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Four African Wild Dog Dispersals Totalled 9,863 km but Produced Little Genetic or Demographic Connectivity

African wild dog standing in Upper Lupande GMA, South Luangwa, Zambia
Research: Ecology · Conservation: Threats

Four long-distance dispersal movements by African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) centred on Zambia totalled 9,863 km, yet produced little genetic or demographic connectivity between populations. The contrast highlights a basic point in dispersal ecology: animals can cross enormous distances without successfully joining another population and contributing individuals or genes to it.

Extreme movements crossed protected and human-dominated landscapes

One of the longest journeys began in 2021 when a three-year-old female, EWD-1355, left the Luamfwa Pack in South Luangwa National Park with two littermate sisters. Over 11 months they travelled more than 2,300 km, entered Mozambique and returned to Zambia while crossing major rivers, highways, protected areas and landscapes with substantial human settlement. They reached the range of a large pack in Lower Zambezi National Park but did not join it or attract males away from the resident pack. EWD-1355 later died in a wire snare set for bushmeat hunting.

Further dispersal in 2025 showed the same combination of extraordinary mobility and difficult settlement. Four three-year-old females and three males left the Mayukuyuku Pack in Kafue National Park. African wild dogs breed cooperatively, with one dominant individual of each sex usually reproducing, so young adults from a large same-aged cohort can have strong incentives to leave in search of breeding opportunities. The male and female dispersers later met again but separated after only a day. The females subsequently encountered heavy snaring risk near Kabwe; one uncollared female was inferred to have been caught, and the collared female later died, probably in a snare.

Getting close to other wild dogs did not guarantee immigration

The Mayukuyuku males later came within 1.6 km of four dispersing females from the Kasweta Pack in South Luangwa, yet the groups again failed to establish a lasting association. By 1 April 2026 the males had travelled 4,126 km and settled in a new range in the Luano Game Management Area.

This illustrates why movement and connectivity are not the same. Wild dogs are capable of rapid, relatively straight travel through unfavourable and human-dominated landscapes, but successful immigration is also a social process. Unfamiliar wild dogs often fight when they meet, sometimes fatally, so reaching another population does not guarantee acceptance into a pack or reproduction. Long-distance movement can therefore create the opportunity for gene flow without necessarily producing it.

Safe corridors must support more than movement

The tracked routes nevertheless show that wild dogs can physically link distant ecosystems. Researchers have recorded movements between seven Zambian national parks, into Mozambique and close to several neighbouring countries. This creates the potential for a wider metapopulation — a network of local populations connected by dispersal — but only if dispersers survive and successfully immigrate.

Wire snares were a major obstacle in the journeys described here. The authors therefore argue that protecting corridors between stronghold populations matters not only because wild dogs need space to move, but because reducing mortality during dispersal increases the chance that those movements become effective demographic and genetic connectivity.

Sources and image credit

  1. Creel, S., Matsushima, S., Mwape, H., Mayani-Nkhoma, B., Banda, K., Goodheart, B., Reyes de Merkle, J., Kusler, A., Smit, D., Njobvu, J., Muwowo, M., Kabungo, R., Mungolo, M., Sichande, M., Sun, C., Sanguinetti, C. A., Krag, C., Chama, L., Chisanga, M., … Becker, M. S. (2026). Extraordinary movements connecting distant ecosystems by African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus). Ecology, 107(9), e70504.Primary open-access research article first published 13 September 2026; full text checked. The paper describes four long-distance dispersal movements by African wild dog groups centred on Zambia. Combined movement paths totalled 9,863 km but yielded little genetic or demographic connectivity. One group travelled more than 2,300 km into Mozambique and back; another male group had moved 4,126 km by 1 April 2026. The paper also documents wire-snare mortality and emphasizes the distinction between physical movement and successful immigration/breeding.

Image: African wild dog (Lycaon pictus) in Upper Lupande Game Management Area, South Luangwa, Zambia, photographed 11 July 2023. Photo: Timothy A. Gonsalves. Source: Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0. Representative image; not an identified animal from the 2026 study. · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source

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