African Wild Dogs’ Record-breaking Journey Shows Habitat Remains Connected Despite Human Impact

– 3 brothers covered 4,126km: longest recorded dispersal of any African mammal 

– Landscapes linking national parks need more protection to preserve connectivity

– Snares killed many of the monitored dogs, some after they covered 2,000km+ 

Endangered African wild dogs are still capable of  making extraordinary journeys between distant ecosystems across southern Africa,  according to research published today that provides compelling new evidence that  wildlife corridors still connect protected areas even with expanding human activity.  

Published in the journal Ecology, the study documents 19 groups of wild dogs dispersing  across thousands of kilometres of human-dominated landscapes in Zambia and into, or  close to, five neighbouring countries.  

Among them were three brothers that travelled 4,126 kilometres over eight months: the  longest recorded dispersal for any African mammal. Dispersals are one-way, one-off  movements by young dogs seeking mates or new territory, distinct from migrations  where animals cycle seasonally across landscapes.  

As farms, roads, and towns fragment wildlife habitat, the connections that sustain species  are increasingly fragile and dangerous. Many dispersing wild dogs fail to reach new  habitat or find mates, including dogs in the study groups that travelled some of the  furthest distances who died in wire snares set for bushmeat, sometimes after they had  moved 2,000km or more. The findings raise questions about whether wild dogs must  today make these remarkable journeys because suitable prey and habitat are much  harder to find.  

By revealing where animals can still move successfully between existing protected  landscapes, the research can focus governments and conservation organisations on the  wildlife corridors, pathways, landscapes, and buffer zones where limited funds can make  the greatest difference.

“I have studied wild dogs since 1991 and would not have imagined that in 2026 we would  conclude that most of the critical wild dog populations in Eastern and Southern Africa  probably remain connected,” said Professor Scott Creel of Montana State University, the  paper’s lead author.  

“Despite their invariably small population sizes and the high risk of mortality in human dominated landscapes, wild dogs’ enduring capacity to move long distances through  unfavourable landscapes provides an extraordinary opportunity to conserve a functional  meta-population of an endangered large carnivore at the continental scale.”  

The Zambian Carnivore Programme (ZCP), working with the Zambian Department of  National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW) and conservation partners including The Nature  Conservancy (TNC), tracked the dogs using GPS collars as they repeatedly climbed and  descended the Great Rift Valley escarpment, crossed rivers and major roads, skirted cities  and lakes, and passed through Zambia’s heavily industrialised Copperbelt mining region.  

The four groups of 14 dogs that travelled the furthest covered almost 10,000 km – more  than crossing the entire United States on I-90 from Seattle to Boston and back again. They  dispersed as far or further in one journey than animals circling back and forth on Africa’s  famed mammal migrations, including wildebeest and zebra of the Serengeti, and white 

tailed kob and tiang in South Sudan and Ethiopia.  

Wild dogs are among Africa’s widest-ranging carnivores and are widely regarded as  indicators of landscape connectivity, meaning the study’s implications extend beyond this single species. They provide the clearest evidence yet that ecological connections  between major wildlife landscapes in east and southern Africa still exist and can support  the natural movements needed to maintain healthy populations of many wildlife species,  including large carnivores.  

As across much of Africa, Zambia’s human population is growing, increasing by  approximately 50% since 2010. Farms, mines, roads, settlements, and degraded common  land all put pressure on wildlife habitat. The Government of Zambia has taken a raft of  steps to conserve what remains, with almost 40% of the country already under some  form of nature conservation designation, but funding to adequately manage these spaces  is severely restricted among competing national priorities.

“These extraordinary journeys show that natural connections between Africa’s wildlife  strongholds still exist and that maintaining continent-wide connectivity for endangered  African wild dogs remains a realistic conservation goal,” said Dr Matt Becker, CEO of ZCP.  

“The movements we documented show that wild dogs can still connect distant  populations, but they also reveal how difficult and dangerous those journeys have  become. Rather than relying solely on fenced protected areas, these findings show the  value of investing in connected landscapes – supporting habitat, reducing conflict  between people and wildlife, and helping communities conserve the areas between  national parks that animals depend on. The dogs are showing us that connectivity still  works; now we need to do more to protect and strengthen it.” 

The study’s findings reinforce conservation approaches that focus on conserving the  community lands surrounding national parks and the wildlife corridors between them,  rather than protecting national parks alone as isolated islands. This is a huge  undertaking: wildlife ‘corridors’ are often many kilometres wide and can be hundreds of  kilometres long, connecting protected areas or species’ habitat. The nine community  Game Management Areas (GMAs) surrounding Zambia’s Kafue National Park alone cover  an area larger than Denmark or five Yellowstone National Parks.  

“Creating these safe spaces on the peripheries of national parks and in the buffer zones  between them creates the stepping stones for these extraordinary movements,” said  Bruce Ellender, one of the paper’s co-authors and Kafue Conservation Director for TNC,  which works with and funds ZCP. “But half of the land in the GMAs that act as buffer zones  around Kafue National Park have already been converted to agriculture, for example. If  that continues unchecked, the opportunity for connectivity between ecosystems would  be lost within a decade.  

“This research moves us beyond saying ‘connectivity is important’ to showing which  corridors and pathways are the most important. It helps government and conservation  partners focus limited resources where we can have the greatest impact. It helps us take a landscape approach to conserve that wider ecological integrity, with this mosaic of  complementary areas that animals need. This kind of well-designed, targeted research  from the kind of expert team ZCP and DNPW gathered here is invaluable for truly effective  conservation.” 

In Zambia, TNC provides tools and training so local communities can manage their  natural resources sustainably and earn a better living from them; deploys traditional wildlife protection tactics like anti-poaching, desnaring, and monitoring; works to tackle  human-wildlife conflict and provide communities with tangible benefits from their  community stewarded conservation lands; and looks for ways to finance conservation  over the long term.  

This approach in Zambia mirrors TNC’s activities across other major landscapes in the 21  African countries where it works, including the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Area  (KAZA), which straddles five countries including Zambia and where governments and  conservation organisations are working to maintain connectivity across 500,000 sq km.  

“These long-term studies provide key evidence that connectivity between large  landscapes is still there,” said Dr. Nyambe Nyambe, Executive Director of the KAZA  Secretariat. “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.” 

Collectively, dogs that ZCP tracks have now linked all seven ecosystems in Zambia that  support resident wild dog populations, with some dogs moving into Mozambique and  Malawi, and close to Zimbabwe, Angola, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. One  group of dogs from Zambia’s South Luangwa National Park was seen in neighbouring  Malawi for the first time in July.  

African wild dogs are listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List, with around 6,600 adults  remaining in 39 distinct populations across Africa. They are among the continent’s  widest-ranging carnivores, living in highly social packs and depending on movement  between populations for their long-term survival. The greatest threats they face are the  fragmenting of their habitat, declining numbers of their natural prey, bushmeat snares,  disease, and run-ins with people. 

Wild dogs naturally leave their birth packs between two and three years of age to find  unrelated mates and establish new packs. These dispersal journeys are essential for  maintaining healthy populations and genetic diversity, but they are also among the most  dangerous periods in a wild dog’s life. 

The study, Extraordinary movements connecting distant ecosystems by African wild dogs  (Lycaon pictus), was conducted by scientists from the Zambian Carnivore Programme and  the Zambia Department of National Parks and Wildlife, and partner organisations  including TNC, Montana State University, the University of Oxford, the University of Wyoming, African Parks, Musekese Conservation and Conservation South Luangwa. It is  based on years of GPS collar tracking, field monitoring and ecological research across  Zambia.