Field updates: Botswana, June – July 2025

Graduate student Marie-Pier Poulin scans for animal tracking collars in the Okavango Delta. Photo credit: Leigh West

In mid-June, PhD candidate Leigh West, postdoctoral researcher Dr. Kasim Rafiq, and graduate student Marie-Pier Poulin arrived at Dog Camp, the Botswana-based bush camp of our long-term collaborators Wild Entrust’s Botswana Predator Conservation. Over the past month, we have been tracking and monitoring African wild dog packs fitted with animal-worn GPS and accelerometer collars. We’re also filming lions fitted with GPS collars to match observed behaviors—like resting, walking, or feeding—with acceleration data recorded by the collars. We’re using these data to train AI models to translate behavior signatures within the tracking collars that allow us to see what the animals are doing, even when we’re not with them. This information will help us glean how Africa’s changing climate affects carnivore behavior.

In collaboration with the Botswana Predator Conservation team, we have also been counting wild dog pups as they emerge from the den to track survival rates, and documenting all sightings of large carnivores—including identifying all individuals by their unique spot or whisker patterns—to contribute to the long-term monitoring of these species in the region.