The WDP looks to link social and ecological approaches to conservation, working closely with people - ultimately trying to find ways of optimising benefits from African wild dogs through tourism, while understanding their ecology and conservation threats within the actual and potential conflict zone. The African wild dog (Lycaon pictus) is both Africa's and Namibia's most endangered large mammal and one of the world's most endangered carnivores. Wild dogs represent a challenge for modern conservation because viable populations require vast areas to persist - yet Africa's rising human population offers, in most regions, smaller and smaller areas for wildlife conservation.