MURAL: Natural community: teak woodlands. Early July, dry season, late afternoon. Foreground: below ground, low, birth chamber cross section. In the den are a mother dog and several pups are visible. One of the pups (Eyespot) has two white spots on his left hind flank. The mother has a snare wire scar on her neck. The tunnel to the birth chamber ascends at about a 45 degree angle and disappears off of the picture well before reaching the surface. At the den entrance is a large, well-spread mound of sand which is evidence of the dogs’ digging and excavating. This sand displays a couple clear examples of dog spoor. Outside the den entrance, a dung beetle with the metallic green carapace is wandering off from a pile of dog faeces with a dung ball. The vegetation immediately around the den entrance is thick with underbrush. Not far from the entrance,,a slender mongoose is foraging looking for scraps of meat. A Charaxes sp swift butterfly flies by about a meter above the ground. Surrounded by sandy soil, a cross section of an ant lion‘s ant trap, with antlion, is visible amongst the depressions of other ant lions. Background: above ground, many tall teak trees have golden brown seedpods on them. Yellow and black-barked Umtshibi (large false mopane) trees have barely noticeable, small, glossy, dark red berries. A tall mukwa tree with no lower limbs, is naked but for its unusual seed pods. In the background, a racket–tailed roller is clearly visible, perched on a tree limb. In the distance, a breeding herd of eight sable (some partially hidden by vegetation) is browsing its way through the forest understory. A flock of five ground hornbills (2 are immature – one partially hidden by vegetation) is also passing through. Up closer, a smaller tree, the large-fruited Bushwillow (Combretum zeyheri) is covered with it unique four winged seed pods. Patches of Panicum grass and tussocky clumps of Aristida grass are dry (? ) (how tall in July?)

Story: It is early July in Hwange National Park and the Zambezi teak trees are in seed. It is halfway through the dry season and the coldest time of year. Eyespot is one of 10 puppies born in the Abakwenyana pack this year. He got his name from the two white spots on each hind flank. His mother, Neck, is the pack’s alpha female, the only female in the pack that ever breeds. Eyespot and his siblings are now 3 weeks old. Today is one of the last days that Neck will stay with her pups and will join the hunt again while her mate, Bobtail, the alpha male, who, in the meantime, has been leading the hunts each morning and evening. Normally, she would stay longer, but, due to many recent deaths in the pack, the number of adults is few and she is needed. The den has only one entrance. It was an abandoned aardvark hole that the pack enlarged.

Can you find? Neck, Eyespot, 9 other puppies, 8 sable, racket-tailed roller, slender mongoose, 5 ground hornbills, Zambezi Teak tree, Mukwa tree, Umtshibi tree, Large-fruited Bushwillow, Swift Butterfly (Charaxes sp), ________ dung beetle

MURAL: Mid-October, mid-morning. Natural Community: Vlei. Bitter end of the dry season. Few trees still have any leaves. What little couch grass (Sinodon) remains is short and there is much barren ground. Foreground: The six or so of the nine puppies run out from the scrubby vlei edge and are greeting the five returning adults excitedly. Some of puppies are eating already regurgitated food. Eyespot and his brother , Arrow, who has a white fletch mark on his right shoulder, are begging from one adult, who is lowering his head as if to be about to regurgitate. Two or three of the pups are still hiding shyly in the brush. One of the returning hunters is about to regurgitate for the begging babysitter. Harvester termites carry pieces of dead grass back to their hole. Background: off in the distance, behind a water hole, a big dead snag with an untidy buffalo weaver nest colony leans over the water. A few red-billed buffalo weavers fly to and from the nests, their white wing patches and red bills barely visible. At the edge of the waterhole are a blacksmith plover and two Egyptian Geese. Well beyond the pack, a breeding herd of elephants crosses the vlei. Two bataleur eagles, male and female, fly far overhead. ,

Story: It is mid-October, the hottest and driest time of the year in Hwange. It is the most difficult season for most wildlife, but the best month for predators like painted dogs. Because the antelope are weak, they are easier to catch, and the dogs can find enough food to raise young. The puppies are now four months old and the pack is no longer based at the den. The pack is now in the beginning of its nomadic phase. The puppies follow the adults until a hunt starts, then, they must stay hidden, cached under a bush until the pack returns. In the meantime, a babysitter is always assigned to keep a watchful eye and making sure the puppies do not stray. The pack has returned from a successful hunt. They killed a duiker antelope and gorged themselves on the meat. Each adult dog now has a belly stuffed with meat. Eyespot and his brother, Arrow, receive a meal from their uncle, who, like all painted dogs, has special muscles in his stomach that allow him to regurgitate precise parcels of meat for the puppies. Painted dogs use many different calls and behaviours to communicate with each other. Eyespot lowers his head and wags his tail while making a special food-begging call to tell his uncle he is hungry. All the dogs in the pack feed, play with and care for the puppies of Neck and Bobtail, the alpha pair.

