To balance this out, two females were translocated from Madikwe Game Reserve in the Northern Province. The females were kept in a large boma in the southern wilderness area of the park, while rangers captured two males from the Umfolozi population to introduce them to the females. The four took to each easily and mated. Somers' on-going task for the Green Trust Wild Dog Project is to track and monitor the movements of the dogs in Umfolozi. All the dogs are collared and he is gathering invaluable information about these misunderstood canines.
Wild dogs are social animals.
They hunt in packs with co-ordinated hunting strategies, catching mainly small and medium antelope. A female can have ten pups at a time, but there is a high mortality rate. Both of the females from the boma are expected to give birth soon. Umfolozi wild dog numbers will hopefully soon be boosted by 20 or so additional sets of pattering little feet.