Posted December 16, 2014 in All
With the larger pack of wild dogs within our care having moved on to their permanant home on another reserve our project has become a lot smaller with just the care of two sisters remaining. Since the larger pack has moved on this pair are growing in confidence and seem more relaxed in their environment, a good sign that their recovery is well underway.
Read the special story of these two ladies and how they came to be in our care:
Belonging to a pack of Wild dogs in the Hluhluwi and Umfulozi National Park they had started to stray of the main reserve. Although captured and moved back on a number of occasions it was sadly their downfall. The final escape lead to one of the females getting caught in a snare. Snares are set up to catch various different types of game. They are usually made up of a basic piece of cable wire and cause tremendous pain to the animals caught in them and usually ends up being fatal.
Fortunately the female caught in the snare was found in time. Her leg had been very badly damaged and after initial thoughts that maybe it could be saved this was not the case and her leg was completely amputated and came to UmPhafa for rehabilitation. The injured animal arrived with her sister. Although she was in perfect health she would be company for the injured female and would hopefully help her recovery. We were advised to watch them closely and to make sure that the injured female was given plenty of food. We were concerned that her sister would try to steal the food away but how wrong we were. The recovery that this young female has shown has been remarkable. Although she hops around she is fast and has improved from week to week often now trying and many times being successful in stealing her sister’s food away!
We are currently unsure of what lies ahead for these two females. It is hoped that they can be bonded with a pair of male Wild dogs. The big question is will our little lady be able to hold her own back in the wild. From what we have seen this is a great possibility and we can only hope that this will be the case.
