How You can Help
one of the pups arrives at N/a’an ku sê
Buy
the 'Painted Dogs Limited Edition'
50% of the proceeds from every sale of the signed limited edition
print 'Painted Dogs' (above) will go to the appeal. Click on
the link above to buy securely online
The rescued pups Boris, Robert, Rudie,
Nesha, Wiko, Mogwai, Cali, Magic and Kevala have grown so much
since their arrival at N/a’an ku sê and are now
fighting fit, and continue to grow and develop every week. They
need adoptive parents to help provide the food, shelter and
veterinary care they need to ensure their welfare.
Adopt a pup for £65.00 per year.
In return for your sponsorship you will receive:
· A personalised certificate with photo of your adopted
animal
· Quarterly updates with stories and photos of your
adopted animal
· Personal access to the Animal Blog with stories and
photos of all the animals at N/a’an ku sê
· News from the N/a’an ku sê farm all throughout
the year
· An invitation to visit your adopted animal anytime
you like
· EXCLUSIVE Everyone who
adopts a painted dog pup through the Pollyanna Pickering Foundation
will be entered into a draw to win a copy of the Painted dogs
limited edition. A winner will be drawn every time 10 adoptions
have been purchased.
Click
Here to adopt a painted dog pup securely online
Click here to visit
their website and learn more about N/a’an ku sê
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Painted Dog
Appeal
 Above
: The Painted Dogs in the Pollyanna Pickering Foundation enclosure
We would like to say a big thank you to everyone who helped
support our Painted Dogs appeal, launched in the last newsletter.
Thanks to a percentage of all the sales from Pollyanna’s
Painted with Pride exhibition,
along with the money raised by our prize draw, sales of tea
and coffee during the summer exhibition and some very generous
individual donations, we managed to raise our target of £8,700.00
– the equivalent of $94,0000.00 Namibian dollars. This
money has funded the building of an enclosure (above) at the
N/a’an ku sê Wildlife Sanctuary in Namibia.
Building the enclosure will ensure the safe and secure growth
and development of 14 orphaned painted dog pups - which would
otherwise have faced certain death - and allow their re-introduction
into former areas of residence such as Etosha National Park.
The enclosure will form part of a large breeding and holding
facility to allow supervised pack formation, long-term bonding
of release packs from captive-reared and wild-caught dogs and
enable the painted dogs to be re-introduced back into former
habitats, while allowing essential data gathering on the growth,
ecology, breeding and group structure of the pups while in captivity.
Following the release of the initial 14 pups, the enclosure
will continue to be used for the rehabilitation and reintroduction
of future rescued dogs.
Conservationist Marlice van Vuuren, and her husband Dr. Rudie
van Vuuren established the sanctuary in 2007 as a rescue and
rehabilitation centre. They strongly believe that wildlife belongs
in the wild and direct all of their efforts towards long term
rehabilitation. Last year Rudie received a call from the Director
of Namibia Nature Foundation’s Wild Dog Programme, telling
him of a litter of orphaned wild dog pups that had been discovered.
14 pups had been found in a den in a strip of farmland and were
in urgent need of a home. Rudie and Marlice flew up the following
morning to rescue the pups who were just a few weeks old. The
pups are now in the safety of the Sanctuary, where they were
initially fed three times a day on minced chicken mixed with
calcium powder. The aim is for the pups to grow up to be a strong
and healthy part of the Painted dog population in Namibia as
part of a new release programme.
As the pups, which were rescued in January, were growing very
rapidly the sanctuary took our an emergency loan to construct
the new camp for the dogs, as they were growing too big for
their first enclosure. The funds raised by the Foundation have
paid off this loan, funding the complete construction costs.
Lucy Hale, a representative of N/a’an ku sê thanked
Pollyanna for the donation saying “The dogs are very happy
in their camp now and we are delighted to be joined by your
Foundation as our partner in Wild Dog conservation.”
Painted dogs are Namibia's most endangered mammal species and
continue to be widely persecuted - Only an estimated 200-250
painted dogs remain in the wild in Namibia and only 5% of their
range is within protected areas. The African Painted Dog population
in Namibia is under immediate threat of extinction and action
is needed to reinstate and rebuild the remaining local population.
The present surviving population of painted dogs is severely
fragmented and is highly unlikely to re-colonise areas that
they used to inhabit by natural migration. Conservation experts
believe that in order to save the species from country wide
extinction, planned and controlled re-introductions need to
take place through the re-establishment of packs from captive
reared Painted dogs. Together with Namibia’s Ministry
of Environment and Tourism, N/a’an ku se have successfully
rehabilitated and re-introduced cheetahs, leopards and brown
hyenas into different conservation areas in Namibia, over the
past two years. None of the reintroductions have led to any
human-wildlife conflict and an intensive post-release monitoring
scheme has been successfully implemented allowing them to gather
vital data for future conservation work. Building on this extensive
experience and that of the captive management of painted dogs,
N/a’an ku sê is planning a new rehabilitation and
re-introduction programme for the animals.
Once distributed widely across most of Africa, African Painted
Dogs also known Wild Dogs and Cape Hunting Dogs, have been persecuted
by Man to the edge of extinction. The best estimate is that
fewer than 5,000 African wild dogs now exist in the wild, and
many packs no longer have viable breeding populations. They
are dying out.
Painted Dogs have an ill-deserved reputation as aggressive,
vicious killers. In fact, unlike almost any other predator,
they live in extraordinary co-operation with one another, and
this is nowhere better demonstrated than when feeding - the
young and ill are given first access to food after a successful
hunt.
N/a’an ku sê is committed to playing a key role
in conservation and the protection of the Namibian wildlife,
land and people. Their vision is an Africa where humans and
wildlife can live and thrive together and their mission is to
conserve the land, cultures and wildlife of Namibia and rescue
species threatened by an ever-shrinking habitat. The sanctuary
accommodates mostly orphaned and injured animals that cannot
be released back into the wild. Several additional projects
are also taking place including a Carnivore Conservation Research
Project, a Bushman School and the Lifeline Clinic at Epukiro.
Through each of their projects N/a’an ku sê provides
an important source of employment and accommodation to Bushmen
families.
Click here to visit
their website and learn more about N/a’an ku sê
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