Fearless tortoise threatens wild dogs: Video
Published by Wildcaster 1 year, 4 months ago Tags: adventure, africa, animal kingdom, blogumentary, cites, conservation, documentary, education, endangered species, flickr, GLTP, gonarezhou, Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, hunting, IUCN Red List, malilangwe, mashable, narrowcasting, Open Content Alliance, pamushana, peace parks, photos, polls, predators, rain, teach, tortoise, video, wild dogs, wildcasting, wildlife, wildlife documentary, youtube, zimbabwe.The rains threatened and then fell just to the west of the Chiredzi River outside the reserve. And so the dry spell continues, although thunderstorms are again forecast for tomorrow.
The dogs were working on their tried and tested hunting method along the fence line again this morning but were without success and as the temperatures rocketed again so retreated into the shade with empty tummies.
The cloud cover from the imminent storm cooled things down a little and that’s when the tortoise made his daring dash for the water. The only adult dog to show it any attention was One-eye. A short glance was all he could manage.
For the pups this was a very strange being.
Why wasn’t it running away from them?
Why didn’t it attack them?
What was this very strange being?
And while they were trying to figure it out the tortoise had gained enough confidence to approach them. This was too much for the pups and had them scattering before gaining their composure to advance gingerly on the tortoise again. But they left him/her to wander on in search of grazing.
Again this afternoon they were hunting the fence line heading east but were still unsuccessful after a couple of chases when I left them after dark.
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The tortoise looks like a walking rock. No wonder the dogs are confused.
I LOVED THIS INSPIRATIONAL CONFRONATION… A TAKE ON AESOP… BUT MORE REAL…
Great video, Kim. Glad I found you again as I remember your work on Africam. I am looking forward to following more of your work. I can’t get over how your girls have grown!
Happy New Year to you and your family.
Junebug
Funny that the wild dogs had the same reaction that my litter of English Cocker pups had when they encountered my Af Leopard tortoise. The pups were much smaller than the wild dogs and when they came upon the huge rock that suddenly got up and moved, they screamed and jumped straight up into the air and then ran away as fast as they could…….then gradually slipped back to check it out again.
Paula
Hi Junebug. I do indeed remember that name. Happy to have you back. Great to have the girls in the bush for a while.
Paula. I had a similar reaction too when my horse in the army saw an elephant getting up from lying down.
Cheers
Kim
My, Kim, did you manage to stay with the horse? That must have been a little interesting.
Junebug
I was actually just about to get off the horse when the elephant got up. I was riding bare-back too. Just managed to hang on to its neck and pull myself up. Otherwise it was going to be a long walk back to base.
We have horses here too. I just don’t get much time to ride, but would love to.
cheers
Kim