Specialist Conservation Dog bred and trained in the UK tracks poacher 4.5 km straight to his front door after warthog killing in Zimbabwe.

A Specialist Conservation Dog, bred and trained by Not For Profit Organisation ‘Dogs 4 Wildlife’ in Carmarthenshire, South Wales and deployed to Zimbabwe in the fight against wildlife crime and poaching tracked a poacher 4.5 km to his own front door after a warthog killing in Zimbabwe.

Shinga, who is operational on The Imire Rhino and Wildlife Conservancy in Zimbabwe, alongside her handler Leonard and the K9 Unit team-Learnmore, Tinashe, and Elvin, received a radio call reporting poachers spotted near the Imire boundary, accompanied by a pack of hunting dogs.

The team immediately went out on reaction. The poachers, by that time had run back to the local community after capturing and killing a warthog with the hunting dogs.

The team deployed Shinga on the tracks that had been left running out of the reserve into the local community.

Shinga trailed the poachers approximately 4.5 km all the way back to the local community where the Imire K9 Unit arrested the poacher and took a photo of the warthog caught and killed.

Darren Priddle, Founder and Director of Carmarthenshire based Dogs 4 Wildlife and Extremus Dog Training commented: “The warthog poaching incident really demonstrates why collaboration, partnership, team work and dedication, are the cornerstones for effective long term conservation efforts and why our Specialist Conservation Dogs are so important in the ongoing fight against wildlife crime. 

“ Shinga and the whole unit did a phenomenal job in apprehending the poacher and we are extremely proud of them all.”

Co-Founder and Director of Dogs 4 Wildlife, Jacqui Law added: “Because of the diligence of Imire’s teams on the ground, this incident had a good outcome and the poacher was apprehended but this is just one of many heart breaking incidents of snare poaching that occurs all across Africa.

“Snare poaching does not discriminate on what species of animals it wounds or kills. This is a torturous method of catching wildlife for bushmeat.”

This huge success for Dogs 4 Wildlife Shinga and the Imire K9 Unit comes after an 18 month old White Rhino calf was saved from a poaching incident by another Dogs 4 Wildlife Specialist Conservation dog ‘Dan’ in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, last year, demonstrating the importance of conservation dogs in the fight against wildlife crime.

With a long term committed view to assisting in the protection and continuation of endangered species, Dogs 4 Wildlife are a highly experienced team of knowledgeable, dedicated trainers and behaviourists with a commitment to wildlife conservation. With 15 operational dogs across 4 Southern African countries, The Dogs 4 Wildlife K9’s help achieve up to a 75% reduction in poaching numbers.

Devastatingly, 449 rhinos were poached and killed in South Africa in 2023 and 229 have already been killed in the first half of this year.

At the moment, one rhino is killed every 16 hours.

Dan, who was also was bred and trained at Dogs 4 Wildlife in Carmarthenshire was deployed to KwaZulu Natal in February last year to work as an anti-poaching dog, finding and locating snares in the fight against rhino poaching.

Viola, the rhino calf, who Dan saved was named after Lead Actress Viola Davis was born during the making of  Oscar nominated, ‘The Woman King’ whilst filming on location at in KwaZulu Natal.

‘Viola’, was caught in a snare with her mother nearby… Viola’s mother also had to be sedated for safety reasons. Thankfully, due to the keen eye of Project Rhino’s Anti-Poaching and K9 Unit, together with Dan, Viola was spotted in distress, and the plea for help went out, with the mother and calf saved.

The costs involved in removing a snare from a young Rhino are tremendous, and require helicopter and veterinary assistance. In this instance, both mother and calf needed to be darted from the air with multiple ground support to guide and stabilise both animals.

Illegal hunting of animals and snare poaching is a huge challenge in Southern Africa’s game Reserves.

With more boots and paws across Southern Africa there will continue to be an increase in snares being found and animals being helped which is a HUGE positive but Dogs 4 Wildlife specialist conservation dogs need to be constantly patrolling and further K9 support on the ground is now a matter of urgency.

To help and donate to Dogs 4 Wildlife please visit the Dogs 4 Wildlife website