Abstract
Increased anthropogenic pressures such habitat loss, climate change, invasive species and overexploitation
have resulted in what might be termed a biodiversity crisis. As a result, many species are
currently threatened with extinction and numerous species that are going extinct on a daily basis.
Large carnivores have always received much attention from conservationists due to their charisma
and threatened status throughout the world. Large scale persecutions and local extinctions have
occurred in most carnivores, mainly as the result of a long history of competition with human
populations over space and food resources. Carnivores are more vulnerable to human disturbances
because of their low population numbers and large area requirements.
For optimal conservation, it is important to draw an overview of all available scientific data available
for a species, and summarize all information available on its current status. The African wild dog
(Lycaon pictus) is endangered due to their declining population numbers, contracted range, and
fragmented population structure. One stronghold occurs in southern Africa, where animals mainly
roam in Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Approximately 4,100 adults and yearling are
thought to be present in southern Africa. African wild dogs are sensitive to habitat destruction and
fragmentation due to their wide-ranging behaviour, and habitat loss has been the main cause of their
population decline. It was calculated that 32% of the recorded wild dog mortalities in the Zimbabwean
Lowveld was due to human-related causes (mainly snare poaching, and to a lesser extent road
accidents). Conservation efforts for African wild dogs should mainly be focussed on improved landuse
management, recovery of prey bases, avoidance of human-wildlife conflicts, and increased
awareness. Transfrontier conservation areas and buffer zones will help to improve the survival rate of
dispersing wild dogs and create metapopulations.
There is a short-fall between available and required resources in conservation, making prioritization
important. Over the past decades, conservation programs and sustainable developments have often
been initiated by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to ensure a future for endangered species.
It is important to evaluate the effectiveness of such initiatives, and the sustainability with regards to
social and economic conditions, in order to improve the conservation of endangered species in the
future. The African Wildlife Conservation Fund (AWCF) is a locally based NGO working in the
Zimbabwean portion of the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area (GLTFCA). The AWCF
was initiated in this area to improve local wildlife conservation, particularly that of large carnivores,
with a focused goal of safe-guarding endangered African wild dog populations in the Zimbabwean
Lowveld. Between 1996 and 1999, and again between 2008 and 2016, detailed data were collected
on population dynamics, pup survival rates, causes of mortality of adults and pups, and potential
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human-wildlife conflicts in the Savé Valley Conservancy (SVC). The SVC was formed when local
landowners decided to change from cattle to game ranching, which led to an increase of African wild
dogs from 36 adults and yearlings in the early 1990s to 134 adults and yearlings only 8 years later. This
is mainly due to habitat recovery, but there has also been a noticeable decrease in human-related
mortalities. Moreover, rabies has been successfully kept out of the African wild dog population, due
to vaccination campaigns.
The AWCF has also initiated awareness and education programs, to involve local residents and schools
in the conservation initiatives. Evaluation tests are conducted annually to examine the effectiveness
of the conservation awareness programs in improving attitudes, understanding and knowledge of
conservation related issues. Knowledge showed a 31.1% improvement, and attitude a further 25.1%
improvement. This shows a significant positive effect in schools where the resources are being used
correctly. The overall impact will be an increasingly positive attitude towards African wild dogs and
willingness of local communities to live alongside the species and support conservation efforts.
It has been widely accepted that genetic insights are crucial to species conservation. Reductions in
population size and contractions of a species’ range can have profound effects on the genetic diversity
and structure of wildlife species. Genetic deficiencies, such as inbreeding caused by reduced
population size and genetic drift by limited dispersal, can negatively impact species survival by
reducing the survival rate and reproductive success of individuals. Small, genetically depleted
populations are also less able to adapt to the presence of invading species, disease outbreaks and a
changing environment, which will increase their extinction risk substantially. For these reasons, we
have conducted a study on the genetic diversity of African wild dogs in the Zimbabwean Lowveld, and
the dispersal rate between Zimbabwe and South Africa.
The GLTFCA is one of the last refuges for the endangered African wild dog and hosts roughly one-tenth
of the global population. Wild dogs in this area are currently threatened by human encroachment,
habitat fragmentation and scarcity of suitable connecting habitat between protected areas. We
generated genetic data from two mitochondrial and nice nuclear markers to test the following
hypotheses: (i) demographic declines in wild dogs have caused a loss of genetic variation, and (ii)
Zimbabwean and South African populations in the GLTFCA have diverged due to the effects of isolation
and genetic drift. Genetic patterns among five populations, taken with comparisons to known
information, illustrate that allelic richness and heterozygosity have been lost over time, presumably
due to effects of inbreeding and genetic drift. Genetic structuring has occurred due to low
connectivity, which was most apparent between wild dogs sampled in southern and central Kruger
National Park and those from the Zimbabwean Lowveld. Immediate strategies to improve gene flow
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should focus on increasing the quality of habitat corridors between reserves in the GLTFCA and
securing higher wild dog survival rates in unprotected areas, with human-mediated translocation only
undertaken as a last resort.
When using genetic variables for the purpose of conservation, it is important to understand whether
observed patterns are the result of anthropogenic causes or historic events, ecological parameters, or
life history traits of species. For population genetic studies, microsatellite loci (i.e. 2 to 5 bp tandem
repeats) are often used as neutral markers to look at the natural history of wild populations, which
have provided consistent and informative measures in carnivore research. We compared genetic
parameters of five African carnivores with different life history traits and variable Red List status, to
test for a possible correlation between these, by typing between 19 and 40 individuals of each species,
sampled from natural populations within South Africa, with between 9 and 11 microsatellite loci.
Allelic richness, the average number of alleles per locus, and expected heterozygosity were found to
correlate to the Red List and population size of species. This means that, generally, it can be expected
that endangered species yield lower genetic diversity for neutral markers than non-threatened
species. Implications for conservation are that species with a low genetic diversity run the risk of
reduced fitness and limited capability to respond to natural selection. It is important to test whether
the loss of genetic diversity is also observed at adaptive markers, which are under selective pressure
and represent the true genetic health of species.
Another major threat to species conservation is poaching and the worldwide trade in wild animals and
their derivatives. As current interventions and law enforcement cannot circumvent the resulting
extinction of species, an alternative approach must be considered. It is argued that commercial
breeding of wild animals, referred to as wildlife farming, can keep the pressure off wild populations.
A legal trade in captive-bred products can prevent poaching if the following criteria are realized: (i)
the demand will be met by legitimate products and does not increase, (ii) the legal supply will be a
substitute for products retrieved from wild populations, (iii) the legal supply will be more costeffective
than illegal products, (iv) wildlife farms will not have to depend on wild populations for restocking,
and (v) laundering of illegal supplies under the cover of legal trade is avoided. However,
these criteria are unlikely to be met in reality. For many species, a legalized trade has the potential to
increase demand. Secondly, due to consumer preference for wild and rare species, farmed products
often form a separate, parallel market. Thirdly, commercial breeding cannot sufficiently compete with
the illegal wildlife trade, due to the high costs of wildlife farming. Lastly, permits and law enforcement
are unlikely to stop laundering from occurring if corruption occurs. In these circumstances, it is
predicted that commercial breeding of wild animals will have the opposite effect to what is desired for conservation. However, for some species wildlife farming can become a potential conservation
tool when all criteria are met.
The work presented here, when taken in full, discusses some of the most crucial threats faced by
wildlife globally. Although the focus is on African wild dogs, many aspects can be extrapolated to other
threatened species. Some of the work has been published whilst others are papers in manuscript form.