Pup enjoys a bashing: Video

What an interesting day with the wild dog pups.
Picking them up at dawn the pack had just arrived at Khayeni waterhole. It was the first time the pups had seen water and while the adults lay around the pups investigated this water thing. They just couldn’t seem to make out what it was and were nervous to approach, jumping back whenever another made a quick move. They treated the water like an unknown carcass and were very nervous of it but also incredibly curious.
It was only after about half an hour of this nervous interaction that one pup dared to lick this strange thing. Hmmmmmmmm………..it tasted so good. Others followed and then all were drinking in a tight huddle. And they drank for ages. But even after drinking they were still unsure of this new thing.

I’m sure it won’t be long and they’ll be running amok in any water they can find.
Thankfully today was cooler, which meant the dogs were a lot more lively. And when a herd of impala ventured towards the water the pups gave chase. But they were too young and too slow. The adults followed slowly after them.
The male moved ahead and had only been gone a couple of minutes when the pups found him on an impala carcass. They took over. But had the male killed this? If so it had only run about a 100m. And it didn’t make a peep when dying as the other dogs didn’t respond to anything.

I think what happened is the male came across the impala carcass stashed under a tree by a leopard. Whoever’s kill it was the dogs made short work of it and spent the rest of the day chewing on bones.

Heading south we got to Hwata pan just as 8 elephant bulls arrived. They had their own little party drinking and playing in the water. The Lichtenstein’s Hartebeest were having a hard time trying to drink with the elephant dominating the waterhole. Only once the elephant had left about an hour later did the hartebeest move in to drink.

Down at Chiloveka dam we were lucky to find the Nyari Pride. I was surprised to see Manyari there as this is very far from the hills where she has her cubs.
But then it all became apparent. She no longer had cubs, she was mating again with Sjambok and her teats had totally lost their swelling.

So what happened to her cubs? Did she abandon them? Did the males kill them?
I’m beginning to think the males could be the murderers as Magwaza also lost her cubs when they were around. At the time I suspected she had abandoned them. But it could now be possible the males are the culprits.

We were back with the wild dog pups just before the sun was setting. The cool weather soon got the adults active as they moved south into ‘impala country’. But by the time darkness had fallen they were still unsuccessful.