2025 - Rewild Zambezi - donation of USD 10,000

Project Rewild Zambezi is a conservation initiative that aims to save and translocate animals that are facing population pressure — including elephants, wild dogs, lions, eland, impala, zebra, wildebeest and other species. The resettlement goes hand in hand with the development of the Sapi Reserve in the Zambezi Valley to ensure that the animals can live in a safe environment.

A specific wild dog population in the southern part of Zimbabwe was hunting both inside and outside nearby livestock areas, causing some conflict. A major milestone for wildlife conservation in the third quarter of 2025 was the successful release of 17 painted dogs — eight adults and nine pups —into the Sapi Reserve. This achievement marks an essential step in rebuilding predator diversity and stabilising painted dog populations in the region.

The wild dog population in the Sapi region was in sharp decline. The resulting data is the perfect basis for the doctoral thesis of Thomas Mutonhori, ecologist for the Great Plains in the Sapi Reserve. It will focus on the challenges faced by wild dogs in the Mid Zambezi Valley. His work will provide valuable insights for the protection of the wild dogs.

The big issue with painted dog releases in the past is that no matter how long you hold them, as soon as you open the gates, the dogs bolt, for miles, for days. The idea was to build a replica den and hold them through the birth of the puppies, hoping that they might associate that den with ‘home.’ That was the plan. Unfortunately, on the day of the relocation, one dog gave birth virtually at the vets' feet. The plane had to be changed to an air-conditioned King Air where all puppies were placed carefully into a cooler box for their two-hour flight to their new home. It worked well.

The mother of the puppies and the puppies were passed through the small den opening. Beverly Joubert had to crawl into the den and guide the mother through the hole from inside and place the half-sedated carnivore securely in her den. The vet had to do the same to apply the drug reversal!

When the fence was removed, the question was whether they would bolt or not, whether they would remember how to hunt and if they would even understand a river! Within an hour, they saw an impala and gave chase! Within a few hours, they had settled and slept a few miles from their pen. That same evening, they came back ‘home’ to make the first of their kills near the research camp. A momentous turning point for this small population of precious animals in a far corner of the world!

Zimbabwe 2025 Stats

• 479 Impala and 17 Wild Dogs rewilded into the Sapi Reserve
• 16 elephants recollared
• 4806 Kms patrolled (through 30 Sept) by the Sapi Biodiversity Monitoring team
• 4979 Hours on patrol (through 30 Sept) by the Sapi Biodiversity Monitoring team