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Pollyanna visits Foundation’s painted Dog Project

In September Pollyanna and Anna-Louise took the opportunity to visit one of the Pollyanna Pickering Foundation’s recent projects.

In 2011 the Foundation paid £8,700.00 – the equivalent of $94,0000.00 Namibian dollars – to build a huge enclosure – over 8 hectares – (above) at the N/a’an ku sê Wildlife Sanctuary in Namibia. Building the enclosure ensured the safe and secure growth and development of 14 orphaned painted dog pups – which would otherwise have faced certain death – and will eventually allow their re-introduction into former areas of residence such as Etosha National Park.

Pollyanna said “ it was fantastic to see that the wild dog puppies now that they have grown into beautiful juvenile dogs, and to have the opportunity to talk to the wildlife biologists whose research and work with them has become vital in the conservation of the species in Namibia.” Following extreme persecution of the species there are only between 200 & 400 wild dogs remaining in Namibia so this litter represents approximately 3% of the entire population.

The biologists are currently identifying potential release sites for the dogs, as well as a suitable re-introduction programme which will incorporate matching these currently captive animals with free-ranging wild dogs in a process known as adoption. They are working closely with the Namibian Ministry of Environment and Tourism and several other organisations in order to take this project forward. Pollyanna was fascinated to learn more about how a team from N/a’an ku se have visited the Mangetti area in north-eastern Namibia to assess the problems free-ranging wild dogs face in this region and how the researchers are helping local livestock farmers to mitigate conflict and thus reduce the motivation to persecute wild dogs in the future.

The Pollyanna Pickering Foundation is proud to have worked with N/a’an ku se on this vital conservation project. The Wildlife Sanctuary is situated on a 3,200 hectare reserve providing a safe haven for various orphaned and injured African wildlife.

They strongly believe the wild belongs in the wild and direct all their efforts towards long term rehabilitation. Pollyanna did of course make the most of the opportunity to sketch all the other residents of the sanctuary, including cheetahs Kiki and Lucky as well as Caracal Lynx, Lions, Baboons and wild giraffes and jackals.

While at the reserve, Anna-Louise filmed a short video clip on behalf of the web site easyfundraising. They had asked her to talk about one of the Foundation’s projects towards which their fundraising programme has contributed. The idea was for Anna-Louise to stand in front of the wild dogs and explain about their rescue and planned release.

However the enclosure is so large that there is no guarantee that the dogs will be visible at any time, and when Anna-Louise went down to film they were inevitably nowhere to be seen. In order to lure them close to fence and into the background of the shot, one of the researchers at the centre located a large pile of zebra dung, the aroma of which he was confident would be of great interest to the dogs – he hurled several handfuls over the fence and indeed the dogs duly appeared to inspect the unexpected addition to their territory. Unfortunately the throwing of zebra dung is not a precise science, and some of it missed the intended target – with the result that Anna-Louise recorded much of the film standing in front of the fence with pellets of fragrant zebra dung down her cleavage.

We would like to say a big thank you to everyone who helped support our Painted Dogs appeal. 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.

Click here to visit their website and learn more about N/a’an ku sê

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