The pups actually are are great fun though. They spend a course of hours and hours playing and and um one dog will every day have to sleep near the pups cuz someone’s got to make sure that they don’t do goofy things. Snares. And now the snares that are set for painted dogs, they’re like a noose, a wire noose that’s set like this at about that height. They’re very cleverly disguised. And then they use branches and grass to hide them. You can’t see them. It just closes and it gets tighter and tighter and tighter and tighter until the animal’s strangled. And it’s a very horrible, miserable way to go.
Basically, the collars are going to work like this. The animal gets um snared, the wire goes here, and if the wire is catches in here, basically the dog will not get caught. So, the wire catches on this metal plate. The dogs, incidentally, is so strong, they always break the wire. And we’ve had domestic dogs testing these collars, and it 90% of the time it’s catching the wire. Until
I started working with painted dogs, nobody knew that they looked after they’re sick and they’re weak and they’re injured because they’ve got this incredible social system where every dog helps every other dog. But I remember a pack a lion mauled one of my young a young dog. And lo and behold, three months later, the pack dragged that dog away. They licked his wounds clean. They looked after him. And I’m like, what other species in the wild does this? Actually takes care of their sick. I had a dog I I called him Miguelan. And Miguelan was like was the run of the litter. But the pack didn’t treat him like the run. He always was given as much food by the rest of the pups.
And when he was an adult, he was always lost on the hunts. But when he came late on the hunt, they they’d give him food. When it came to babysitting time, guess who got the job? You know, Miguel was the babysitter. And they’re just so good at switching roles, switching jobs. The other thing is that they never fight. You never see arguments within the pack ever. You know, they’ve got these enormous ears, the great big big ears, and this will make Mickey Mouse jealous, you know, exceptional. And when they’re running, when they’re running on on a chase, they keep their ears forward. Now, you think they flap them back for speed, but if you’re going to overheat, and the ears actually catch the air that they’ve got almost like a fan running when they’re running. And and the reason they’re called painted dogs, of course, is because no two are the same. an exceptional camouflage.
So, raising money for these collars to keep some packs alive, at least as many as we can. To raise you, one of these collars as it is, it be about $250. For about $500, we’ll be able to have the same thing, but with good electronics in that will really say where you were, what you’re doing. With the solar power on here, these collars will almost last for six or seven years and still be giving information. So, we need to know where these animals are going, even where they’re picking up the snares and say no more building in that area or we can’t have that highway going through there. We need to know how they’re using the landscape. And we need these things. We’d like your help to raise money for these collars and for the dogs because wildlife doesn’t have a voice. The dogs don’t have a voice. They need our voice. And I’d like to thank Endangered Species Revenge for their help in taking the voice of the painted dog to you, the audience.
African poachers hide thousands of deadly snares every day to catch antelope – but beautiful, endangered painted dogs suffer horrible deaths when they are caught by these snares instead.
Dr. Greg Rasmussen has designed a cutting-edge collar to save the last 4,500 dogs – who have one of Earth’s most incredible social systems.
