The threat facing Southern Africa’s most endangered carnivore will be tackled head-on by the Vodacom Bulls and loyal Vodacom Red clients as they team up with SANParks, State Vets and the Endangered Wildlife Trust in a conservation effort in the Kruger National Park.
Vodacom Bulls coach John Mitchell and several players will join a group of Vodacom Red clients who will be part of this exclusive experience in helping to track, collar and vaccinate African wild dogs in the Kruger National Park from 20 to 22 June 2018.
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the African wild dog – or painted dog as it is also known – is Southern Africa’s most endangered large carnivore species with only 6 600 individual dogs still left in the wild.
The IUCN estimates that wild dogs have already disappeared from 25 of the 39 African countries in which they occurred. One of the species’ main threats is humans. Threats include disease transmission from domestic dogs, and the illegal poaching of wild dogs using wire snares.
The Vodacom Bulls and Vodacom Red clients will be on the ground as the partnering organisations – SANParks, State Vets and the Endangered Wildlife Trust – actively track these animals in the Kruger National Park. These organisations assist with valuable research to ensure the dogs’ survival, as well as helping to fit the dogs with new satellite collars that have been developed to allow conservationists to monitor the movement of these packs.
In this way, technology makes it possible to track these animals daily. If these animals are injured, sick, trapped in a poacher’s snare, or have escaped out of a reserve, help is always nearby. Innovative technologies such as satellite tracking as well as Internet of Things (IoT) technology can also assist in monitoring population demographics and inter-species interactions.