Oryx Vol 33 No 2 April 1999 Conserving the African wild dog Lycaon pictus. I. Diagnosing and treating causes of decline Rosie Woodroffe and Joshua R. Ginsberg Abstract The African wild dog Lycaon pictus has de- clined dramatically over the past 30 years. Formerly distributed throughout sub-Saharan Africa, today c. 5000 wild dogs remain in total, mostly in southern and eastern Africa. Wild dogs' decline reflects the ex- pansion of human populations and the associated frag- mentation of habitat available to wildlife. Because wild dogs live at very low densities, even 'fragments' cover- ing thousands of square kilometres may not support viable populations. Furthermore, packs often range be- yond the borders of reserves, so even nominally pro- tected populations are often subject to persecution, road accidents, snaring and disease contracted from dom- estic dogs. Such edge effects mean that reserves smaller than c. 10,000 sq km will provide only incomplete pro- tection. The highest priority for wild dog conservation, therefore, is to maintain and promote the contiguity of areas available to wildlife. Establishing cross-border parks and buffer zones, and encouraging game ranch- ing on reserve borders, will all be beneficial. In smaller areas, protecting wild dogs requires that edge effects be mitigated by: (i) working with local farmers to limit persecution; (ii) controlling snaring; (iii) routing roads carrying high-speed traffic away from wildlife areas; and (iv) minimizing contact between wildlife and do- mestic dogs. Most of these measures will also benefit other wildlife. Keywords Carnivore conservation, edge effects, predator management, protected areas, wildlife disease. Introduction There can be no doubt that African wild dogs Lycaon pictus have declined over the last century, and this decline has accelerated in the last 30 years (Woodroffe et ah, 1997). Once distributed throughout most of sub- Saharan Africa, wild dog populations have now disap- peared from most countries in West and central Africa, and are highly fragmented in the East and South (Fig. 1). Today, Africa's wild dog population numbers 3000- 5000 (Table 1), and the species is listed as Endangered by IUCN (1996). Most populations outside—and some- times inside—protected areas are probably still declin- ing. Wild dogs are rare compared with other high-profile species in Africa: there are about the same number of wild dogs as there are black rhinos Diceros bicornis (c. 3000; Cumming et al., 1990), and far fewer wild dogs than African elephants Loxodonta africana (minimum 290,000; Said et al., 1995) (Plates 1 and 2). Rosie Woodroffe (corresponding author) Department of Biological Sciences, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK. Tel: + 44 (0)1203 524618; fax: +44 (0)1203 524619; e-mail: r.b.woodroffe@warwick.ac.uk Joshua R. Ginsberg Wildlife Conservation Society, 2300 Southern Bvd, Bronx, NY 10460-1099, USA. Tel: + 1 718 220 5884; fax: + 1 718 364 4275; e-mail: jginsberg@wcs.org Received 18 May 1998. Accepted 1 October 1998 The decline of wild dog populations reflects the geographical pattern of human population growth; to- day, wild dogs persist only in countries with relatively low human densities (Fig. 2). Although this points to the ultimate cause of local extinctions, setting priorities for wild dog conservation demands a more detailed analysis of their decline. In this paper, we refine pre- vious analyses (Fanshawe et al., 1991; Woodroffe et al, 1997), using historical records and field data to identify factors that have contributed to past extinctions of wild dog populations, and those that might cause remaining populations to decline further or disappear. Only by evaluating the impact of each threat is it possible to determine the management strategies most likely to halt or reverse wild dogs' decline. Wild dog ecology and behaviour Identifying the threats faced by wild dogs depends upon a detailed understanding of their ecology and behaviour. Wild dogs are never common; population density averages 24 adults/1000 sq km (n = 7 studies; Woodroffe et al., 1997). For comparison, wild dogs are usually outnumbered by lions Panthera leo by a factor of about three (range 2.3-20.9), and by spotted hyaenas Crocuta crocuta by a factor of about 10 (range 2.3-122; Creel & Creel, 1996; Woodroffe et al., 1997). As a result of this low density, even the largest protected areas 132 1999 FFI, Oryx, 33(2), 132-142 https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-3008.1999.00052.x Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 104.140.73.40, on 25 Apr 2020 at 00:26:47, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at