It’s been a long haul. 23hrs on the trot and only just back in camp.
Thankfully the lions weren’t up to much last night. Well actually up to NOTHING. They moved less than half a kilometre and roared twice. That was their total quota of activity for the last 24hrs!
Thank goodness they slept all night as that meant we got some good rest too.
Leaving them sleeping at dawn we headed north in search of the wild dogs. They were right up in the north and mobile soon after we found them.
It was a cool morning and they all looked fairly well fed. The pups were following on after the adults in their nonchalant way and more interested in everything else they came across. Everything has a different smell and everything must be investigated!
Pssssssssshhhhhhhh…………….!!! I’d driven over a sharp stump that blew my back tyre. We got to changing that and then back to the dogs. Just before we got to them we heard the commotion, wild dogs and hyaenas having it out. From the sound the dogs were getting the better of the hyaenas. Coming round the corner we found the dogs on the remains of a zebra foal carcass. No doubt they’d stolen this from the hyaenas. Now that’s pretty unusual for wild dogs. These guys have guts!
As I filmed a couple of hyaenas came back. Puzzles and the male were quickly onto them sending them packing and in the distance I could hear the hyaena getting a good hiding from the dogs.
Puzzles and the male soon returned to join the pups on the carcass.
Then from far off I heard the hyaenas coming, whooping their excited approach. There were 4 of them. The huge female in front came in with such confidence and so vocal, the dogs hadn’t a chance against these 4. But I was pleasantly surprised. Puzzles and the male took the fight to them with even more confidence and then amazingly the pups joined in and before I knew it the dogs were giving the hyaenas a serious hiding. 3 had run off and now Puzzles and the pups were biting the huge female on the backside. She tried to run off but with her backside close to the ground not wanting to be bitten she was having a rough time getting away. She never came back. The dogs had totally won this one but only because the adults had rushed them with such confidence taking the hyaenas unawares.
The audio was quite something and what a cool barney! Nobody was really hurt and the dogs upped their status in the area. Don’t stuff with us!!!
Pretty exhausted after all the chasing around the dogs eventually called it a day resting up at Khayeni pan. The ideal spot and ideal weather for us to vaccinate them again against rabies.
We dropped them an impala carcass and got to work vaccinating them. Firstly we had to knock them down and once down we administered the vaccine. The process took quite some time but we managed to do them all today. Thankfully that’s all out the way and hopefully they’ll now be safe.
Well, I am glad to see your crusade against rabies to be ongoing.
Great job! Hopefully, there will be wild dogs in that area for a long time. That is excellent.
I’m so glad to hear you were able to do them all. That must have been quite an ordeal!
Congratulations on such important work!
Impressive that the pups, who were terrified of calm still water a few weeks ago, thought nothing of charging alongside their parents against four hyenas who clearly meant business! Their hormones must be kicking in.
Great news! The doggies all shot up and hopefully safe. I hope this group prospers. Question???? How do dogs manage the gene pool, as there does not seem to be another pack left. Will there just be inbreeding for a few generations? HOw does it work when there are many family groups available?….do a couple of alphas just break off at some point, and form new groups like the lions? Thanks for sharing these wonderful films.
Well done with the vaccies!
Im sure the pup’s bravery stems from the doggie’s feeding system , where their confidence to shake off adults away from a carcass is transferred over to claiming the Hyena kill !!
Well it’s a theory anyway