The main objective of the The Zululand Wild Dog Conservation and Management Programme is to improve the conservation status of wild dogs in Southern Africa. Other objectives are:

• To continue to determine the status and pack forming dynamics of wild dogs in HUP, especially the wild dogs reintroduced in 1997 and 2001.
• To determine, by collaborating with other researchers, the role lions and spotted hyaenas play in the conservation of wild dogs in small conservation areas.
• To determine the status of wild dog conservation outside HUP in KwaZulu-Natal.
• To continue to foster positive relations with local communities through communication, education and capacity building initiatives with regard to wild dogs and other carnivore conservation issues.
• To raise awareness of the links between conservation and tourism and specifically the tourism value of wild dogs - thus promoting a positive image to support their conservation.
• To contribute, through the IUCN Wild Dog Action Group meetings, to the planning of the wild dog metapopulation.

Numbers of wild dogs, Lycaon pictus, are declining and approximately 4500 wild individuals survive in protected areas in Africa. The only viable population of wild dogs in South Africa is in the Kruger National Park although introductions have been made to three other reserves in this country. Wild dogs are one of only three mammals in South Africa that are endangered. After an absence from KwaZulu-Natal of about fifty years, 22 wild dogs were reintroduced into Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Park (HUP) in 1981. This release was successful but numbers declined after 1993.

Following recommendations by the wild dog biologists and approval by KZN Wildlife more wild dogs were released into HUP in 1997. This was to enable the population to become part of the proposed Southern African Metapopulation. Besides these successes in awareness

The Zululand Wild Dog Conservation and Management Programme have also learned a great deal about wild dog reintroductions and this has greatly contributed to their conservation. We now have a better understanding of pack formation in bomas and the integration of introduced dogs into existing wild dog packs. The project has for the first time monitored the formation of a new pack consisting of existing and reintroduced wild dogs - obviously extremely important for their conservation.