The Serengeti wildebeest migration is one of Africa’s best-known animal journeys, yet the longest African round-trip migration on record, by blue wildebeest, is 650 kilometers (about 404 miles), according to the UN Convention on Migratory Species. A very different trip has now gone far beyond that. A study published in the journal Ecology found that three wild dog brothers in Zambia traveled 4,126 kilometers (or about 2,560 miles) in eight months. It was the longest recorded dispersal by an African mammal.
Why do wild dogs leave home?
Dispersal is a one-way trip to find mates and new territory. Migration is a round trip between seasons, so the two are different behaviors and the numbers are not a like-for-like comparison. Even so, the distance the brothers traveled is far greater than that of any documented African migration. Wild dogs are pack animals and typically only the alpha male and alpha female breed. This can cause young dogs to look for mates elsewhere. Despite the name, they are not closely related to domestic dogs.
From Kafue National Park to the Luangwa Valley
The brothers were from the Mayukuyuku pack in Kafue National Park in western Zambia. Seven related young dogs, three males and four females, left the pack within two weeks of each other, lead author Scott Creel of Montana State University wrote in The Conversation. Each group set off on its own path. The collared brothers kept going by themselves and reached the Luangwa Valley in eastern Zambia. They appear to have been there ever since and seem to have met females, since they no longer roam around.
Deep Dive
Why did the three African wild dog brothers travel 4,126 km across Zambia?
How is African wild dog dispersal different from migration?
What dangers do African wild dogs face while dispersing?
How scientists tracked each stage
Creel works with Matt Becker and the Zambian Carnivore Programme. For more than 16 years, the team has been studying over 500 African wild dogs from over 50 packs per year and fitting GPS collars. The collars record each dog’s position by satellite every few hours. That shows where packs live, when young dogs leave home, where they go, and where they die. The researchers say this type of intensive fieldwork helps them learn where animals are likely to die, and why.
The dangers along the way
{{/usCountry}}Creel works with Matt Becker and the Zambian Carnivore Programme. For more than 16 years, the team has been studying over 500 African wild dogs from over 50 packs per year and fitting GPS collars. The collars record each dog’s position by satellite every few hours. That shows where packs live, when young dogs leave home, where they go, and where they die. The researchers say this type of intensive fieldwork helps them learn where animals are likely to die, and why.
The dangers along the way
{{/usCountry}}The journey was dangerous. One of the biggest dangers is wire snares set for bushmeat. Young dogs are also inexperienced and pass through areas with lions, other packs, and rivers full of crocodiles. The team found that more than half the dogs they tracked did not survive. In 2021, one female, EWD-1355, traveled more than 2,300 kilometers in one year. In June of 2022, she died in a wire snare.
Why the record gives hope
African wild dogs are among the world’s most endangered large carnivores. Small isolated populations are prone to extinction, and several small populations in the Serengeti, the Lower Zambezi, and Zambia’s Liuwa Plain have already been lost. The tracking shows that dispersing dogs have traveled between every major wild dog population in Zambia. Zambian dogs have also crossed into Mozambique and Malawi, and to within a few kilometers of Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Angola.
However, reaching another population is not the same as joining it. Wild dogs usually fight, sometimes fatally, with unfamiliar dogs, so joining a new group often fails. About 40 percent of Zambia has some form of legal protection for wildlife, and corridors such as the Luangwa Valley remain highly effective, the researchers note. Creel expects more young dogs to disperse as protected populations rebound, but he says that will be good news only if their routes are safer.