Born Free Foundation - Keep Wildlife in the Wild

The beautiful intelligent painted dog has a fascinating social life and lives in close knit family packs.  The dogs used to be widespread in Africa south of the Sahara and populations were believed to number around 500,000.  But numbers have plummeted due to loss of habitat and direct human persecution such as snares, shooting and poisoning due to fear of livestock predation.  Other threats include being run over by cars, plus domestic dog diseases such as canine distemper and rabies.  Hwange National Park is home to around 17% of the total population and serves as a keystone population for dispersing wild dogs into other regions.