Wild Dogs lose their identity: Video
Published by Wildcaster 2 years ago Tags: africa, animal kingdom, blogumentary, christmas, cites, conservation, documentary, education, elephants, endangered species, flickr, giraffe, GLTP, gonarezhou, Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, hunting, IUCN Red List, kill, lions, malilangwe, mashable, narrowcasting, Open Content Alliance, pamushana, peace parks, photos, polls, predators, teach, video, waterhole, wild dogs, wildcasting, wildlife, wildlife documentary, youtube, zimbabwe.It was a day of taking stock.
Having been out the bush for 2 days I spent the morning taking stock to see where all my movie stars were hanging out.
Mandlovu, Chipfongwe and the herd spent most of their day around Chikwelane in the thick bush near the hills. This bull was oblivious to my presence crouched under this tree stump right next to his mud wallow.
In the heat of the day, over 40C (109F), I was running around looking for lions. They were southeast of Banyini and feeling much the same as me in the heat.
And then I was lucky enough to pick up the wild dogs at Matsanga pan after a walk to the top of Sosigi hill.
At first I wasn’t sure they were our dogs as I couldn’t recognise them they were so covered in mud.
When they headed off hunting I was only able to count 19, instead of 21. Some of them were in the bush when I counted, so I hope I missed the other 2. But I also didn’t see BB. I really hope she is still there. The last time I saw her, her stiff leg seemed to be giving her a lot of pain.
They hunted successfully killing 2 baby impala and an adult female. This female was again killed on the fence line.
I’ll be out first thing in the morning checking if all pack members are there.
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Kim, how great to see the dogs again! Its been a while, too long. The very first part of the video the dogs look really “old” or rather worse for the wear so to speak. Is this just because of the mud?
I am wondering are the wild dogs in danger of heartworm disease in africa? And something else. when you or the park come across a dead animal, say one of the dogs died do you do a neocrapsy on the remains, if you get a chance? I assume most of the time the bodies are consumed by others, but you must come across newly dead animals. I also read back some time ago the guest blogger that you had post about their experience with you. How did this come about? was it someone just on a safari? Or did they come just to hang out with you? Hope you had a great couple of days off. And glad you’re back on the dogs trail
Paige
Hi Paige
This is Kathy writing to you — I was the “guest blogger” back in August 2006. I work with Kim although I’m based in the USA. I’ll be back in Zim in June 2007 and will — if he lets me! — write more “guest blogs.”
The dogs are really wonderful, aren’t they? Please tell all your friends to check out Wildcast. We need lots more people to know about the site. Thanks for your note. I’ll let Kim answer all your other questions. KP
Hi Paige. The dogs weren’t looking their best with all that mud. But that’s all it was. Otherwise they are all well. I really don’t know about heartworm disease. Don’t think we get it here.
I don’t know when was the last time I found a fresh carcass of anything. Really not common to find something. Usually the weak are killed by predators and no carcasses there to examine. And the vultures are even more efficient in cleaning up the place. But generally I don’t do an autopsy on the animals. (Wouldn’t really know what to look for) The reserve officials do check carcasses though mainly for anthrax as there was a bad outbreak here several years ago.
Aha! The guest blogger is back! Kathy is working with us on Wildcast. If she behaves we might let her write the odd blog!!
Cheers Kim
Kathy, So nice to hear from you! Tell me how is it you’re working with Kim, and from the States? Why will you be going to Zim this summer? Can I come too? Where are you in the States and how did you get the opertunity to work with Kim? Tell me everything! Im very interested.
Kim, Nice to hear the dogs are all accounted for. Is it old age that is causing the limping with BB? Or was there an injury at some point? by the way do you have any ages on any of the dogs? How long do they live in the wild on average? No insult intended by my next comment, but I thought you did research along with filming. Whenever I watch nature films I assume that the filmer is also a researcher. Maybe I assumed too much. I thought I read that your schooling was in conservation? How does this play into your filming? When you made the comment about not knowing what to look for if you found a carcass I was a little surprised I guess and now curious about just what else you do or dont do while filming. I now know you rescue buffalo!
