Firstly the African Wild Dog, as explained in the section named “ What is in a name?” It is one of my favourite animals in terms of beauty, grace , intelligence , cooperation and fascinating group behaviour.
Secondly in the logo the blue curves at the bottom represent the marine environment, both freshwater and the oceans. The marine environment is filled with beauty , grace and spectacle , it can start of with a lonely hippopotamus in a small brown puddle at the end of the dry season under the fierce African sun. It can end with vast blue oceans with breaching great white sharks and orcas hunting those same great white sharks.
And then there is everything in between ranging from waders, crocodiles, African Fish eagle on the prowl to the secretive Pel’s fishing owl hunting under the cover of darkness.
Truly a fascinating and gripping environment!!!!!
Lastly , at the top of the logo, the white curves represent the high and bitterly cold snowcapped mountains, be it Kilimanjaro in Africa or the mighty Himalayas.
These harsh mountains harbour the promise of the elusives – the Snow Leopard, floating effortlessly the Grey Ghost/the Shan offers only fleeting glimpses teasingly before disappearing over the next mountain, leaving its digital pursuers behind exhausted and miserable.Believe me I have been there, that is exactly what the Shan did to me – however in spite of the lack of photographic success it remains a life altering experience.
After some careful deliberation I finally managed to decide on a name. I am very attracted to the carnivores of the natural world. The odds are, if it has fur and teeth – most likely I will really like that predator. In other words – I really like cats and dogs. Finally I decided on the African Wild Dog (Lycaon pictus) – also sometimes called the Painted Wolf.
Reasons for choosing the African Wild Dog includes the following:
a) These animals are regarded as critically endangered – in the 1980’s a continent wide study was conducted in sub-Saharan Africa by George and Lori Frame, the conclusion, only 5000 African wild dogs were present in Africa. These animals are in danger of extinction!!! Reasons include the following:
- Loss of habitat due to an ever expanding population in Africa.
- Human conflict. As the human population and agriculture expands it is inevitable that human-dog conflict will develop. The situation became severly compounded in the time frame from about 1900 until the 1970’s – African Wild Dogs were actively disliked, even hated by game managers, classified as vermin and mercilessly persecuted and shot in their thousands. This point of view is strongly present in the literature of that era eg. Maugham 1914, Hubbard 1954, Bere 1956, and Hunter 1960. However after the landmark study of George and Lori Frame with regard to wild dog numbers, the whole landscape altered. Numerous researchers initiated studies and the whole sentiment around wild dogs changed. Only now it came to light that these beautiful animals are intelligent, highly social, well-organised within their packs, awesome hunters and greatly underrated.
- A third contributing factor to the plight of these animals are their suseptibility to canine diseases such as Rabies and Canine Distemper. These viruses can cause a significant impact and may lead to local extinction. Furthermore the dogs are also susceptible to anthrax caused by Bacillus anthracis.
- Lastly 2 factors that also contribute to wild dog mortality include snaring-dogs can get inadvertently snared in traps set to poach other game for the bushmeat trade. Road accidents can also contribute to wild dog mortality when game areas are bordered or transected by high speed roads.