Mupanigawa – A wild dog pack in decline?
There was still no sign of the wild dogs at the ‘new’ den.
I left the area and headed south to the lions. They did another dirty on us all night. 3 attempts on impala and zebra proved useless. Although Manyari charged in to a herd of zebra and her lightening was something to behold. But alas she missed the foal she was after.
We gave up on the lions in the early hours and headed north to look for the Mupanigawa pack.
They were now in the west, close to the Chiredzi river. But now the pack only numbered 14. There were a few hyaena in the area too.
The dogs seemed to have hunted successfully but Whisky was the only dog who had signs of having eaten.
Most of the other pack members looked really lean. They all stood around seeming to be expecting other pack members to call having made a kill. But that never materialised.
Sash and another dog are missing, and are presumably the dogs they were waiting for to come back. They never did. I fear they have died.
And poor Floppy is in really bad shape. He’s a walking skeleton not having eaten for days. And doesn’t even have the energy to walk in a straight line.
I fear the worst for Floppy, he’s dying of Rabies and there is absolutely nothing we can do. It’s highly possible too, the missing dogs have died of it too.
Crisis is upon us. We hope to be inoculating all the dogs this afternoon.
A great giraffe, but with a man walking on his neck and dangling someone else from his mouth. Unfortunately with the paintings over paintings a lot of meaning has been lost.
9th May 2000
What a night!
With Tjololo back home and hunting we found him strangling an adult male impala. Dead, he dragged it into some long grass and fed, and then in a half hearted attempt he covered the carcass with grass and went to lie a way off.
Out of the blue, or rather black, 3 hyaenas came charging in running straight over the carcass, the one even tripping over it. Realising they’d overshot the mark in their excited frenzy, they hurriedly sniffed the breeze and located the carcass tearing into it with no manners and no mercy.
With only the head and ribcage remaining one hyaena dragged off the carcass. We thought Tjololo had lost out completely, but following up on him we found he’d secured the remains of the kill in a tree. What a dude!
As if this wasn’t enough, having just stashed the carcass, he saw a male duiker close by and leaving the tree he charged through the donga and caught it the other side. The duiker was possibly ill as it responded very late and slowly to his approach.
This carcass he again stashed in the same tree laying it on top of the remains of the impala carcass. With his larder now fully stocked he rested in the donga.
A while later the Kapen female arrived and climbed the tree. She was nervous at first sniffing around all the branches where Tjololo had been. Then she fed. Moving the duiker carcass she dislodged the impala carcass. The thud brought Tjololo running in, but interestingly he was quite happy to leave her feeding on the duiker. With the approach of the same 3 hyaenas, Tjololo dashed up the tree with the impala, stashed it and went back to his donga.
The Kapen female had a good feed on the duiker, then headed off northeast calling her cub. The 2 returned about an hour later and both fed. Tjololo still quite happy to leave them feeding.
At dawn Tjololo fed and a short while later the Kapen female and cub fed too.
The Kapen female didn’t pay Tjololo much attention, and vice versa.
But lying down Tjololo was calling softly and the cub went to visit her daddy. She doesn’t see him often and was cautious with her approach. He was totally relaxed as she gently pawed at his face and then lay up next to him.
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