Take care and thanks for taking the time to answer all my questions
Paige
I think BB’s limp is from an old injury. Seems like the ligaments have shortened or something as she can’t straighten her left front leg.
I’ve only been working with the dogs for the last 6 months and unfortunately there aren’t any other records on the dogs. So we don’t have ages or who comes from where. I do keep a record of everything I see with them though. This research is used for further management of the wild dog populations. Of course I can’t do a full time research project as this wouldn’t leave me any time to do the film.
Dogs can live up to about 10 years but usually less. I think the average is something like 3 years as mortality is high in youngsters.
I studied conservation as I was initially involved in Wildlife managment. Then when I became a filmmaker that all changed although an understanding in conservation does help me understand the ecosystem as a whole where I’m filming. I would in time like to concentrate my films more towards conservation but this is not easy.
There are so many diseases in Africa that not having studied them I really wouldn’t know what to look for if an animal died. Some of the more basic symptoms, sure I could see, but often it is some obscure disease that has killed the animal. And a lot of these diseases can be transmitted to man. So not being qualified in this field it would be very naive of me to just go around cutting open carcasses with a pen knife to see how they died. I obviously don’t carry around surgical instruments, masks, gloves, etc. And in the time I’ve been at Malilangwe I have yet to find a carcass untouched by any predator or scavenger.
There was a big anthrax outbreak here a couple of years ago and that alone scares to me to touch any carcasses without the necessary precautions.
As a filmmaker I spend my days in the field searching for my filming subjects. When I find them I spend as much time with them as possible as you never know when they are going to do something or when something will happen to them. the more time I spend with my subject the luckier I get. Also when with them there isn’t really much time to do anything else as I have to be aware of what’s going on around me all the time. And when I can i document what’s going on. Then I still spend another 4 hours in the evening getting all the pictures and video clip onto Wildcast. So my days are ultra full and I really don’t have time to do anything else. I sure wish I did. And I just wish the animals would read my script too. They never do what you want them to do.
Take care. Cheers Kim
Kim, speaking of diseases in Africa, we were wondering about malaria. When I showed the video of you and the girls playing in the mud pool, each of my kids….separately as they’re adults living in other cities….said….”Oh, my god! The exotic parasites….are they nuts!!!” And my husband wondered how you protect yourselves from malaria which we thought was endemic to all of Africa. While we would love to visit there, it is truly the diseases you have that we don’t that keeps us from looking into it further.
You work incredible hours! Thanks for taking time to educate us.
Paula
Hi Paula. if there were all those diseased in the water do you think we would survive. We have diseases in Africa just like the rest of the world has diseases. And some of them can be really mean. But generally they are not easy to catch. Except for malaria. Malaria is generally only found in the lower lying areas in Africa. Many areas in Africa don’t have malaria. Cape Town, Johannesburg. And many others. We do have it here too. I take a homoepathic prophylactic spray which is really good. Demal. And as for mud wallowing - really nothing to worry about in there. I think more nasties to be found in puddles in the dirty cities!
Nothing’s going to stop us having fun in them wallows!!! Cheers Kim
Interesting info about Demal - goo to know. What about Bilharzia?
Good news about the mud wallows! It really did look like great fun. I guess we watch too many nature channels on TV and those show the worst things you can find. One showed parasites that burrow into your blood stream, multiply and travel around your body thru the arteries or burrow out of your skin. I don’t recall where they were found but thought it was in Africa. ‘Course, Africa is HUGE and encompasses many kinds of climate. Also good to hear malaria isn’t endemic in all parts of Africa. I still want to come there one day.
Paula
Isn’t it bad how the media always hype up the bad things. Even all the big wild animals in AFrica aren’t as bad as they’re made out to be. They aren’t out there waiting to attack any human that comes by. They would love to live in harmony with us too.