Where is Laikipia?
Laikipia is in northern Kenya, north of Mount Kenya. It borders Samburu to the north and Isiolo to the north-east. Its ranches, farms and community lands form part of a wider landscape used by wild dogs; the Samburu-Laikipia Wild Dog Project works across Laikipia, Samburu and Isiolo.
How large is the region?
Laikipia County covers 9,462 square kilometres, according to the county government. This is the administrative county area, not a protected park or the full range of the wild dogs monitored across neighbouring counties.
How many wild dogs live here?
Around 80–90 wild dogs in nine packs: Mpala Research Centre reports this recovery in its account of results between 2018 and 2024, with most dogs living on community lands. The Samburu-Laikipia Wild Dog Project works across Laikipia, Samburu and Isiolo in the wider Ewaso ecosystem. This is a project-landscape population figure, rather than a census restricted to Laikipia County or a new 2026 count.
What does the monitoring record show?
Mpala’s Darwin Initiative final report dates the recovery more precisely: two packs in January 2022 increased to nine packs by December 2024 (section 3.2). That is more than a fourfold increase in monitored pack numbers. The report provides a pack-based recovery measure; the 80–90 individual figure comes from Mpala’s project summary, not an assumed conversion from average pack size.
How does that compare with the 2017 collapse?
Mpala describes roughly 200 wild dogs in Laikipia County falling to one surviving female during the 2017 canine distemper epidemic. The final project report describes two solitary survivors in the well-studied core of the wider Ewaso ecosystem, where 20 packs had lived before the outbreak. These accounts use different geographic boundaries. The subsequent increase from two to nine packs documents renewed recovery, rather than simply repeating a pre-outbreak population figure.
Why is Laikipia important?
Laikipia demonstrates that wild dogs can live outside national parks, alongside livestock and communities. Long-term research has shown how attentive herding can reduce livestock losses and retaliation. The population’s collapse also shows why disease prevention matters: domestic dog vaccination and coexistence work protect both local livelihoods and the conditions for wild dog recovery.
Published sources describe different boundaries and survey dates. These figures are not a new census by Wilderness Again.