A pilot scientific population survey is being held in certain districts of Tongatapu, starting on October 2-6 that could help determine the island’s dog population, now estimated to be around 20,000.

Named Project Kuli (dogs), the scientific dog population survey and mass spay/neuter project is carried out by the South Pacific Animal Welfare (SPAW), after signing a MOU with Dogs Trust Worldwide.

The project's aim is to stabilize the canine population in the northern and western areas of Tongatapu.

Dr. Glenn Aguilar from the School of Environmental and Animal Sciences of the Unitec Institute of Technology in Auckland, said today their survey would count dogs, outside of houses and roaming around. 

“We use a car moving slowly through the road and count dogs using a combination of manual counting, photos and an app called Collector for ArcGIS where we can plot location points of the dogs,” he said.

Later in the laboratory, the data will be processed to provide the statistics and results such as density and dogs per kilometre per road type.

He said, they do not survey every household, because this would require significant resources, although people had been helpful in telling them how many dogs they have.

The data collected will be analyzed and provide the basis for resourcing and tracking the outcomes of the mass spay/neuter clinics. 

Two staff from the Ministry of Agriculture (MAFFF) are assisting the survey and so far they have covered Ha'atafu to Fo'ui.

Dr. Glenn Aguilar thanked Dogs Trust Worldwide and MAFFF for working together over the past three years to implement the campaign.

Meanwhile, the first SPAW clinic for Project Kuli will be in March 2020, then in April and May, while clinics in August and December will provide follow-through services.