55k’s on a mountain bike through a BIG 5 game reserve is a truly privileged experience. Riders of the Bonitas Mondi iMfolozi MTB Challenge, showed their appreciation for this by raising over R200 000 for the Wildlands Conservation Trust at the 2010 event. These funds are used to support the monitoring of the Wild Dog population in Hhuhlwe iMfolozi Park (HIP) and trails for school children living outside the reserve.
This year 14 passionate riders donned wild dog suits in order to raise more funds for the cause. It seemed the dogs knew their biggest fans were in the area, as on their way to the start, riders were treated to a sighting of a large pack of wild dogs with a kill. The dogs in HIP are doing remarkably well and the numbers have grown to a now total 83 dogs in the park, contributing significantly to the genetic viability of the larger population. The importance of this population of critically endangered animals can be understood when comparing it to the estimated 120 individuals in the Kruger National Park – which is almost twenty times the size of HIP.
Wild Dog monitor inside the reserve, Zama Zwane, explains some of the work he’s been able to do with the help of funds raised at the 2009 MTB challenge: “We try to understand the dynamics of the pack formations; we need to be able to predict which individuals are going to disperse and then put collars on them so that we can track and look after them as well.”
Zama and a team of researchers monitor the dogs interaction with predators, breeding patters, location and movement of the packs. They also create identification kits (details of the dogs markings) so that individuals are easy to identify. All this data is captured and integrated into the management plan for the dogs in the park, and in the province as a whole as part of the EWT run, Wild Dog Management Group. “Funding is important because there are new individuals all the time and we need to identify dispersals. The funds are used for transports costs, collars and telemetry equipment”, says Zama. At around R3000 a collar, a constant supply of funding is required to continue the work.
Wild dogs weren’t the only winners of the event. The iMfolozi Wilderness and Cultural Awareness Programme (WACAP) took five community trails with funding from last year’s challenge. The reserves trail guides take students from schools on the reserves borders into the wilderness area of the park to learn more about the wildlife in the park and why conservation the reserve it so important. For almost all of these children, this is the first time in a reserve and certainly in a BIG 5 area.
PhD student and Wildlands team member, Paul Cryer, is developing a strategy for protected area expansion and forming corridors between protected areas; one of the corridors in the pipeline is between iMfolozi and Opathe, near Ulundi. He explains the importance of these trails to the future of corridor linkage projects such as this: “It is of vital importance to the creation of these corridors to link with communities and get community members to have direct access to, and dialogue with Ezemvelo KZN wildlife regarding conservation values, advantages and benefits of conservation areas. WACAP is the tool to facilitate that. I’m hugely optimistic about what this can achieve.” Two new camps and further training are planned for the year to come to expand the impact of this programme.
For more information contact Simone Dale on Tel: 033 343 6380 or simoned@localhost/import-data-post, or visit
WILDTRUST (registered as the Wildlands Conservation Trust - IT No: 4329/1991/PMB)