leave when they are about two or three years old in search of a mate.
The epic journey undertaken by African wild dogs
The wild dogs covered around 420 kilometres in a straight line. But since they had to navigate through a broken landscape, this journey ended up being 10 times this number. Known as dispersals, they are different from migration because, in the latter, animals return and travel again for food and suitable habitat when the seasons change.
The researchers who tagged the dogs with GPS collars, said that the animals took a route that was filled with obstacles, mostly linked to humans. They travelled through Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, and heavily developed industrial areas. Their movement also shows that wild dog populations across eastern and southern Africa remain connected.
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Lead author, Professor Scott Creel of Montana State University, said, “It's plausible to believe that every major wild dog population in eastern and southern Africa, other than fenced ones, are potentially connected.”
Wild dogs revisit the spot where a mate had died
It also revealed a behavioural pattern where the dogs kept returning to the same location. Scientists found that they did so because one of their mates had died in that specific place.
The study revealed the dangers facing wild dog populations in Africa. It lends credence to calls for creating strips of natural land that connect separate wildlife areas broken apart by roads, towns, or farms. This has to be outside protected areas since they are "not functional in the long term," co-author Bruce Ellender said.
Africa's longest migration happens among wildebeest that travel seasonally between Tanzania and Kenya, covering a distance of more than 640 kilometres. Caribou undertake the longest single land migration, travelling 1350 kilometres on a two-way trip. Meanwhile, grey wolves travel more than 7000 kilometres in a year.
