Wildcast

Arriving at the den this morning before sunrise we had a panic attack! There was no sign of any dogs. No dogs at the den or in the vicinity. BB’s pups are far too young to be following the adults on the hunt even if it is just for the first few hundred meters.

Eventually we picked up the adults, but only them. They were hunting in the recently burnt area to the west of the Binya road. This was a controlled management burn.

The one female, Toffee, had bloodstains on her neck but otherwise it didn’t look as if any of the adults had fed. Although the area was burnt there were still many impala around but the adults weren’t having any luck and as it got warm they rested up near the site of the kill yesterday, the one that was taken by the leopard. There was no sign of the kill in the tree today. Presumably the leopard had eaten most of it and dropped the scraps that the hyaena would have polished off.

Leaving them we just had to check on the den again. And sure enough those naughty little fellows were all there lying around looking rather hungry.
Some of the adults returned later but not BB and 2 others.
They were all looking rather lean and before sunset headed out hunting. But this time BB’s pups joined in on the hunt. Probably ‘cos their mother wasn’t there.

As they left the den the bumped into the same herd of zebra as yesterday. The alpha pups gave them the once over but didn’t hang around and were soon back in line on the hunt, this time with BB’s pups to hassle on their way.
This was a huge adventure for the BB pups. They’d never ventured more than about 400m from the den and now they headed off about 1.5kms following after the adults and alpha pups. With BB being away the Alpha female took charge of BB’s pups. She constantly hung back checking on them.

The sun had just set when the pack trotted past a warthog burrow. At that moment a warthog came bolting out the hole and in a cloud of dust streaked past the dogs taking them totally by surprise, sending them scattering and barking alarm calls in all directions. The pups were out of there! Some of the adults eventually came to a stop and all stood around in bewilderment wondering what apparition had sent mass panic into the pack. After some time they sniffed around the area and seemed to settle their minds once picking up the scent of the warthog.

It was now almost dark and the alpha pups started heading home taking BB’s pups with them. The other dogs headed on west. But the Alpha female turned back and followed the pups at a distance as if checking that her pups had the situation under control.

The Alpha male joined them too and the return party came to a standstill. BB’s pups all collapsed in a pile while the alpha pups ran around playing with the 2 adults resting nearby too.

Well after dark we left them all resting about a km from the den.
Is this going to be it, the final move away from the den? How is BB going to find them when she returns from the hunt?

These army ants were returning from a successful when I nearly drove over the hunting column about 5m long with hundreds of ants. Most of them were carrying several termites in their jaws having raided a nearby termite mound. So the war goes on even in this tiny world!