Monthly Archive for February, 2009

Puzzles caught with her pants down: Video

Published

on February 21, 2009

. 0 Comments Tags:adventure, africa, animal-kingdom, blog, blogumentary, bush, bush-knowledge, cites, conservation, documentary, ecotraining, education, endangered-species, experience, film, filmmaker, flickr, GLTP, gonarezhou, Great-Limpopo-Transfrontier-Park, hunt, hunting, Impala, IUCN-Red-List, kill, malilangwe, mashable, narrowcasting, nature, Open-Content-Alliance, pamushana, pan, peace-parks, photo, photos, podcasting, predators, teach, video, waterhole, wild, wild dogs, wildcasting, wilderness, wildlife, wildlife-documentary, youtube, zimbabwe

How can I complain? Well actually I’m not. Life is just brilliant and the bush here at Malilangwe is some of the very best I’ve ever been in. So what more could I want?

…..some better tyres would help. Just blew another one today. That’s 3 in 3wks. Whereas on my old conventional road tyres (not these fancy ‘off-road’ tyres), I had 4 blow outs in 20yrs! ………Going back to my old tyres ☺
The dogs continue to hunt in the north which at times can be really good, but the past few days they’ve been keeping to the Grewia thickets which make travel and visibility really tough most of the time.
The dogs were hunting at dawn and had many impala to chase with only Jiggy being successful. On returning the pups were frantic trying to get him to regurgitate, but today there was no free lunch and the pups had to find the remains of his kill.

In the evening they were again in good impala country but the pups instead ended up chasing several buffalo that took off. And the faster they ran the faster the pups ran after them. Even Puzzles and Jiggy joined them.
I don’t know what happened in the end, as I wasn’t able to keep up, and then found the pack resting at this pan on the old airstrip.

For the last few days my cameras have hardly rolled, with really only just enough to do the 3mins of Wildcast every day. But I know if I keep at it something lucky WILL come along.
Roll on Luck!

Cooling off before the hunt: Video

Published

Wildcaster

on February 20, 2009

in videopost

. 8 Comments Tags:adventure, africa, animal-kingdom, bird, blogumentary, bush, bush-knowledge, conservation, documentary, dove, ecotraining, education, endangered-species, experience, film, filmmaker, flickr, GLTP, gonarezhou, Great-Limpopo-Transfrontier-Park, hunting, Impala, IUCN-Red-List, kill, malilangwe, mashable, narrowcasting, nature, Open-Content-Alliance, pamushana, pan, peace-parks, photo, photos, podcasting, predators, teach, video, water, wild, wild dogs, wildcasting, wilderness, wildlife, wildlife-documentary, youtube, zimbabwe

Much better day. I was able to stay with the dogs most of the time today.

At dawn they were hunting around the base of Sosigi hill and after only one chase that was them done for the day as they rested up at a pan in the mopanie.

That allowed me a bunch of time to catch up with stuff in the office.
Back with the dogs at the pan in the afternoon and they were still resting. The Emerald-spotted Doves in the surrounding woodland called their mournful cries going on and on. “My mother is dead, my father is dead, all my relations are dead, and my heart goes koo-koo-koo-koo”. And trying to out compete them were the Cape-turtle Doves “work harder, work harder.”

The dogs made up for their lazy start this morning with an early start this afternoon they circled Sosigi hill and then headed north. The terrain was pretty easy going initially but then they hit those impenetrable thickets.

When I caught up with the pups they were milling around looking for the folks. And it turned out they weren’t even a hundred metres away feeding on a young impala they’d caught. When the pups eventually did hear a bone being crunched they screamed with delight while in full flight to get there first for the scraps, of which there weren’t many.

River snookers wild dogs: Video

Published

Wildcaster

on February 19, 2009

in videopost

. 3 Comments Tags:adventure, africa, animal-kingdom, blog, blogumentary, bush, bush-knowledge, cites, conservation, documentary, ecotraining, education, endangered-species, experience, film, filmmaker, flickr, GLTP, gonarezhou, hunting, Impala, IUCN-Red-List, kill, malilangwe, mashable, narrowcasting, nature, Open-Content-Alliance, pamushana, peace-parks, photo, photos, podcasting, predators, teach, video, wild, wild dogs, wildcasting, wilderness, wildlife, youtube, zimbabwe

It felt like a very unproductive day with the dogs and somewhat frustrating.
I found them still resting in the same spot and they weren’t too eager to get going. But when they did Puzzles took them south. Surprising as they’d just come from there yesterday, but there are big herds of impala in the area.

The going was really tough with the bush being extremely dense and most of the time I couldn’t see the dogs. When I eventually caught up to them again, they’d just about finished off their kill, a young impala. This young female pup was running around with her trophy trying to keep it away from the others.

Puzzles then took the pack west onto the Chiredzi river and for the next couple of hours moved up and down along the river bank searching for a way to cross. Thankfully the river has risen somewhat with the recent rains and is so much wider, scaring the dogs off. But they weren’t that easily deterred, spending all this time down there. Jiggy did cross a narrow section but found himself snookered and came back.

For most of the time the dogs were along the river I couldn’t get to even see them.
And then just to frustrate me more, when they left the river they headed north at pace through the same thick rugged bush making going at times almost impossible with the bush impenetrable in places. Soon they were back where they’d come from early this morning.

In the afternoon they continued their movements northwards and continued to snooker me in the dense bush. And to add insult to it all I had another blow out in one of my new tyres. Yes these fancy ‘puncture proof’ tyres! My old standard road tyres did better than this junk!
And so the day came to an end and in all that time I’d probably had the dogs visible for less than an hour. Aaaaaaahhhhh………!!!

