School of Biodiversity, One Health & Veterinary Medicine

Since 2008 a genetic management plan for African wild dogs, developed by researchers in our Institute, has been in use across the European zoo network (which houses roughly half the world’s captive African wild dog population) in 53 participating zoos across 16 European countries and Israel.

African wild dogs have been classed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature for 22 years. Large, well-managed captive breeding programmes provide a safety net to restore wild populations. However, the management of the African wild dog population has been difficult owing to an incomplete family record of the captive population, which risks introducing genetic disorders caused by inbreeding.

Working with partners at Edinburgh Zoo and the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria, our researchers have developed a more robust means to manage the captive African wild dog population. Key to this was screening the captive population for specific genetic markers in the DNA, which provide a genetic measure of diversity, establishing a new genetic pedigree that underpins the genetically informed management plan. This plan balances genetic priorities with behavioural knowledge of African wild dog packs, and provides information on which individuals should be selected for breeding and which should be relocated and to where.

Since 2008 it has been in use in the European Endangered Species Programme for African wild dogs across the European zoo network, and five-years on the plan has led to pups with more genetic variation. The success of the genetic management plan has also provided impetus for the national zoo associations in the USA and Australia to begin efforts to adopt a similar plan for their populations.

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First published: 11 July 2014