Biofence
Results from biochemical analyses of scent markings are moving us ever closer to our goal of being able to ‘read’ and interpret the language of scent-marking. Ultimately, if we can reproduce the language of chemical communication of wild dog territoriality, then we hope to be able to replicate their territory boundaries and create in effect virtual wild dog packs - literally constructing fences their language (i.e. Biofence) - to manipulate their ranging patterns outside of wildlife areas. The idea is to provide a management tool with “a Biofence” with the effect of communicating to dispersing wild dogs that a territory is occupied. Applications would include game ranch blocks, and commercial farming blocks. Territorial wild dogs are expected to “bounce” from territories perceived to be occupied in order to minimize conflict in domestic stock areas.

Expected Major Outcomes of Project: Identification of conditions that exacerbate wild dog conflict with livestock producers in Botswana Evidence to support the restoration or maintenance of wild ungulate populations on rangelands as a means to reduce carnivore conflict Insight into wild dog diet, pack size, and causes of mortality for a sub population of the national wild dog population Establishing the parameters of a spatial model of livestock depredation in a joint project with the Botswana Department of Wildlife and National Parks LINKS: African Wild Dog Fact Sheet

Investigating Ultrasonic Communication in African Wild Dogs
Hugh Webster of Sussex University has begun his fieldwork to investigate the hypothesis that the ranging behavior of wild dogs can be understood in terms of the competition and predation pressures exerted by other large predators, especially lions. An interesting finding of Hugh’s work so far is that wild dogs use ultrasonic components in their pack vocalizations which are well outside the hearing range of humans. His interpretation of this discovery is that very high frequency vocalizations are consistent with the assertion that wild dogs have evolved vocal communications that attenuate rapidly to avoid detection by other species. Hugh’s project addresses the need to understand the influences of ranging behaviors and habitat uses of all the large predators to enable more effective and informed management.

That wild dogs require vast ranges because they are forever kept on the move avoiding competition and predation by the larger carnivores may be particularly significant in the context of protected areas today where lions and hyenas are afforded absolute protection within the confines of national parks and reserves. Under these conditions large predator species may reach densities they rarely obtained in the past owing to historical overlap and competition with rural human populations. One fallout from this relationship might be that areas of with few lions and hyenas (farms and ranches) are perceived to be better habitats for fugitives such as wild dogs and cheetahs. If it proves that "keystone" species, such as predators sitting at the very top of the food chain, are in fact most affected by other top predators within national parks – the historical strongholds of wildlife - much more imaginative management strategies will need to be devised to ensure sufficient heterogeneity of conditions to afford space for the full compliment of predators.

Habitat, Range, and Territoriality Project
Straddling the natural and social science aspects of Botswana Predator Conservation Program is the ongoing expansion of the program outside the original limits of the study area into the marginal territories to the south, east and west of the Okavango Delta, described primarily semi arid scrub and utilized largely for livestock farming and game farming. It has become clear that cattle farming, game farming and changing livestock husbandry are all having a real impact on the ability of wild dogs to succeed in these areas. We are obligated to understand the situation and as a result; three distinct investigations have emerged over the past year:

• Farming, game ranching and conflict with free-ranging predators
• Apprentice Program – Cattle Post/ Predator Conflict Survey
• Influence of prey abundance and livestock husbandry on wild dog predation

Farms, Ranches and Predator Conflict
Game ranching is a growing industry in Botswana and large tracts of land have been allocated in the last several years to encourage its growth and development. One of the primary factors for its growth has been a continuing shift away from commercial domestic livestock grazing in low-productivity semi-arid and arid habitats. These habitats, which in Botswana are typically associated with the Kalahari Desert, comprise most of the central and western regions of the country. Stocking rates possible for indigenous and, consequently comparatively robust, game species in arid habitats are believed to far exceed that for domestic livestock in the same areas. In addition, the possibility of multiple revenue streams from private game farming - including commercial game meat harvesting, trophy hunting, meat hunting, photographic tourism, and stock sales - has contributed to incentives underpinning game farming as an alternative to commercial livestock grazing. A key and somewhat unexpected problem with the increase of game farming (in many areas replacing cattle) has been a notable decrease in tolerance of predators. We attribute this attitude shift directly to the increase in investments on these game farms and the fact that even the natural prey of free-ranging predators are now considered privately owned by game ranchers.

