The African Wild Dog is an iconic species to not only the African Savannah, but the entire world. But the population is rapidly declining. In 2000, there were well above 500,000 Wild Dogs left. Right now, there are just 2,000 to 5,000. They have disappeared from 25 of the 39 African countries they were known to exist in. According to the African Wildlife Foundation, the main risk and decline of Wild Dogs has been due to farmers blaming them for ruining crops after a leopard or hyena eats their harvest. The sudden endangerment of the Wild Dog has been approached by the African government with the classic tactics. Educate the communities, monitor the population, and protect them from humans. This may work, but we need a failsafe in case it doesn’t. The best failsafe is an insurance population. An insurance population is a group of endangered animals kept in captivity so that if the wild population dies off, the insurance population can rebuild their species. The international zoo in Washington DC, the Smithsonian National Zoological Park, does not have an insurance population of African Wild Dogs. The Smithsonian Zoo Park is possibly the most capable zoo in America to take on an insurance population of African Wild Dogs. The Zoological Park has resources, funds, and time to protect this species. We can convince them to through this petition. So will you help save the African Wild Dogs?