The Guardian ·
‘Like a Disney movie’: Three wild dog brothers make Africa’s longest journey
It sounds like a Disney movie: three wild dogs, all brothers, on an epic journey to find a home of their own after their family tells them to leave. They dodge cars and hunters in search of a new life, navigating bushmeat snares and the hostility of a human-dominated landscape until they find a new haven on the African savannah.
But this is exactly what happened in Zambia last year, when three endangered African wild dogs made the longest-ever recorded single journey of any mammal from the continent. The brothers travelled more than 2,500 miles (4,100km) over eight months in their “dispersal” – when a young dog comes of age and must establish new territory to find a mate and start a family of their own.
From point to point, starting in Kafue national park in western Zambia to their final destination in the Luangwa valley in the east of the country, the brothers covered 340 miles (546km), which is also a record.