Tiara Walters Profiles African Wild Dog Conservationists Pat and Roger de la Harpe

Delicate and diminutive, Pat de la Harpe's physicality belies her sizeable bush cred, earned by endlessly haring down roads seized by dust devils and enduring Africa's more pitiless elements. Ask the normally unflappable wildlife writer about the African wild dog's prospects, however, and a film of fluid clouds her eyes and threatens to turn into the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo. "These dogs are in such dire straits," Pat whispers, "and it seems to be getting worse as we speak."
 
Descended from the Canidae family, whose members include jackals, foxes, dingoes and wolves, the wild dog is indeed balancing on the tightrope between survival and extinction. It is the only existing member of the genus Lycaon and, as its Latin name Lycaon pictus (painted wolf) suggests, it is everything but a hound dog. The painted wolf is, in fact, so genetically singular that it cannot interbreed with any of its canid relatives.

• Complete article in the Sunday Times

Book details

• In Search of the African Wild Dog by Roger de la Harpe, Pat de la Harpe
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  EAN: 9781919938110
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