Adopt a Painted Dog
A century ago, around 500,000 painted dogs roamed the African continent. Today, just 6,500 remain in the wild.
Adopt a painted dog today, and on your behalf, David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation (DSWF) will continue to:
- Fight wildlife crime by keeping anti-poaching teams in the field and funding law enforcement programmes in Zimbabwe.
- Protect painted dogs by removing snares that would otherwise gravely injure or kill these dogs.
- Engage 600 school children annually in our immersive bush camps to inspire the next generation of wildlife warriors.
What’s included?
- An adoption folder containing personalised certificate, species fact sheet, animal bio sheet and photo.
- Wildlife Matters supporter magazine.
- A beautiful painted dog sketch by wildlife artist Matthew Polluk.
- Optional unique hand knitted toy made by Little Ndaba a women’s community group in Zambia.
Adopt a painted dog now
If you would like to adopt a painted dog, you can choose a regular monthly payment or a one off payment. Both offer differing pack options such as a physical pack by post (with or without a toy) to a UK address or a digital pack via email (does not include sketch or toy) . Alternatively, if you have an existing DSWF adoption, you can renew this via a monthly payment or a one off payment.
Why your adoption is so important
For the last 20 years, DSWF has been supporting a stronghold population of painted dogs in Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park.
Painted dogs are true creatures of the wilderness and need large swathes of land to survive. Human encroachment into these wild spaces means painted dogs are now threatened by roadkill, diseases passed on from domestic dogs like rabies and increasing pressure to share shrinking resources with other larger predators, like lions and spotted hyena.
With so few painted dogs left in Africa, these nomadic predators need our help now more than ever before.
Your painted dog adoption, through our education programmes, is helping to foster a more peaceful coexistence between communities on the border of national parks and painted dogs.
How your adoption could help painted dogs
- Just £3 per month (or £36 per year) could provide vital equipment for those working on the front line to fight wildlife crime.
- Only £5 per month (or £47 per year) could educate future generations about the importance of nature and inspire the conservation leaders of tomorrow.
- With £10 per month (or £60 per year) illegal snares, which could injure or kill a critically endangered painted dogs, could be removed.
Meet our Painted Dog species ambassador, Swift
Meet Swift, our species ambassador for painted dogs. Swift is the alpha male of the Masuma pack. Swift is the son of Crescent from the Broken Rifle pack on the Ngamo plain. He is now four years old and with his three brothers (Fleet, Trigger and Flight) he has left his birth pack and joined alpha female Haze and formed the Masuma Pack setting up his pack’s territory in the Hwange National Park. Swift, along with his beloved alpha female Haze, are the only two dogs in the pack who will breed however the entire pack will help raise the puppies.
By adopting Swift, you are helping to protect painted dogs from snares by keeping anti-poaching teams in the field. Snares are set by poachers for bushmeat, but painted dogs are sadly indiscriminately caught. Swifts father Crescent sadly fell victim to a snare around his neck in 2016 but thanks to the continued monitoring and protection by ranger teams in the area he was saved and nursed back to health before being released back to his pack.
We aim to dispatch postal orders within 7 working days of purchase. Postal orders are sent with Royal Mail standard 2nd class. Tracking is unavailable. International delivery is unavailable.