MURAL: Acacia scrub community. January, wet season, early evening. Seven dogs are chasing a male duiker from right to left. Eyespot is in the fore ground near the rear of the pack. Another dog comes in from the left toward the duiker, who is trying to brake and turn from a full trot, kicking up sand. Background: The spreading crowns of some large camel thorn acacias rise up behind. Two vervet monkeys, watch from an acacia limb in the distance. A rhinoceros beetle is crawling on a nearby branch of a sickle bush on one side of the painting. In the sickle bush is also a crimson-breasted shrike. The sickle bush is in bloom. All is green, leafy and lush. Also on one side, a flame lily is in bloom.

Story: It is January. It has been one and a half years since Eyespot and his siblings were born. During that time, two of his sisters were killed by cars as the pack crossed the Victoria Falls Road. The pack is in its non-breeding nomadic phase, during which it ranges widely on hunts, sleeping in a different spot each day. The remaining puppies are now full sized and join in the hunts. They are not very good hunters yet and contribute little to the success of the hunt. As part of the pack’s hunting strategy to catch the impala, one ? of Eyespot’s aunts heads off the impala from the other direction.

Can you find? Eyespot, Impala, Flame Lily, Two Vervet Monkeys, Camel Thorn Acacia Tree, Sickle Bush, Crimson-breasted Shrike

MURAL: Rural Lands, early morning. February, wet season, the grass is not too high yet. Foreground: Eyespot and his brother, Arrow, are heading toward the viewers right. Eyespot (only) has stopped and is looking back. The rest of the pack watches the departure from afar. Left foreground, a Swainson’s Francolin hides in the grass. A leopard tortoise walks across the bottom of the mural. A striped kingfisher looking down at a grasshopper, hovers about two meters above the ground. In one lower corner, an elephant shrew hides under a small pile of dead wood. Off in distance to right, a rural kraal, with no people visible, but smoke rising from the kitchen hut. Four goats and a scrawny farm dog are visible near the kraal. A large baobab tree is nearby.

Story: It is February, the middle of the rainy season. Almost a year has passed. Only three of Eyespot’s siblings survive. His two remaining sisters left the pack last year and were accepted by a neighbouring pack. Eyespot has helped raise two litters of pups and has become an expert hunter. He and Arrow are ready to start a pack of their own. They leave the Abakwenyana Pack, never to be part of it again, but the dispersal of children from packs is an important part of painted dog behaviour.

Can you find? Eyespot, Arrow, Swanison’s Francolin,Striped Kingfisher, Grasshopper, Farm Dog, Four Goats, Baobab Tree

Story: It is mid March, toward the end of the rainy summer season. Eyespot and Arrow have been living a meagre existence. But now they meet another small pack, the Kansingas, who need hunters. All that remain of the Kansingas are Crescent and two of her children from the previous year. Her mate and all the other members of the pack have been killed by snares, as poaching has increased in recent months. Crescent accepts the new males. This is how new painted dog packs are created. Arrow, who excels at hunting, becomes the new alpha male of the pack.

dung beetle, two spotted hyenas, water lilies, ebony tree, leadwood tree, six Egyptian geese, one wattled plover, three crowned cranes, four white-faced ducks, three red-billed teal, saddle-billed stork, grey heron

struck the new pack. While Crescent lies in the den with 13 new puppies, the other adults have run into a line of snares set by a poacher. Arrow was the first to be caught. When the other dogs came to help him, they were all snared also. All were strangled to death by the tightening wires, except Eyespot. A month ago, the researchers from Painted Dog Conservation darted Eyespot and fit him with a radio collar so they could keep track of the pack’s movements. The collar is designed to prevent injury in case the wearer is snared. With the help of the collar, Eyespot was able to pull the wire loose.

Story: It is early August. A week has passed since the disaster. Eyespot must now hunt alone to try to feed the puppies, while Crescent guards the den. Since painted dog hunting strategy depends on a group of dogs working together, the chances are slim that one lone dog will be able to catch enough to feed Crescent and the puppies. But Eyespot must try his best. Few of his brother’s puppies are likely to survive, but if he can make it, he will become the new alpha male. Today, he has managed to kill a big kudu bull by himself. This heroic feat will give the pack enough to eat for one more day. Because of such unnatural threats to painted dogs as snaring, they have become a critically endangered species.