Three African wild dog brothers traveled 4,126 kilometers, or about 2,560 miles, across Zambia after leaving their birth pack in search of new territory. Researchers say the tracked route is the longest recorded dispersal by an African mammal.
The brothers left the Mayukuyuku Pack in Kafue National Park in 2025. GPS collars followed their movements as they crossed a landscape of protected areas, roads, rivers and human settlements. By April 2026, the dogs had reached a new range in the Luano Game Management Area in the Luangwa Valley ecosystem, according to a study published in the journal Ecology.
The distance describes the route the dogs traveled, which repeatedly wound through the landscape. The straight-line distance between their starting and ending points was much shorter. Their journey nevertheless shows how far young wild dogs may move as they seek places to settle and potential mates.
Dispersal is part of the species’ social behavior. African wild dog packs are hierarchical, and typically only the dominant pair breeds. Younger or subordinate animals may leave their family group rather than remain in the pack, traveling until they can form or join a breeding group elsewhere.
The study followed movements by multiple dispersing groups, not only the three brothers. Researchers reported that the recorded journeys covered thousands of kilometers through Zambia and neighboring countries. Such movements suggest that populations separated by large distances may still be linked by routes that animals can cross.
Those routes are increasingly difficult to navigate. The dogs crossed roads and developed areas, and other tracked animals faced hazards including wire snares set for bushmeat hunting. Habitat fragmentation can isolate wildlife populations, limiting the chances that animals will reach unrelated mates and establish new packs.
African wild dogs are endangered, and their survival depends on more than protecting individual parks. Researchers involved in the study say the animals need connected landscapes that allow them to move between protected areas and community-managed lands. The Zambia-based research team used GPS tracking to document where the dogs traveled and identify the broad corridors their movements revealed.
The brothers’ long route is an exceptional record, but the researchers say it also demonstrates that connections between some wildlife strongholds remain possible. Protecting those connections could help wild dogs find mates, maintain genetic exchange between packs and recolonize areas where populations have declined.
Sources: The study in Ecology; Reuters; The Guardian.