We blew it this morning!
At dawn there was no sign of any dogs at the den. We picked up the alpha male’s signal towards Picannini James but were unable to locate him. While blundering around in the bush we heard a dog’s distress call. A long whoooooo.. We presumed this to be an alpha pup having lost the pack. But again we weren’t able to pick up anything. Not doing very well so far!
In the meantime the alpha male’s signal had headed east and not being too far from the den we raced there by road hoping to arrive ahead of the pack so I could film BB’s pups erupting out the den with their arrival.
But there was no sign of any dogs at the den. We waited………..
We heard twittering to the west and the alpha males signal getting stronger.
We waited………Still no sign.
We heard the twittering again. This time I was sure it wasn’t a bird. Heading west about 300m we found BB’s pups, the alpha pups and a few adults regurgitating food for them. All these dogs were really well fed.
They had managed to feed a fair amount last night before the hyaenas took over but to have bellies this full meant they had killed again this morning. And the sad/silly/stupid thing is they had probably killed and eaten in the time that we had been sitting waiting drinking coffee at the den.
I definitely failed this morning’s exam trying to predict the dogs movements. But they’re also to blame, not having read this mornings script, leaving me with nothing to show for my morning’s efforts. BUT I learnt another lesson: I’ve got plenty of shots of pups piling out the den so next time we must just stick to the dogs no matter what and we should get lucky. After all we got lucky last night keeping on their trail and finding hyaenas having a party at the dogs expense.
With tummies already well stretched the dogs had a lie in this afternoon and hunting was cancelled until they looked more respectable.
BB’s pups too couldn’t get themselves into gear and lay around on the termite mound rolling over each other and down the mound.
The moon is already about a quarter, so there’s a good chance the dogs might head out after dark. Lucky for me, that’ll be my time to sleep off a bulging tummy.
Hi Kim,
Me again, the ant hills that these dogs favour, are they disused ones, is there a particular reason why they choose ant hills to hang around on?
I’ve been trying to keep track of all the dogs names, but lost them along the way, do you have names for them all?
Also if they are Africaan names could you possibly give the meanings behind them, I will always remember TJ’s, “the one that stands alone”.
Loved those beautiful antelopes, fantastic horns and markings, what a sight that must have been.
As for Floppy will his ear ever straighten do you think?
BTW, how is “The Dude” doing these days, getting a bit long in the tooth now I expect, I think of him often with great fondness.
Cheers,
Mo.
Hi Mo
they need a whole in which to have their pups and this can sometimes be in a cave in rocks too. There is another pack on Malilangwe that were denning in a small cavity in the rocks.
they use old antbear holes and modify them themselves.
Still haven’t named all the dogs and we’re working on ID shots of all of them. Once we have them I’ll post them on the site.
For now the dog names are:
Adults - Alpha male, Alpha female, BB, Sash, One-eye, Whisky, Ntombi (Zulu, means little girl), Toffee, and a female.
Alpha pups - Skrik (Afrikaans to get a fright) (named by Lindy), Browny (named by Penny) and 4 others
BB pups - Floppy, Split and 4 others
I think Floppy’s ear had the ligaments damaged when he was a tiny pup and being dragged around by the alpha pups. So no I don’t think it will ever heal. And Split has one of his ears split/torn probably from the same treatment.
Tjololo is still doing well so I”m told. But getting on. Of course he’ll always rule!
Cheers
Kim
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