We are delighted to welcome the newest cohort of the Painted Wolf Conservation Leadership Programme!
Celine Karoki and Dedan Ngatia from Suyan Spaces in Kenya, and Francois Le Roux from the Kwando Carnivore Trust in Namibia, are already out in the field, building species-specific specialist skills needed to successfully conserve painted wolves.
Their first day didn’t disappont as the team tracked and observed three painted wolf packs, with 43 individuals between them.
With only around 6,500 painted wolves remaining across Africa, sightings like these highlight the importance of protecting stronghold populations and the landscapes they depend on.
One challenge the team encountered this week was this: how do you identify a painted wolf covered in mud?
Every painted wolf has a unique coat pattern, which conservation teams photograph to create an identity kit for each individual. But as these muddy painted wolves show, it’s not always that easy!
Fortunately the monitoring team was able to take photos of these two individuals before their mud bath.
These identity kits are essential for monitoring packs. Recognising individual painted wolves helps conservation teams understand pack dynamics, track changes in pack composition and identify threats they are facing in the landscape.
This intensive monitoring is critical to painted wolf conservation and is one of the specialist skills our candidates develop through the Painted Wolf Conservation Leadership Programme. The Programme brings together conservationists from across Africa to not only strengthen these species-specific skills but to also gain the practical leadership experience needed to effectively manage their own painted wolf conservation projects in their own landscapes.
Dedan, Celine and Francois are spending several weeks at the Leadership Programme BaseCamp, developed on the Zambian Carnivore Programme’s original field site just outside Zambia’s South Luangwa National Park.
Here, they gain practical experience in a landscape supporting a significant painted wolf population, before continuing to Painted Dog Conservation (PDC) in Zimbabwe to explore established conservation approaches in a different landscape.
Managed by the Painted Wolf Foundation, the Programme is a partnership with ZCP and PDC, in collaboration with Zambia’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife, and funded by the Painted Dog Fund.
Drawing on decades of conservation experience and expertise from ZCP and PDC, the Programme aims to strengthen specialist skills and develop the next generation of African conservation leaders.
