One of South Africa’s lesser known and rarely seen endangered species is our enigmatic African Painted Dog (Wild Dog). Few South African’s have had the honour of witnessing these elusive but magnificent creatures, and at present rates few ever will. The latest figures show there to be less than 450 Painted Dogs left in the wild in South Africa and unless urgent action is taken this number will continue to fall.
In order to address this growing issue, a relatively new, but incredibly dedicated and hard-working team, The Wildlife ACT Fund, is taking on the ground action to save this species from this cruel death. The team is helping to develop an anti-snare tracking collar, in collaboration with engineers and companies both locally and internationally. These collars can not only help monitors find individual animals on a daily basis, but also gives a dog trapped in a snare a fighting chance of survival.
How can you help?
As with everything in life, these collars and their development come at a high price, a price which is presently stunting the survival of this species. In order to raise awareness and funding for these animals Wildlife ACT Fund has partnered with Woolworths South Africa to raise their profile and in turn collar as many Painted Dogs as possible. This also forms part of a “re-brand” of sorts as the organisation moves away from referring to the species as Wild Dogs, which carries with it many historically negative connotations amongst some communities and farmers, to calling them Painted-Dogs. This is in the hope that they can ‘rebrand’ the dogs’ image with the work that they are doing and change the perceptions of people in South Africa towards the species.
You will be able to see this rebranding effort in action in the first of four “Limited Edition” reusable shopping bags that have gone on sale in Woolworths’ stores across the country. The great news is that R9 from the sale of each Painted Dog bag will go directly towards Wildlife ACT Fund’s efforts to save this endangered species from extinction.
Bags went on sale in December and the Wildlife ACT Fund team has already started to collar Painted-Dogs from money raised through the sale of these special bags. Simply by buying one of these limited edition bags you can help to ensure that many many more dogs are collared in the months to come.
And that’s not all… by purchasing a bag you also stand a chance to win a R100 000 conservation trip for four to the Thanda Private Game Reserve where you can experience these beautiful creatures in their natural habitat, as well getting hands on experience as you help to collar Painted-Dogs in the reserve. Definitely the opportunity of a lifetime!
To buy a Wildlife ACT Fund African Painted Dog Limited Edition Woolworths Shopping Bag online or to find out more about the competition click here (http://www.woolworths.co.za/store/browse/product.jsp?productId=501566318 )
To find out more about Wildlife ACT Fund and the work that they are doing to save the African Painted Dog click here. (www.wildlifeactfund.org )
To find out more about the African Painted Dog click here (http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/12436/0)
