Tracking the Wild: New Insights into African Wild Dogs at Ol Jogi
Ol Jogi Wildlife Conservancy recently played host to an important milestone in the ongoing conservation of one of Africa’s most endangered carnivores, the African wild dog.
Working in collaboration with the Samburu–Laikipia Wild Dog Project, Mpala Research Station and the Kenya Wildlife Service, conservation teams successfully collared an individual from a pack located within the conservancy. The collaring forms part of a broader research initiative led by the Zoological Society of London, aimed at understanding daily activity patterns and how these may shift in response to climate variability.
This individual joins other members of the same pack already fitted with satellite-enabled collars, allowing researchers to build a more complete picture of movement, habitat use, and behavioural adaptation across the wider Laikipia ecosystem.
A Species Under Pressure
African wild dogs are among the most threatened large carnivores on the continent. Their survival depends on vast, connected landscapes, and their wide-ranging behaviour makes them particularly vulnerable to multiple pressures.
Across northern Kenya, these include:
- Habitat fragmentation
- Human–wildlife conflict, including snaring
- Disease transmission from domestic animals
Despite these challenges, their presence remains one of the clearest indicators of ecosystem health. Where wild dogs persist, it typically reflects intact habitat, sufficient prey availability, and relatively low levels of disturbance.
A Landscape That Still Supports Them
Ol Jogi is fortunate to host wild dogs regularly, a reflection of both the scale of the conservancy and the integrity of its ecosystem.
Through its ongoing Carnivore Conservation Programme, Ol Jogi contributes to broader regional efforts in several ways:
- Reporting sightings, often supported by telemetry tracking and recorded through EarthRanger
- Sharing photographic records for individual identification
- Providing field-based observations that contribute to long-term datasets
These inputs, while often small in isolation, form part of a much larger body of knowledge that supports conservation planning across the region.
Recent satellite data, including movement patterns from the Phoenix Pack over the past 60 days, continue to highlight the importance of landscape connectivity between Laikipia, reinforcing the need for collaborative, cross-boundary conservation efforts.
Partnership in Practice
Fieldwork during the collaring operation also included collecting biological samples, including tick data, by Samburu–Laikipia Wild Dog Project lead by Dedan Ngatia and his team. These samples contribute to ongoing research into disease ecology, an increasingly important component of carnivore conservation.
This collaboration reflects the strength of the partnership between Ol Jogi, the Samburu-Laikipia Wild Dog Project, and the Kenya Wildlife Service, demonstrating how coordinated, field-based work can contribute to both scientific understanding and practical conservation outcomes.
Looking Ahead
The continued presence of wild dogs at Ol Jogi is both a privilege and a responsibility. Each sighting, each data point, and each collaboration contributes to a broader effort to ensure that this species, one of Africa’s most iconic and ecologically significant predators, continues to move across these landscapes.
As research deepens and partnerships strengthen, Ol Jogi remains committed to playing its role in protecting not only the species itself, but the systems that sustain it.
