Wildcast

It was a quiet day at the wild dog den with the normal goings on. The Alpha female continues to show more and more interest in BB’s pups.

By the end of the day I hadn’t shot any video and only taken a number of photos. It seemed like one of those days again, of which we have many.

As the sun set I snuggled into my sleeping bag as the temperature dropped dramatically. Well so it seems for us Africans. Us wimps just can’t handle the cold you know.

It was only now the dogs decided to get active and headed south east. We followed. Yes, in our sleeping bags. We’ve mastered the art of driving in our sleeping bag just to keep warm.

The pups didn’t follow, leaving the adults to go about their business of hunting in a more professional manner. The going wasn’t bad and we kept up with them for the first hour all cross country. Then we popped out on the Binya road at Three Baobabs. Here the dogs took a breather for half an hour before hunting on to the west.

Suddenly they were all frantic sniffing all over the place. There were scats of the other wild dog pack in the area which didn’t please them. They continued in this manner through some totally impenetrable bush and deep gullies where we had to throw in the towel.

Taking our chances we continued west and waited near Nhoro pan. Sure enough the dogs popped out there still heading west. And they didn’t drink at the pan. In all the time I’ve been with the dogs I haven’t seen them drink yet. They’re obviously getting all the moisture they need from their kills.

We continued west into the Kanyeni savannah area. And still the only animal we had seen since leaving the den was one scrub hare. Then a lone wildebeest bull trotted away from the wild dogs across this open area. He wasn’t really too concerned. Of course it was now dark and had been for the last 3 hours, but the moon was almost full.

Then suddenly we spotted eyes on the horizon. Plenty of them. The dogs had already seen them and before I could get out of first gear they dogs were already at full pace towards the eyes, a herd of impala. They took them by surprise and disappeared over the small rise. As we came over the top we found they had just caught a young female. The dogs were already feeding frantically as we raced into our positions to film the event. Barend had the lights on the action and in my vehicle I positioned myself to back light the kill. Jumping up behind the camera, still in my sleeping bag, is a sight to behold. How I don’t fall out the vehicle, is a miracle.

And it wasn’t even 5 minutes and the dogs had not only killed the antelope but had actually devoured it too leaving only a few bones.

Wild dogs have always been accused of being cruel killers, but they kill far faster than lions or leopards with their prey dying in less than a minute of being caught. They are highly supreme hunters.

Having done their task, and fed, there was no reason for the wild dogs to hang around and they took off back to the den at a serious pace running all the way. We couldn’t keep up. Even using the available tracks the dogs got to the den about 5 minutes before us and had already fed the pups.

All in all this was about a 20km round trip that was just another outing for the dogs. They have such incredible stamina and it’s amazing how they can travel these vast distances. Sometimes even twice a day.

So in the end we got lucky as this was the first kill I had seen this pack actually make. Hopefully there will be more to come but the terrain and dense bush will always be a great challenge to us and our vehicles. This is not the casual walk in the park of filming wild dogs on the open plains of east Africa, this is a challenge that will be testing us for the next 12months or more.