The Predator Project monitors the physiology and stress—via hormone levels—of the wild dogs before and after the reintroduction.
The dogs' radio collars provide only limited contact. A proposal is in the works to develop a satellite-tagging system so that Szykman and Monfort can track the animals year-round and mark their range, including proximity to humans and other threats.
Competing with Lions and Hyenas
The researchers also hope to expand the use of satellite collars to hyenas and lions to understand how competition with these predators affects the dogs' reproduction and survival. "If you fence in a reserve or surround a wild area with human settlement then you need to adjust the species levels to maintain healthy populations of dogs, hyenas, and lions which are all interacting on overlapping turf," said Monfort.
To measure the dogs' hormone levels, Szykman searches for scat. Back in Monfort's lab they are analyzed for the byproducts of corticosteroids—hormones released from the adrenal gland during stress.
A little stress, an adaptive response that provides the body with additional energy, is not bad. But continuous stress—possibly caused by reintroduction or by competition with or proximity to other predators—could undermine the immune system, leaving the dogs susceptible to rabies, canine distemper, and other diseases carried by nearby domestic dogs.
"Wild dogs are probably the hardest of the African carnivores to reintroduce—they are nomadic, social, and require tremendously large areas to roam," said Joshua Ginsberg, co-author of the IUCN African Wild Dog Status Survey and Action Plan, and currently the director of the Asia Program for the Bronx-based Wildlife Conservation Society in New York.
Insurance Against Disease
"Reintroduction is exciting because it beats captive management. But in the long term, it is useless unless it results in larger, well protected reserves or changes patterns of land use," said Ginsberg. "These wild dog populations won't be self sustaining unless the land area is large enough."
To Scott Creel, a behavioral ecologist at Montana State University in Bozeman, reintroduction is the right approach for South Africa.
"There is a long history of reintroductions there," said Creel, co-author of The African Wild Dog: Behavior, Ecology and Conservation. "They have a good idea of what works and what doesn't."
Hunting decimated the wild dog population in South Africa except for Kruger National Park where there are approximately 300 to 500 dogs. Though Creel is also not convinced that the reintroduced wild dog population will thrive without hands-on management, he supports the effort because reintroduction of these animals at smaller satellite parks and private reserves raises the national wild dog population and is an insurance policy if disease hits.
Already the luck of Lycaon pictus is changing. In the past, ranchers often just shot the dogs on sight. Now when somebody sees the dogs outside the reserve, Szykman gets a call about their location.
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