New Aspinall African Painted Pups
Awesome news coming through from the Port Lympne Wildlife Park, as a brand new litter of eight African painted pups appeared for the first time in the UK for five years! Obviously this breed of wild dog don’t mate as often as other species, but five years seems like a long time!
The litter are now 12 weeks old and consists of five males and three females. The mother is called Spot Tail, and she holds a very special place in the heart of the Aspinall Foundation’s keepers, as she was hand raised by them after her mother died after giving birth. Spot Tail was in labour for a number of hours (I’m not surprised with eight!), and luckily the park’s keepers had the chance to monitoring the event using CCTV cameras. You can check out the footage of the birth and some of the early behaviour of the animals on the YouTube video below.
Head of Large Carnivores, Richard Barnes, said –
We’re all delighted to welcome the pups, they are strong, healthy and playful but their mum and dad do a great job at keeping them in line. It’s fantastic to see Spot Tail now a mother herself – she didn’t have the best start in life and we all helped to hand raise her – she nearly died three times during those early days because she was the runt of the litter. She has always been treated as the lowest member of the pack by her siblings but suddenly decided to assert herself and become a dominant female – she will stay with her mate Tatu for life now and any future offspring will be raised by the whole pack. Watching the footage it was amazing to see the father carefully carrying the newborns so that they could suckle – the CCTV provided us with a rare insight into den behaviour and the close bond between African painted dog pairs. They really are a unique and special species.
The African painted dogs are endangered in the wild, with only an estimated 3000 left on the planet. They are amazing hunters, but due to disease and human conflict their number are now dangerously low. Here’s hoping that this breeding programme at the Port Lympne Park will ensure the species a long and fruitful life in the future.
If you would like to support their work, why not adopt an animal with the Aspinall Foundation? There’s a great selection to choose from on our dedicated charity page, with your small monthly donation helping to save the lives on endangered animals all over the globe.