28th November 2018
What’s Your Favourite Animal?
If it’s the painted wolf… then you’re in excellent company!
Sir Richard Branson has just written a blog about painted wolves, HIS favourite animal! The piece features stunning photographs by Nicholas Dyer and the work being done by the Painted Wolf Foundation to raise awareness of the species. We are honoured to have Sir Richard as Part of the Pack!
What’s in a Name?
Sir Richard Branson was one of the first to advocate for calling Lycaon pictus the ‘painted wolf’ in a 2016 blog post. He said…
“One of the reasons their numbers plummeted alarmingly was because people thought of them as vermin. They were known as wild dogs, and this name helped to cast a negative light on them. As somebody who has always been interested in branding and marketing, if we could get everybody to call them painted wolves, it would make quite the difference to their reputation, and therefore their survival.”
PWF Trustee, Nick Dyer, has written an in-depth exploration of the Lycaon name debate, which was published last week in Africa Geographic, as the Editor’s Pick!
The article explores all the arguments for and against various names for Lycaon pictus. It outlines the reason the Painted Wolf Foundation has chosen to use ‘painted wolf’. As Nick puts it:
“…we all recognise that the threat to Lycaon is serious and goes well beyond what people call them. Snaring, disease, road kills and shrinking rangelands are Lycaon’s real threats. Their name is at best a side-show.”