Phase One of this project was to make contact with the farmers, game ranchers, cattle post owners and other resource users on the periphery of the Wild Dog core study area. This was initiated by Patrick Aust in 2004 and completed by Tico. Phase 2 was undertaken by Letsogile and Keletile in 2005.

These initial investigations into the nature of the wild predator “problems” in game farms in the Makalamabedi area of Ngamiland are providing insights into the details of conflict between wildlife especially free-ranging predators and game farmers. Two important components have emerged in these inquiries that must be recognized as contributing to the definition and therefore the management of “conflict”. The first is game farmers’ perceptions of damages caused by wild predators. The second is the empirical reality of the damages and therefore the costs to farmers caused by specific resident wildlife species. These often, though not always, differ significantly. For any useful management to proceed, it is critical to determine the second, i.e.; the actual costs, with solid empirical evidence in order to effectively address the first.

Apprenticeship Program - Cattle post /Predator Conflict survey
After two months of training that included introductions to radio tracking, wild dog identification, plumbing, vehicle maintenance, data base management, cooking and a one week intensive professional tracking course, we put Letsogile and Keletile on the job of Phase 2 of the above project. They spent six weeks administering a survey in the farms and cattle posts immediately adjacent to the wild dog core study area (and in between the game farms above) the to determine overall conflict, attitudes and behaviors in these situations of conflict.

Conservation Significance: Botswana, like many African countries, has fluid boundaries (not fenced) between protected areas, wildlife management areas and livestock areas. This means that predators are free to travel across these boundaries. What we have found is a continuous emigration of predators out of the protected areas into livestock rich areas and a failure to practice effective livestock husbandry. This is in part because farmers are scared of encountering these dangerous predators. As a result, livestock are left unattended and predators kill them. The relationship between predators, compensation schemes, animal husbandry, farmer attitudes and ultimate responsibility needs to be balanced in order to have any hope of these marginal areas remaining viable predator habitats.

Influence of prey abundance and livestock husbandry on wild dog predation
Conflict with farmers, as we have seen above, is posing an increasing threat to wild dogs and we must understand it if we hope to be successful in informing policy on things such as the allocation of farms and management of livestock.

Project Objective: to establish the relationship between wild prey abundance and livestock depredation by African wild dogs in an area where traditional husbandry has been abandoned and transitioned into unattended, fenced livestock production

Conservation significance of project: If livestock attacks by wild dogs tend to occur patchily and in certain situations (e.g. where cattle do not sleep in a boma), stakeholders may be able to mitigate loss by addressing the particular conditions where conflict is high. Reducing conflict is a critical step in minimizing lethal control of wild dogs and establishing expansive rangelands as viable conservation landscapes for wild dogs and other predators.

Expected major outcomes of project:

• Identification of conditions that exacerbate wild dog conflict with livestock producers in Botswana
• Evidence to support the restoration or maintenance of wild ungulate populations on rangelands as a means to reduce carnivore conflict
• Insight into wild dog diet, pack size, and causes of mortality for a sub population of the national wild dog population
• Establishing the parameters of a spatial model of livestock depredation in a joint project with the Botswana Department of Wildlife and National Parks

Outcomes: The fact that carnivores cause economic losses on farms is a serious challenge to considering rangelands as an available conservation landscape. Farmers and other rural people who bear the costs of living with predators can be antagonistic to conservation efforts and act as active proponents of both sanctioned and illicit lethal control. However, building cooperative relationships with stakeholders is a critical part of resolving human-carnivore conflict and we are encouraged by initial interactions with farmers and wildlife managers. Livestock conflict is neither easy nor particularly clean to study. Depredations, infrequent as they are, may be difficult to detect and relationships such as wild prey abundance may be linked to either low or high levels of livestock kills for the same predator species.

The conservation significance of this research is to provide wildlife managers the costs to livestock producers of wild dogs in Botswana and the conditions that exacerbate conflict. By recognizing the impact of predation on rural livelihoods, we gain the tools to balance wildlife and human interests.

