Distant relatives of the wolf and the domestic dog, African painted dogs live in highly cooperative groups called packs. Like predators everywhere they play an important role in helping to maintain a healthy ecosystem by removing old, injured or sick prey leaving more food for the survival and success of healthy prey animals. Predators also help slow down the spread of disease.

One of the main goals of the El Paso Zoo is to help save endangered species so when we planned our Africa exhibit we decided that we wanted to help save painted dogs from extinction. Endangered African painted dogs have been eliminated by human activities over most of their range in Africa because of habitat fragmentation, infectious diseases, road accidents and conflicts with livestock and game farmers. The El Paso Zoo is a member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums Species Survival Plan®.

To help save painted dogs from extinction, two years ago we supported the Painted Dog Research Trust using round up funds collected at the Zoo. The founder of the trust, Dr. Greg Rasmussen has been researching Africa’s unique and endangered carnivore exclusively since 1989. He visited the El Paso Zoo on a trip to the United States and spoke to staff about his efforts. During his presentation he reported that one of the major threats to their habitat is the carving industry supported by tourism. Local people cut down trees in areas important to painted dogs and use the wood to carve pieces of artwork that are then sold as souvenirs.

Our painted dog exhibit is located just east of the Kalahari Research Station. One idea we would like to explore is making a painted dog interactive exhibit inside the station to help tell the painted dog story at the Zoo and encourage more people to support conservation efforts. If you would like to help plan this exhibit you can contact us. Once the educational program is launched having volunteers help tell the story of painted dogs will also be important.

Painted dogs rely on the collective hunting skills of their pack to survive and they are some of the most efficient mammal predators on the African continent. The success rate of painted dogs hunting as a group is more than 85 per cent. Lions hunting as a group are only successful 30 per cent of the time.

We have four male painted dogs from the same litter born at the Oklahoma City Zoo on April 10, 2015 – Chip Jr, Blackheart, Moon Pie and Notch.

Rick LoBello, Education Curator

Images
Cover – Mike Davison, Wikimedia Creative Commons
Top – El Paso Zoo
Middle – Mathias Appel, , Wikimedia Creative Commons
Bottom – David Schenfeld, , Wikimedia Creative Commons