The African Wild Dog Conservancy (AWD Conservancy) is a

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

501(c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of 50 ...

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

, working with local communities, and national and international stakeholders, to conserve the

African wild dog The African wild dog (''Lycaon pictus''), also called the painted dog or Cape hunting dog, is a wild canine which is a native species to sub-Saharan Africa. It is the largest wild canine in Africa, and the only extant member of the genus '' Ly ...

through scientific research and education.

African Wild Dog Decline

Worldwide decline of wildlife is driven by exponential growth of the human population, associated land use changes and resource exploitation. In the last 48 years, vertebrate populations have declined by 69% worldwide . Particularly vulnerable to extinction, 64% of large terrestrial carnivores are endangered and 80% are in decline. Africa is no exception. Long viewed as a wildlife stronghold, terrestrial mammals are precipitously declining on much of the continent. One of the world’s most endangered large carnivores, African wild dogs (''Lycaon pictus'') exist at low densities, range widely outside protected areas, and are particularly vulnerable to extinction in increasingly fragmented landscapes. Today, this pack-living canid occupies an estimate
10% of its former range

Community Project

The AWD Conservancy began its work in 2003 in northeastern and coastal Kenya, a convergence zone of two

biodiversity hotspots A biodiversity hotspot is a biogeographic region with significant levels of biodiversity that is threatened by human habitation. Norman Myers wrote about the concept in two articles in ''The Environmentalist'' in 1988 and 1990, after which the co ...

. This area largely consists of community lands inhabited by pastoralists. Working with local people, a pilot study was launched confirming the presence of a population of wild dogs largely unknown to conservationists . Over the next 16 years, local ecological knowledge revealed this area to be a significant refuge for wild dogs and an important wildlife corridor connecting Kenya’s Tsavo National Parks with the Horn of Africa in an increasingly human-dominated landscape. This project has been identified as a wild dog conservation priority by the IUCN/SSC Canid Specialist GroupSillero-Zubiri, C., Hoffmann, M. and Macdonald, D.W. (2004) ''Canids: Foxes, Wolves, Jackals and Dogs: Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan.'' IUCN/SSC Canid Specialist Group, IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK, pp. 335-336 ({{cite web, url=http://www.canids.org/cap/index.htm#On-line , title=IUCN/SSC Canid Specialist Group , accessdate=2011-10-04 , url-status=dead, archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111006222952/http://www.canids.org/cap/index.htm , archivedate=2011-10-06 Copy of the Action Plan).

References

External links

African Wild Dog ConservancyWWF Living Planet ReportConservation International
Conservation projects Wildlife conservation organizations Animal charities based in the United States Mammal conservation Dog organizations Foreign charities operating in Kenya