The George Adamson Wildlife Preservation Trusts, through their Field Director Tony Fitzjohn, were invited in July 1988 by the Tanzanian Government to establish a rehabilitation programme for the African Wild Dog (Lycaon pictus) involving capture, captive breeding and reintroduction. The African Wild Dog is an extremely endangered species. Its existence is threatened by diseases, large predators (lions and hyenas), and man. Because of lack of game the dogs tend to get close to human settlements. As a consequence they are either poisoned or come in close contact with domesticated dogs. As the African Wild Dog is extremely susceptible to diseases transmitted by the domesticated dog (distemper, rabies and parvo virus), many of them die as a result from infection with these viruses.