News gets a little better.
Having had a chance to get a closer look at the wild dogs, there are actually 17. So we’ve lost Toffee and the Alpha male, both presumed dead. The other missing dog is BB. I’m still hoping she’ll come back from wherever.
We won’t have the test results of the dead dog until Monday, but we’re not waiting for that. Last night we inoculated 2 dogs for Rabies and put a new collar on Whisky so at least we can keep track of them regularly. We also treated Sash’s badly mutilated ear.
At dusk I was following 6 dogs when they suddenly responded to other wild dog calls. I raced to keep up with them but couldn’t. Although I’d only lost them for a couple of minutes, when I arrived on the scene the impala carcass was finished. They are so efficient at getting rid of a carcass. (Remember how long it took the Nduna pride to finish off an impala, at least 20 minutes. This is probably because they’re fighting over the kill and trying to hold onto the biggest piece all the time.)
Wild dogs can’t afford to take time over their kills in case other predators arrive and chase them off.
We left the dogs resting about 9pm and went to the Nduna pride on Banyini where they had been witnessed killing a zebra just after sunset. In just those 3 hours they’d finished of an adult zebra. Nduna was looking huge!
Resting in the open area around midnight, we heard the wild dogs kill to our west and then being hassled by hyaenas. (Wild dogs will hunt at night when the moon is big) Nduna didn’t like the sound of that. He was up instantly and trotting in that direction belly swaying from side to side. I think this is the only time I’ve seen him not walking. But he wasn’t interested in what the dogs had killed. (How could he be, he had nowhere to fit it in). Like all lions, he wanted to murder the competition. The dogs were aware of him way before he got there. Alarm calling they took off west.
Lions, especially males, have this insatiable desire to murder the competition and will go out of their way to do so. Uncomfortable as he was, Nduna was quickly after the dogs and hyaena.
But other predators, hyaena, wild dogs, leopards, although they don’t like the competition, don’t have this aggressive attitude towards them. No hyaenas don’t. Hyaenas would charge in to a situation like that to get the food, not kill the competition.
We picked up on the dogs heading west for about 2kms before they rested up.
At dawn they were on the move again hunting. 3 of them split off chasing after impala and went unnoticed by the rest of the pack. Only when the 3 called did the pack come rushing back to the kill they had made.
Not bad for the dogs, 3 impala in 12 hours.
We hope in the coming days to inoculate the rest of the pack against Rabies.
Kim, can you tell us the process it takes to vaccinate the dogs and what you did to take care of the ear? I wonder will you be filming the process or will you be helping out? Would it also be a time to get the photos of the markings on the dogs? What drugs are you using on them? Im glad to hear that there are the 17 left. I will cross my fingers for BB as well. Hope she will come back and in good condition.
Wonderful news. Hope the pack survives as an entity.
We only darted Whisky to put the collar on him and at the same time gave him the Rabies inoculation. And Sash was darted to doctor his ear. We cleaned it up and put treatments on as well as giving him a long acting penecillin. The dogs were darted with a mix of Zoletil and Medetomidine. Sash was also inoculated. We’ll inoculate the other dogs with darts that fall out. So we won’t be handling those dogs.
I just hope they come home soon. They often den in the same place each year, so holding thumbs they’ll be back.
Kim I was wondering if it was possible to do the vaccinating with darts that fall off. Glad to know it. Much less intrusive. Do the other dogs stay around when one gets darted? Are they protective of other members of the pack like elephants are? Would it be possile to dart Sash with a penecillin dart every so often to keep the infection at bay, or does the stuff you use last a few weeks?
Thanks for all the medical insight. I hope the rabies test comes back negative.
Was it hard to watch the dogs go into unsafe territory? I watch the video and just kept thinking, stop them from crossing! But I guess you cant or wont.
Because the dogs are so used to my presence the darting has little effect on the pack and they tend to hang around. Usually if one goes down they’ll go over to investigate but not really protective of it.
We’ve given Sash a long acting penecillin so that should see him through. He would probably have made it anyway. If we see he needs help again management will probably again get involved.
Felt a little helpless watching them cross the river. Trying to tell them to stay at home. But grass always greener on the other side.
Kim any word on the Rabies test?
its very good.
thx for that info.