Wildcast

We woke up at the den to a very chilly dawn and the dogs were feeling it too as they still lay huddled together in piles for warmth.

As the sun came up so the wind did too making it all rather unpleasant with dust swirling in ones eyes. How those little puppies survive in the den where there’s a constant storm of very fine dust, I don’t know.

The adults weren’t about to make any serious moves and moved around looking for the warm sunny spots to lie in. But ofcourse the alpha pups couldn’t lie still for too long and were constantly either irritating each other or trying to get BB’s pups to come out and play. But even they weren’t too keen.
But today the alpha pups discovered a new game. Several hooded vultures were walking around the den and the pups discovered they could chase them. Well they thought they could. Running at the birds, the birds took off, and the sudden movement from the birds kept scaring the pups. Until they learnt they had the upper hand and then constantly harassed the vultures. And even when perched in trees several meters off the ground the pups would try and jump at them. (The vultures hang around hoping to pick up pieces of meat regurgitated that the pups might have missed. They also sort through the wild dog faeces)

Oh what fun it is to have such boundless energy. But poor Doby had non of this. She spent most of the day in a hole in the anthill. She has been doing this for a while now, lying with her body in the hole and her head sticking out. I think this is to keep the flies away from her wound on her rump. And very effective it is too. When she did venture from her hole I could see how very thing she is now and how wobbly she is on her feet. Unfortunately I don’t think she can last much longer. She didn’t join the others on the hunt this evening either.

Today BB’s pups were left alone to suckle in peace as the alpha pups were fairly well fed anyway. But they still managed to harass BB when she was suckling her pups.

About half an hour before sunset the dogs headed south west on the hunt. All the adults, except BB and Doby, and all the alpha pups. They did a wide loop to the south west then north. For a while they followed a female giraffe, but not really with any intentions.

Then the adults suddenly bolted off to the north. The pups followed but soon gave up standing around listening. Unfortunately I had to join the ranks of the pups as I too couldn’t keep up with the adults in this rough country. One of the adults joined the pups and they escorted us back to the den arriving soon after dark.

Some time later all the adults returned. But instead of sprinting in to the den, they just arrived. Obviously they didn’t have a successful hunt. The pups were rather exhausted from their little afternoon out and soon themselves had passed out.

The adults will probably go hunting later tonight with the moon waxing now past the half way mark now.