To get an understanding of the threats to the Painted Dogs we have been out with the Anti-Poaching Unit (APU) for a mornings patrol. When PDC was first set up, so many of the dogs were being trapped in illegal snares set out in the bush around the fringes and also within the National Park. Snares have been used for centuries as a hunting aid but the traditional methods were very different to what we see today.
The free availability of fencing wire from long abandoned field boundaries has resulted in hundreds of death traps left out in the bush. The APU patrol huge areas around the PDC centre and the park boundaries removing snares and capturing poachers. The area we patrolled with them is close to the centre and has been free of snares for some time now as the poachers know they operate in this area but they also deployed further afield where poaching is still rife.
