(N.B. written Nov 2011, but posted here for ease)

Last night we picked up a mortality signal with the telemetry, but it was getting dark and so we were unable to set off on foot to investigate further, and had to wait until this morning.

We arranged for a Field Ranger to accompany us with his gun, and set off at 4am, knowing that at best we would find a dog in serious trouble or at worst a dog that had died.

We set off walking down from the top of the ridge into the river ravine, sliding sideways down the hillside as it was so steep.

We clamboured through the forest, where there was an endless supply of bushes and plants with vicious thorns, and also of ticks of all size, and even at 6am the humidity in the forest was very uncomfortable. We all continued at a pace, intent on locating the dog as soon as possible. Using the telemetry we followed the signal, and then at 6.30pm we found the dog with her two front legs caught in a snare. She was dead.

It was clear that she had fought hard to try to release herself from the wire snare, as the bush area was flattened in a circle around the plant that the snare was attached to, showing how much she had struggled. There was a likelihood that other dogs in the pack had fed her whilst in the snare, but the effort of trying to get out of the snare, and the effort of blood pumping "uphill" as her front legs were up in the air, meant she did not survive.

It was so sad to see the struggle that she had been through, and to know that even this was not the end of the tragedy. When the poachers returned to the snare it was certain that they would either chop off parts of her to take for muthi, or perhaps take the whole dog, even to skin it to sell the skin, or to eat the flesh.

We took photographs for the endangered species records and research, and then set about trying to release her from the snare. It took 3 of us, 20 minutes with two pairs of wire cutters to untangle the taut wire from around her legs, and in places it had cut deep into her leg. Had she been alive when we found her, she would not have survived, as the blood supply to her front legs had been cut off for too long and so would have become gangrenous. Having cut her free, we then moved her body away from the snare and hid it, so that the poacher would not find it.

We switched the telemetry on again, and got signals indicating the direction of each of the dogs in the pack - they were all together, except for one dog. We continued to walk and try to pick up signal for the missing dog, and then after 10 mins we got a resting signal for her, but in a very different direction to the rest of the pack. Something wasn't right. We walked in the direction of the signal, up and down and along the valley, and at 7.30am, an hour after finding the dead dog, we found our second dog in a snare. This time though she was still alive, just. Her eyes were rolling around her head, and yet she still had one last attempt to struggle to release herself, and then she collapsed on the floor, too exhausted and in too much pain to continue. Using a belt we made an adjustable loop and slipped it around her muzzle so that she couldn't bite, and used a fleece to cover her eyes and ears to minimise her distress whilst we tried to release the hind leg that the snare was pulled tight around. With the help of the anti-poaching unit (APU), who by now were combing the area for additional snares, we managed to release the dog from the snare.

We cut open my water bottle to provide a container that we could leave for her to drink from if she recovered consciousness, and began to plan to leave her and move on. The APU then radioed to say that they had found the skin and bones of another dog in the area. We set off walking to the location where the third dog had been found, and at 8.30am we arrived at the location where the remains were. We searched the area and found the spine, the skull, small slivers of bones, small clumps of hair, but no leg bones - the legs had been cut off and taken by the poacher, and probably the skin also. Then we noticed in the grass some small broken fragments of the dog's VHF collar - the poacher had smashed it so it wouldn't work and give away the location, and had taken it away from the scene to dump it. From the few small pieces we were able to identify the specific collar, and confirm that these were the remains of a dog that had gone missing 3 weeks ago.

As we stood there reflecting upon this discovery, and the whole morning, we heard a dog hoo-calling up a hill in the distance. We switched on the telemetry to identify that it was the dog that we had left an hour earlier, so close to death. Now it seemed that she had set off to try to find the rest of her pack. Hoo calling is how each dog lets the pack know where they are, and how they locate the pack, because the pack will call back in reply.

We walked back to the vehicle, almost crawling up the hill as it was so steep, and arrived at the vehicle at 11.15am. Back at camp we showered, and then set off to try to locate the pack, and the injured dog. Wild-dogs hunt in the morning and evening, and rest in the heat of the day, but given the events of the morning, we had not been out monitoring the dogs that morning, and so did not have an idea of location to head to. We worked our way around the reserve in the vehicle trying to get a signal, standing on the roof of the landcruiser in some places to get as high as possible incase it helped. As it started to get dark we got a signal for one of the dogs, then another, and another, so we knew we had a direction for the pack. We worked our way through the collar frequencies, and accounted for all of the pack, except for the injured dog.

As the sun set, the full moon lit up the place in the bush where we were all on the back of the landcruiser, quite despondent. We tried the telemetry a few mores time, and then located a movement signal for the injured dog. We checked the rest of the pack, and they were in a similar direction. We realised that it was very possible that she had located the area that the pack were in, and that they were heading towards each other. 5 minutes later we tried the telemetry again, and got movement signals. 5 minutes later we tried again, and this time we got a resting signal for the injured dog, and also for the rest of the pack, and all in the same location. This brave tough injured dog had somehow managed to travel miles over hills, and across forest, in the heat of the day, as well as in the dark, without food or water - and had located her pack, and was now reunited with them.

For the second time in one day each of the three of us quietly fought back the tears, this time though from emotions of relief, happiness, and admiration. What an amazing survivor. As we drove down the rocky road from the top of the hill, the colour of the moon changed, and for a couple of minutes glowed a magical shade of red. We stopped and watched it in silence, reflecting on the day, and all three of us smiling because there was one happy ending to such a very sad day.