Recent paper by Montana State researchers about African wild dogs receives international attention

BOZEMAN - A recently published paper in the journal Ecology by Montana State University ecology professor Scott Creel and several of his current and former students has received international attention for its revelations about highly endangered African wild dogs.

The paper, "Extraordinary movements connecting distant ecosystems by African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus)," was published Sept. 13. Since then, its findings have been highlighted by media outlets including the BBC, Reuters,Mongabay, The Guardian, The Conversation and CNN. It also was featured prominently by the eminent journal Science.

The paper tells the story of several groups of highly endangered African wild dogs that recently made long-distance movements across all of Zambia, linking all the ecosystems that still hold wild dog populations and into several adjacent countries.

"This is very good news," said Creel, who has studied the species for 35 years. "African wild dogs are endangered because they are naturally sparse. They never reach high population densities under any conditions, so the population in any single protected area is always small. As a consequence, we have seen wild dogs go locally extinct in several national parks in front of our eyes."

Creel explained that connections between protected areas allow wild dogs to recover naturally after local extinctions, improving prospects for the species' survival while conserving natural evolutionary processes. He said these issues are important for any endangered species with small populations separated by large gaps, such as wolverines in the Northern Rocky Mountain states.

Creel said the paper reveals several things about African wild dogs that previously were unknown.

"I have studied wild dogs since 1991, in four different ecosystems with more than 2,000 recognized individuals," Creel said. "For most of the last 35 years, I would not have dreamed that in 2026 I would write 'it is plausible to hypothesize that most of the wild dog populations in Eastern and Southern Africa remain connected.'"

Among the paper's findings:

• The farthest movement was set by three brothers who traveled 4,126 kilometers, the longest dispersal path ever recorded for any African mammal.
• Males and females from the same pack reconnected briefly after traveling independently for a collective 2,607 kilometers, the longest for any African mammal.
• Some migrating animals successfully skirted large cities, a behavior that researchers had not observed previously.
• Researchers recorded males and females meeting after traveling from two home ranges separated by 546 kilometers, the largest ever recorded for any African mammal.

The paper's co-authors include three current MSU graduate students, one current MSU postdoctoral researcher, university professors who completed their doctoral studies at MSU, and the CEO of the Zambian Carnivore Programme, who earned his Ph.D. at MSU. The ZCP is a field-based nonprofit organization dedicated to conserving large carnivore species in Zambia, including lions, leopards, hyenas, wild dogs and cheetahs.

Creel said the paper has advanced fundamental knowledge about African wild dogs with important implications. Researchers now have observed the animals moving between seven national parks in Zambia, which connect all of the country's resident wild dog populations, as well as movements in Mozambique and within a few kilometers of Zimbabwe, Malawi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola.

"The strength and scale of these observed connections is new and important information," Creel said. "For example, there has been considerable debate over the last decade whether large African carnivores can be protected without fencing the ecosystems that hold them. These results present a strong argument against that approach."

Half of the long-distance movements described in the paper ended with death in a wire snare, illustrating the serious and immediate threat that illegal hunting with wire snares poses to wild dogs. In addition to killing the animals, snares also reduce the availability of their prey, forcing them to work harder when hunting.

Creel said the paper is a nice example of the connection between MSU and the Zambian Carnivore Programme, which he hopes will continue after he retires next year.

"MSU has essentially been the research wing of this important and globally prominent conservation program for more than 15 years, and both institutions benefit from that," he said.