Updated ranges of the Vulnerable cheetah and Endangered African wild dog in Angola


P EDRO MONTERROSO,FILIP E ROCHA,S TEF A N VAN WYK,TELMO ANTÓN I O MILCÍADES CHI C OMO,SELMA KOS MAS,FERNAND A L AGES E ZEQUIEL FABIANO and RAQUEL GODI N H O


Abstract The civil unrest that ravaged Angola for nearly 30 years took a heavy toll on the country’s wildlife, and led to a lengthy absence of reliable information for many threatened species, including the cheetah Acinonyx jubatus and African wild dog Lycaon pictus. Using camera trapping we assessed the status of these two species in two areas of southern Angola, and complemented our findings by reviewing re- cent survey reports and observations to provide an up- date on the species’ status. We found unequivocal evidence that African wild dogs are resident and reproducing in Bicuar National Park, where cheetahs appear to be absent. Conversely, cheetahs may be resident in western Cuando Cubango province, where African wild dogs may only be transient. Based on these and other recent records in Angola, we recommend a revision of these species’ distribu- tion ranges and note the need formonitoring of these remnant populations and for appropriate attention to any threats.


Keywords Acinonyx jubatus, Angola, cheetah, conservation status, distribution, Lycaon pictus, African wild dog, southern Africa


Supplementary material for this article is available at doi.org/10.1017/S0030605319000966


espite Angola’s high biodiversity, the political unrest during 1975–2002 took a heavy toll on its wildlife, which suffered from widespread poaching and bushmeat


D PEDRO MONTERROSO (Corresponding author, 3651), FILIPE ROCHA*, SELMA KOSMAS† and RAQUEL GODINHO*‡ (


orcid.org/0000-0002-7911- orcid.org/


0000-0002-4260-4799) Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, Universidade do Porto, Campus de Vairão, R. Padre Armando Quintas, Vairão, 4485-661, Portugal E-mail pmonterroso@cibio.up.pt


STEFAN VANWYK Cuatir Private Reserve, Cuangar, Angola


TELMO ANTÓNIO,MILCÍADES CHICOMO and FERNANDA LAGES Instituto Superior de Ciências da Educação da Huíla, Lubango, Angola


EZEQUIEL FABIANO Department of Wildlife Management and Ecotourism, University of Namibia, Katima Mulilo, Namibia


*Also at: Departamento de Biologia, Faculdade de Ciências, Porto, Portugal †Also at: Department of Wildlife Management and Ecotourism, University of Namibia, Katima Mulilo, Namibia ‡Also at: Department of Zoology, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa


Received 12 March 2019. Revision requested 13 June 2019. Accepted 7 August 2019. First published online 12 February 2020.


hunting (Huntley, 2017). Although little is currently known about the status and trend of most Angolan wildlife popu- lations, iconic and threatened species such as the cheetah Acinonyx jubatus and African wild dog Lycaon pictus are presumed to have suffered drastic declines and range con- tractions (Woodroffe & Sillero-Zubiri, 2012;Durantetal., 2015). However, the Angolan government has recently shown signs of political will to improve knowledge of the country’s biodiversity, including for the large carnivore species. Globally, the African wild dog and cheetah are categor-


ized as Endangered and Vulnerable, respectively, on the IUCN Red List because of population declines, range loss and the fragmentation of populations (Woodroffe & Sillero-Zubiri, 2012; Durant et al., 2015). Although historical records indicate that both species formerly occurred widely in Angola (Beja et al., 2019), the majority of the country is currently classified as unknown range for both species (Fig. 1; IUCN/SSC, 2015). Updated knowledge about the dis- tribution, abundance and population dynamics of both spe- cies, and any threats, is required for conservation planning. Under the scope of ongoing institutional research and


advanced training programmes, we surveyed c. 360 km2 in Bicuar National Park, which lies in the transition between the Angolan Miombo Woodlands and Zambezian baikiaea woodlands ecoregions (Olson et al., 2001) in the province of Huíla, and c. 300 km2 in Cuatir Private Reserve in western Cuando Cubango province, along the Cuatir river, one of the main tributaries of the Cubango (Okavango) river on its Angolan side, also in the Zambezian baikiaea woodlands ecoregion (Olson et al., 2001). Wedeployed camera-trapping stations uniformly spaced


at c. 2 km in the core of each study area using three camera-trap models: Hyperfire HC600 and HF2XHyperfire 2 (Reconyx, Holmen, USA), and Cuddeback Model 1231 (Cuddeback, De Pere, USA). Fifty-one camera traps were deployed in Bicuar National Park during July 2017–June 2018 (Supplementary Fig. 1), and 43 traps in Cuatir Private Reserve during June–December 2018 (Supplementary Fig. 2). Cameras were inspected every 2 months. Additional records were obtained in Cuatir Private Reserve from unstructured surveys with six camera traps (Moultrie MP8, EBSCO Industries Inc., Birmingham, USA) during August 2013– December 2018. Additional recent records of the cheetah and African wild dog in Angola were obtained by reviewing surveys reports and the Global Biodiversity Information


Oryx, 2020, 54(6), 851–853 © 2020 Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605319000966


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