African Wild Dogs have vanished from Liuwa Plain National Park in unclear circumstances.
Liuwa Area Warden Gabriel Masaku said the wild dogs were last spotted in the park sometime in 2013 and that operations to establish their whereabouts have proved futile.
Addressing concerns raised by traditional leaders during Lewanika Community Resource Board (CRB) meeting held in Kalabo Council Chamber, Mr. Masaku said it was difficult to trace the wild dogs because they had not been fitted with satellite collars.
He noted that the wild dogs could have migrated to neighbouring countries or wiped out by rabies.
He however said the Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW) was seeking technical support from Zambian Carnivore Programme (ZCP) which has been partnering with African Parks in collaring predators and undertakes research in Liuwa.
The development has angered Area chiefs who have demanded that both African Parks and DNPW table a comprehensive chronicle of events and circumstances surrounding the specie’s disappearance from Liuwa’s ecosystem.
Chief Lioko of Likulundundu chiefdom wondered why traditional leaders and other key stakeholders had not been informed about the disappearance of the wild dogs, arguing that the specie was fitted with telemetry radio frequency collars.
And Chief Kakuya of Luoke Chiefdom said African wild dogs were one of Liuwa’s pride and wondered how all the packs could have migrated from an ecosystem where they lived for centuries.
Meanwhile, Chief Mwanamambo of Mushukula Chiefdom charged that ZCP should be made to account for the missing wild dogs despite fitting them with collars and monitoring their movement and behaviour patterns.
And Chief Akabati of Nyaala Chiefdom urged DNPW to expedite the search, wondering why the department has adopted the use of footing scouts instead of technological systems such as satellite and other aerial advancements.
Chief Likubi of Upangoma Chiefdom however urged DNPW to set up strategic check points around Liuwa Plain National Park in order to avert the possibility of wildlife trafficking.
The traditional leaders have since resolved to set mid-October as an ultimatum for African parks and DNPW to issue a comprehensive report regarding the disappearance of the African wild dogs.
Koma pa Zed pali ma sampo!! Kuba ma wild dogs….hahahaha
Imagine tinali kuba ma tayela ypa nyumba bayamba kuba ma wild dogs kikiki
I have come to a point where I’d now say so what?
You mean we cannot keep statistics and are only knowing about this?
We are also ware of planes that land in roads in the middle of the night to collect minerals and fly out!
We are a wroten continent to the core, a continent that is still in umbilical codes. It’s citizens allowing this, thinking there are more clever than anyone, when in actual sense they are JUDAS!!!
Do the right thing arsehoooles!!! We are the architects of our own misfortune cause you want to drive a Range Rover mother fuuucker!!! We only have one Africa! The Europeans you are helping are making their lives a better place whilst you condemn your own to the pits of hellll!!!
I agree with you, this area is rich with minerals and I do remember the late mama wina talked of the malpractice that was happening in that area and it was in Levy Mwanawasa reign. what happened next? Mwanawasa gave her a ministerial post and the story ended there till her death!!! Zambians please wake up and see whats happening there. epo mpelele…!
Please follow up some of the new investors may be stealing game. IT is common.
check at PF secretariat, we hear and read alot of barking…
Nostradamus wild dogs don’t bark
Can’t wait to hear about some presido assistants vanish from plot 1.
So even wildlife knows it is time to move on, huh? Either their hunting ground has been usurped by encroachments or competition or – God forbid – some erstwhile crazy poacher has poisoned the y’ell out of them! Please investigate and let us know…
Chinese eat dogs , apparently bush dog is preferable….
That’s Zambia for you no borders …planes simply fly in from RSA and get what they want!!
SA national parks was given admin contract of Liuwa by zawa. Yet south african planes have been coming in to steal wildlife like sable, reedback & wild dogs without detection by zaf or zambia civil aviation authority.
These animals are used in multi million dollar canned hunting industry in RSA.
That’s because lungu and his corrupt PF rats are busy using ZAF choppers to campain…..
I remember GBM (then Defence Minister) being annoyed with Silya Maseba when she said our borders were porous ..they haven’t done nothing still!!
That is life under PF.. theft left right centre. We have even heard report of some one stealing some one’s dreams
Must be the Chinese restaurants mushrooming all over Zambia assisted by the corrupt PF regime.Mukula logs were disappearing the same way.
That makes sense
Most comments here, as usual, are s.tupid – that is a typical reaction by a so-called Zambian intellectual. This is a serious problem and ZAWA needs to explain. Chances are South Africans have stolen them.
Your president is a thief and yet here you are blaming a foreign country richer than you
Ndanje khakis claims to be a black boer farmer. Am sure you will find these in his imaginary 2 bed farm
Your story is confusing, you say Mr Masaku said it was difficult to trace the wild dogs because they had not been fitted with satellite collars.
Later you tell us about chiefs saying that ZCP should be made to account for the missing wild dogs despite fitting them with collars
What is the truth?
Are those wild dogs in picture???
Let us arrest Lungu in a nationwide dragnet against high level thieves lining our corridors of power.
Wild dogs don’t do well on plains with lions and spotted hyenas. Wild dogs died out on Serengeti Plain as wells, and a big blame game ensued. Disease transmission from domestic dogs adds to the problems. Wild dogs are rare, but not expensive. They are limited by available habitat with prey, and by lions and spotted hyenas – not by reproduction. South Africa recently donated wild dogs to Mozambique for free. So there is no reason to believe the wild dogs of Liuwa have been “stolen”.
Check that mansion in New Kasama, you will find them there.