They’re back! All is well at the wild dog den.
At dawn the pups were all over the place in their 2 groups of alpha pups and BB pups. Play was the main agenda. Of course no change there. The adults were about resting and although they had hunted successfully there weren’t that well fed. Subsequently the pups were in much the same dilemma but this didn’t affect the serious business of play that they were involved in.
I had a good morning picking up a few little gem sequences of BB suckling her little ones while standing in the lovely dawn light. Adults running in to feed the BB pups and alpha pups tumbling and playing with BB’s pups. As you can see the BB pups are always the centre of attention whether they like it or not. These guys are growing up tough!
At dusk there was a whole new spin on this happy activity at the den. Everyone heading out hunting to the north, including BB’s pups. It was the first time that had ventured this far from the den, about 400m.
This had the adults into a funk. What were they going to do now? They could handle the alpha pups following as they were much bigger. But these little guys were really pushing their luck and who knows if they even knew the way back to the den from this 400m.
Eventually BB was left to handle this dilemma. She called the pups and they followed her back towards the den. But the calls also brought the Alpha female back and she bit and nipped BB into submission. That was the end of BB’s plans. This happened a couple of times until BB just lay down in desperation while her pups milled around.
The rest of the pack had moved on north except for an alpha pup that lost the rest of her 6-pack while she was playing with BB’s pups.
Having been left behind the alpha pup seemed to take matters into her own hands and took on the responsibility of baby sitter. She stayed with the pups while they milled around and then amazingly the little guys made their own way back to the den with the alpha pup following. It was now dark.
The whole time the alpha pup was in 2 minds whether to leave the pups and look for the 6-pack but she just didn’t know where they had gone.
In the mean time BB, seeing her pups to be safe in the care of the alpha pup, snuck off and headed north in search of the rest of the pack. She was too hungry to stay behind and baby sit her little ones.
Impala Lilly. These very pretty flowers are also deceiving. I usually invite anybody new in the field with me to pick a flower and taste the nectar. Of course it must be delicious. It actually has an extremely bitter taste that dries out your mouth and leaves the poor victim spitting furiously. Just one of those cheap kicks we get in the bush.
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