Three African wild dog brothers undertook what is believed to be the longest recorded journey by any mammal on the continent, traveling over 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles) across Zambia in search of new territory. The eight-month dispersal, a natural process wherein young wild dogs leave their natal pack to establish their own group, saw the brothers travel from Kafue National Park in western Zambia to the Luangwa Valley in the east. Along the way, they covered a record distance of approximately 546 kilometers (340 miles) between these two points, a span compared to the length of Chile by foot.
This journey surpasses the previous documented migration of African wild dogs, which covered 2,418 miles between northern Tanzania’s Ngorongoro district and Kenya’s Tsavo West National Park in 2012. The wild dogs faced numerous hazards during their trek, including roads, hunters, and bushmeat snares, highlighting the dangers wildlife encounter within human-dominated landscapes.
Scientists from the Zambian Carnivore Programme (ZCP), who tracked the animals and published their research in the journal Ecology, emphasized the importance of landscape connectivity for wildlife survival. Dr. Matt Becker, chief executive of ZCP, noted that while protected areas remain vital, maintaining natural corridors between habitats is essential to support the movement and dispersal of species such as African wild dogs. “These extraordinary journeys show that natural connections between Africa’s wildlife strongholds still exist. But they also reveal how difficult and dangerous those journeys have become,” he said.
The research team monitored 19 wild dog groups during this study, including a sister pack of the three brothers. The sisters encountered severe challenges, with two of the animals presumed killed in snares. Despite their different outcomes, the brothers and sisters shared a poignant reunion two months into their dispersal near Zambia’s copper-belt mining region, spending a day together before continuing on separate paths. Related wild dogs do not typically form new packs together and must disperse widely to locate unrelated mates and establish new territories.
African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) remain endangered, with roughly 6,600 adults distributed across 39 populations throughout Africa. Their decline is driven primarily by habitat loss, reduced prey availability, bushmeat hunting, and conflicts with humans. The findings from this study underscore that, despite severe threats, wild dogs still navigate and survive across human-influenced environments.
Dr. Nyambe Nyambe, director of the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area secretariat, a significant cross-border initiative involving five southern African countries including Zambia, stressed that maintaining habitat connectivity is critical for conservation efforts. “If we conserve and continue to improve these connections—spanning the range of national parks, community areas, nations, and regions—a lot of species like wild dogs can make the rest happen,” he said.
As human development increasingly disrupts traditional migration routes not only for wild dogs but also for species such as African savannah elephants, conservationists highlight the urgency of preserving viable corridors to enable wildlife movement and survival across the continent.