Daily Archive for October 10th, 2008

A Puppy’s Life: Video


My doggies took priority today and I was with them at dawn. Still they haven’t fed.
It’s now going on the 3rd day with no food. There’s no cause for concern but they will need to feed soon. They have such a high metabolism that they can’t survive for weeks without food like lions and leopards.

Just dogs
At dawn the pups were running around madly chasing each other, while mom and dad chilled out and seemed in no mood for hunting.
Half an hour later Puzzles led them south. They drank at a pan and then moved on. But not finding any prey they were soon resting up as the heat got to them already at only 7am. They really don’t function well in the heat.

Still nervous
I left them to catch up with the elephant capture. When I got there they’d already darted a herd and loading was in progress. Another clockwork operation!

Last one standing
Thankfully there was no flying today. Actually I really do like flying but flying later in the day when the conditions are really bumpy really doesn’t do me well.
It was back to the wild dogs in the afternoon. Again they were on the move early but only barely. Puzzles kept on her bearing south. Then she and her man disappeared.
The pups were milling around and about a minute later we heard the death cries of an impala. Puzzles had caught a young male about 50m behind. It must have been a short chase and she battled to get the impala down. It wasn’t exhausted as they usually are after a long chase, so it didn’t go down easily. The pups were there right away but not sure what to do and watched mom. This was probably the first kill they’d received alive.
Once the impala was down the pups took over leaving Puzzles rummaging around eating the stomach.
I spent about half an hour with them as it was now getting dark, but still no sign of the male. He must have killed on his own somewhere.