A pack of African wild dogs has completed a record-breaking 2,485-mile (4000km) journey across Zambia.

🌐 Here's What Happened

Scientists say it is the furthest recorded distance for any African land mammal searching for a mate, offering hope that wildlife can travel across vast distances despite growing human pressures.

The three brothers zigzagged across Zambia, navigating a landscape increasingly shaped by people and avoiding obstacles including major cities.

However, other wild dogs tracked with GPS collars in the study died in illegal snares, underlining the dangers they face.

📌 Key Details

Spreading human communities break up their once-vast roaming grounds

Three sisters almost completed an equally epic journey, but stopped when one became trapped in a snare.

African wild dogs are among Africa's rarest predators, with only about 6,000 remaining in the wild.

They live in highly social packs, hunt together and are known for their vast roaming in search of new territory and breeding opportunities with other packs.

They cannot breed within the pack they are born into, so they either wait and may eventually inherit their pack, or set off at the age of two or three in search of a mate.

The brothers covered about 260 miles in a straight line over the course of eight months, but travelled nearly 10 times that overall while crossing through a broken-up landscape.

📰 Source: BBC Africa