Implants for our female Wild Dogs

As our 13 male and female wild dog pups are reaching sexual maturity (which happens between the age of 12-18 months usually), we needed to implement measures to prevent the animals from breeding as breeding in captivity is illegal in Namibia. We had two options - either seperate the 8 females and 5 males by building a second camp, or giving the females contraceptives. We decided to keep the pack together and give contraceptive implants to the females. These are similar to a human form of contraceptive and take the form of a small implant which is inserted just underneath the skin. 

So on Sunday 11th October we set out very early at 6am to enter the camp, sedate the dogs and insert the implants. Sounds simple.

We were accompanied by legendary German TV vet Dr Woolf and Namibian vet Dr Ulf to assist with the procedure and so the film crew, Dr Woolf, Dr Ulf and the N/a'an ku se team of Marlice, Flo and Stu entered the enclosure. The plan was to dart 4 of the females first and do the remaining 4 once they had woken up. However, when the team were quickly circled by all 13 dogs, they realised that best laid plans often go awry.

Dr Ulf darted the 4 females who started to fall asleep and then the team carried them to the side of the camp for the procedure. But as they did the remaining dogs went wild and tried to attack those carrying the females.

There was a moment of panic when Flo was circled by the dogs and one bit his shoe! One dog also grabbed at Marlice's stick so she used her other stick to hit him on the head! Venturing into the territory of a large pack of wild dogs is dangerous and not to be done lightly. Eventually they managed to get the 4 females out of the camp, darted the remaining 4 females and removed them also. Turns out the males aren't quite so brave without the females!

Once the dogs and team of staff, vets and film crew were safely out of the camp, the sedated dogs were laid out and we checked their microchips for identification. With the help of a large group of volunteers we carried out complete health checks - blood samples and vaginal swabs were taken, we checked for parasites and sprayed them with flea repellent and their body temperature was regulated to ensure they didn't heat up too much whilst sedated.

The vets and our team then inserted the implants using a needle which is placed just on the neck and pushes the impant into the skin.
 

Once all the implants had been inserted the dogs were moved back into their enclosure to rejoin their pack. The 8 dogs were put inside 2 seperate cages, given the antidote to the sedative drug and left inside the enclosure to wake up. However, as we left them, the males tried to "rescue" the females by ripping at the tarpaulin that was covering the cages!

To stop the males, the team had to go back into the enclosure and stand by the cages protecting the females who were not full awake and ready to be "rescued"! Once they were fully awake we opened the cages and released the dogs.
 

The reunion was lovely, everyone was happy and now there will be no unwanted pregnancies between siblings!