African wild dog Teardrop makes a full recovery from a gunshot wound with the support of her pack. Wild dog expert Cole du Plesis has discovered that African wild dogs recover from serious injury more successfully when accompanied by pack members.
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TRANSCRIPT
(car engine growling) - [Narrator] One fateful day, Cole received a call about a badly injured dog that was affectionately nicknamed Teardrop.
- One day the pack had left a protected area, and came in contact with the farmer that opened fire on them, and shot several pack members.
- [Narrator] The dogs were shot simply because they ventured onto the farmer's land.
- The gunshot wound had come through her front left leg and exited just below her chest here.
- [Narrator] But how would Cole prevent Teardrop from suffering the fatal consequences of broken heart syndrome?
- [Cole] We opted to take the surviving pack members and treat her with them, but she had to undergo six or eight months worth of rehabilitation before she could, you know, once again put weight on her leg and on her chest.
- [Narrator] By keeping other pack members that were rescued with Teardrop by her side throughout her recovery, she had the emotional support that she needed.
- We've seen some very horrific injuries before, but you know, this recovery was just quite remarkable to say the least.
- [Narrator] Today is a big day for Teardrop.
Having been carefully sedated, she and her pack are moving to a new safer home in a protected national park.
And they get to travel in their own private plane.
(airplane engine growling) Since Cole and his team made their remarkable discovery, every single critically injured wild dog rescued with healthy pack members has made a full recovery.
And been successfully returned to the wild.
(hyenas squeaking) Every single wild dog that's saved plays a critical role in the survival of this highly endangered, emotionally intelligent species.
