Wildcast

It’s always a tense time going back to one’s film subjects having been away for a few days. Life is so hard out in the wilds of Africa that anything can happen as all animals struggle to survive.

Arriving at the Wild Dog den at dawn masses of vultures were scattered in trees in the area. This is always a bad sign. Were they after Doby’s carcass or had another dog died? Hopefully they had just come to roost joining the few hooded vultures that hang out at the den looking for any little titbit left over from the dogs.

Well all was well with the dogs. Doby’s carcass was still lying there untouched except for it having decayed.

The adults were just back from a successful hunt, faces red with blood and the pups well fed. With belly’s full activities had been cancelled for the morning.

BB’s pups had grown considerably in the last few days and were now fully agile running around like bloated ticks on legs. Their ears too were all now erect, having been floppy for the last 4 weeks. They were now beginning to look like wild dogs, except for one pup which had to take on the name “Floppy”, as its one ear was totally floppy. Floppy seems to be quite a character. So keep tuned to see the latest on Floppy’s development.

In the afternoon life had returned to the pack. BB continues to be abused at suckling times with the alpha pups still taking advantage of her last remaining days of milk. She’s already showing signs of drying up.

So it’s a good thing her pups are a lot more agile and able to sprint to any adult offering food where they have to wrestle with the alpha pups for a meal.

At sunset the adults headed east on the hunt towards Picanini James where there are usually good numbers of impala. By nightfall they were still out hunting and we had to call it a day.

But there were only 9 adults out on the hunt. Fila, a yearling male, was missing. A few weeks ago he had lost the tip of his tail, but only the last few inches. Could this have got badly infected? He also had a sore back left foot but this shouldn’t have been a cause for concern as he was able to use.

Maybe Fila had stayed behind to look after the pups.