Wild dogs make their mark: Video
Published by Wildcaster 1 year, 12 months ago Tags: adventure, africa, animal kingdom, blogumentary, bush knowledge, cites, conservation, documentary, ecotraining, education, endangered species, experience, flickr, giraffe, GLTP, gonarezhou, Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, hunting, IUCN Red List, kids, malilangwe, mashable, narrowcasting, Open Content Alliance, pamushana, peace parks, photos, podcasting, polls, predators, teach, video, wild dogs, wildcasting, wildlife, wildlife documentary, youtube, zimbabwe.I only managed to catch up to the dogs when they were chilling out at the pan on the old airstrip. All already well fed of course. Actually I think they’ve been hunting at night, as the moon is still at large. Well large enough.
It was then on the elephants trail but I had no success there. I think they might have moved right down to the southern end of the reserve where at this time of year they apparently spend time on the good grazing. The bulls hang out there much more than the cow herds, as they tend to be more grazers and the cows tend to be more browsers. Although both will browse and graze.
I took the girls out with me again in the afternoon to the wild dogs. And what a wonderful life it is for them but they do get bored and grumpy. This afternoon was one of those while we waited for the dogs to wake from their days sleep. They were both fighting and trying to kill each other, which didn’t make for pleasant times. But at least they are just being real kids.
Once the dogs were on the move excitement set in as we raced after them on the hunt. Bashing through the bush, a lot more open than yesterday, they were cowering on the back but loving it. The dogs raced north until they came up against the fence. This time without any impala.
We left them resting there in the last light of day.
Share Wildcast with the world: 
Hi Kim — love the vlog today. The poor alpha male sure has his work cut out for him. Can you tell us when they’re likely to mate? I forget the timing of estrus, length of gestation etc. You expect pups somewhere around May, do you not? And what about BB? Do you think you’ll be able to tell if she’s pregnant again?
What you say about the eles in the blog is interesting. I learned from scientists in Gabon that forest elephant bulls often opt for bulk feeding to maintain their larger size. They’ll stand in a field of papyrus (a low nutrition, high bulk food) and just eat as much as they can, all day long. Whereas the females will move to seek out higher nutrient sources of browse, probably having to walk a distance to find them, but when they do it is worthwhile. What does Bruce say about all this? What sort of browse are the Malilangwe females looking for at this time of year? What does his theory about bite size have to do with this? would love some info. on this. K
Hi Kathy. They should be mating around Feb to May. Remember BB’s pups are 7 weesk younger than the alpha pups. So could happen over 2 to 3 month period. The alpha pups were born 19th May. This is quite early. June July is more common. Who knows about BB. i don’t know if she can control her oestrus or not. Probably not, in which case I’m sure she’ll cycle again and then another double litter? Will be very interesting to see if it does happen and then if so, what will the alpha female do this time?
Apparently it is all related to bite size. Because the males have a bigger bite size they can afford to take in large quantities of low quality food. But the cows can’t and so have to go for food with higher protein content which invariably means they become more the browsers and the bulls more grazers. it sounds like this is what is happening with the forest elephants too.
Cheers Kim
I had to laugh when I saw the marking procedure of the dogs. We have the same ritual amongst our pack of domestic dogs here….mainly among the girls who keep urinating on top of each others to try and be the last one. We don’t have a really obvious alpha female right now so maybe they’re trying to make a “mark” for themselves.
Paula
i thought it was just boys who were always competing with each other.
hey kim i am 16 and am at the same high school you went to. unfortunatly i was unable to to meet you when you visited. i love the work you do and i am interested in doing the same sort of work later in life. are ther an tips or bits of advice you can give me to help me build a career in the future?
thanx any help will be much appreciated!
Hi Craig. I think you sent me an e-mail too. I should be in Jhb next month. So best we meet up then and have a chat. Cheers Kim