Makgadikgadi Wildlife Fence Survey
Although tangential to our immediate research, we were fortunate to have the chance to supervise Clare Gupta’s research project on ‘the decision to construct the Makgadikgadi Wildlife Fence and its subsequent Impacts on the Makgadikgadi Pans Region. Clare contacted us through mutual friends and over the course of a year, we helped her design what we felt was an important study on a controversial fence that was built to separate wildlife in the park from livestock of the communities that live along the parks edges. This fence marks the southern boundary of the cattle and game ranching areas we are now working in and the fence presents an entirely new obstacle for predators, game and livestock. Clare did excellent work and her study clearly details the impact of this fence. It is of enormous benefit to everyone involved with conflict mitigation and non-lethal control methods and government planners in positions to make decisions about the continued erection of fences.

People, Parks and Predators Project
The ultimate goal of this and any conservation initiative is to support true sustainable natural resource management systems. Community-based management regimes are fundamentally flawed because, although they might provide great financial benefits, they do not demand the responsibility of maintaining a healthy resource in return, nor do they demand genuine community participation. After many years of trying to work within the system, the realization that the system itself must be addressed became overwhelmingly clear. The BWDP has come to recognize that the only progressive way forward is to help engender a sense of respect for self, and for the environment with a view to instilling hope for the future among the future care-takers of these prized natural resources. In an initial attempt to address this fundamental link between respect for environment and respect for self, the BWDP identified sport as a vehicle to address self-esteem issues in Botswana.

Summary of Achievements

Project Impact
After 16 years of continuous field research in Botswana, this project has earned the respect of the conservation community, the scientific community and the local community. Being one of only a handful of research projects in Botswana, we are encouraged by the government of Botswana’s continued support and their opinion that our presence alone has an important role to play in awareness and public education of not only wild dogs, but also conservation issues in general. We feel a responsibility to this sentiment, and decisions about the future of the project are made with this in mind. The development of an inclusive intra-guild Predator Conservation Program is the key component of the scientific pursuit. The government of Botswana has virtually no information on large predators other than lions and wild dogs and acknowledges that valid resource management decisions cannot be made in the absence of this data. The government has appealed to the independent research community to provide this. What we have developed is the most expedient means to this information. From an economic standpoint, combining resources gives you the greatest ‘bang for the buck’; from a scientific perspective, the greater collaboration between the various single species research, so too, the greater the overall knowledge, use and opportunity value. We aim to provide the intellectual forum and physical platform to facilitate this important research. The end product will be a permanent center of excellence for predator conservation.

As stated in the above discussion, we have also come to learn over the years that the only progressive way forward is to help engender a sense of respect for self, and for the environment with a view to instilling hope for the future among the future care-takers of these prized natural resources. Hence, the development of Take Back the Future. We anticipate that the success of this project within the current context of Botswana’s political economy is the only way to achieve a long lasting conservation ethos in this country.

Outreach
BPCP continues to believe in collaboration and sharing the findings of our research with the local community, the tourism industry and the general public.

Standardized wildlife monitoring: We solidified a relationship with the largest safari operator in the region and agreed on a standard format for all their wildlife monitoring and sighting data. This was a long fought battle and a project Dr. Boggs has worked on for more than two years. The bottom line is that all data will be collected in a standard format, submitted to a central data manager and then available to all investors. It is a giant step toward ensuring that the tourism industry is participating meaningfully in the conservation of the natural resources upon which they depend, and will provide us with valid data on predator densities, movements, and even identities that was previously unavailable. The next step is to ensure that all stakeholders; including department of wildlife, hunters, and other operators are using the same standardized system.

Zoo group talks. Several lectures were given to ‘zoo group travelers’ at various locations in northern Botswana this year. These included groups from Gulf Breeze Zoo, Cincinnati Zoo, Philadelphia Zoo, Calgary Zoo and San Diego Zoo. These lectures, sometimes given by graduate students and sometimes by Tico or Lesley provide an important forum to inform and educate both the tourists and the tour operators where these groups are lodging on the issues of predator conservation in Botswana.