Dogs in Waterworld: Video

Published

Wildcaster

on February 18, 2009

in videopost

. 3 Comments Tags:blog, blogumentary, bush, bush-knowledge, cites, documentary, film, filmmaker, flickr, fun, game, games, GLTP, Impala, nature, pamushana, pan, photo, photographer, play, puppy, sunset, teach, video, water, wild, wild dog, wildlife, wildnerness

Thankfully the wild dogs came down from the hills at dawn, Puzzles leading the pack again. It wasn’t long until she was back on the main road heading south with her pack in tow.

2kms down the road she did a ‘U’-turn, back north up the main drag for a kilometre and then west. Now she was heading straight into impala-land.
Soon impala were ‘flying’ everywhere, most with a dog hot on their heels.
The kills came quickly. I think 3 of them, but I only found Jiggy and one pup feeding on the one kill. They left and I found others on another kill and from the sounds there was yet another to the south. All kills within 200m of each other and all after only a short chase of less than 500m.

The dogs were now all in great shape with rounded tummies. Again Puzzles took them north, all resting in a pan to cool off. It was already hot and the dogs had been on a long hunt. Of course I expected them to spend the day here, but 2mins later Puzzles had the pack on the run still heading north.

It was only half an hour later and several kilometres further that she eventually pulled up in the shade of mopanie trees to rest.
The pack hardly roused and soon before sunset the pups were up playing in a pan. And when the games ended, so did everything else and nobody went hunting tonight. For a change they were spending a night at home.

Dogs duck the rain: Video

Published

Wildcaster

on February 17, 2009

in videopost

. 0 Comments Tags:adventure, africa, animal-kingdom, blogumentary, bush, bush-knowledge, cites, cloud, conservation, documentary, dog, ecotraining, education, endangered-species, experience, film, filmmaker, flickr, GLTP, gonarezhou, Great-Limpopo-Transfrontier-Park, hunting, IUCN-Red-List, malilangwe, mashable, narrowcasting, Open-Content-Alliance, pamushana, peace-parks, photo, photos, podcasting, predators, rain, storm, teach, video, wild dogs, wildcasting, wildlife, wildlife-documentary, youtube, zimbabwe

2 small kills were really just snacks for the wild dogs yesterday. And today they were just left to eat millipedes as they disappeared into the dark without killing.

At least Puzzles was off her mission and the pack was now being led by Jiggy. He took them west but soon pulled up short. There was something up ahead that concerned him. He turned and took the pack south and then continued west towards Khayeni. But again just before arriving there, the whole pack pulled up short. And this time they did a U-turn and headed back east.

The only thing that would make them turn like that would be lion, but I didn’t get the chance to investigate as I now battled to keep up with the pack heading east at pace.
They eventually rested up not far west of their initial den site near Manyuchi.

The afternoon saw the weather change as storm clouds came rolling in from the east. And then it started raining. As those first drops started falling the dogs took cover under any little bush they could find. They really don’t like the rain. And when it really pours they get restless wanting to move to find better shelter but soon realise the spot they’re in is better than the option of venturing out into the full blast of the rain.

Today the rain didn’t last and before sunset the sun was out when Puzzles led the pack off hunting south along the foothills. It’s rough country out there and there’s not much prey, leaving the pack going hungry for the day.

Just Wild Dogs: Video

Published

Wildcaster

on February 16, 2009

in videopost

. 2 Comments Tags:adventure, africa, animal-kingdom, blog, blogumentary, bush, bush-knowledge, cites, conservation, documentary, ecotraining, endangered-species, experience, flickr, flower, GLTP, gonarezhou, Great-Limpopo-Transfrontier-Park, grysbok, hisbiscus, hunting, Impala, IUCN-Red-List, kill, malilangwe, mashable, narrowcasting, nature, Open-Content-Alliance, pamushana, peace-parks, photo, photos, podcasting, predators, rain, teach, video, wild, wild dogs, wildcasting, wilderness, wildlife, wildlife-documentary, youtube, zimbabwe

Puzzles was on her mission again at dawn taking to the main road and heading north at a brisk pace. I really don’t object as it makes my travel absolute bliss.

Only when they pick up scent of impala do they leave the road for the chase and then back to the road.

By early morning the pack were already way up in the north near Sosigi. Ahead of them I saw this male leopard sleeping in the road. This is the leopard we’d collared. With me approaching, the leopard, being so relaxed didn’t even look my way, but little did he know that I had my infantry brigade marching with me this morning and before he realised it 11 dogs were beaming down on him. He made it up the nearest tree just in time to prevent his backside getting nipped!
That game over the pack kept on north before losing me on the chase to the west. When I picked up on them they’d already finished off a young impala, all chewing on whatever scraps they could find.
In these conditions, wet weather, wet off road and thick bush I’m just not getting anywhere near the chance of filming any part of the chase with these guys. And now being so efficient they’ve already finished off everything by the time I arrive.

With the pack now down and out I took the privilege of traversing the reserve in search of………whatever. This herd of buffalo were hanging out near Hwata pan in the mopanie. And this year in the mopanie the Golden Orb Spiders are just everywhere. Makes for interesting driving off road. And it’s not uncommon for me to get my whole face smothered in their thick yellow web AND usually with spider attached.

And if the spiders aren’t enough to add to the discomfort there’s always these Hibiscus flowers. At the moment they’re fine, but once they die and dry out their stems are covered in fine hairs and when you drive over them the hairs shake loose floating in the air. When they land on your skin you know all about it as you itch for ages!

A storm came brewing in the early afternoon and keen to get more footage of the dogs in the rain, I was off to join them. Needless to say the storm hung around all afternoon but never did it rain.
In the cool afternoon Puzzles was on the move early and back on the main road heading north.
This has had the added advantage in that the road is wide and I can drive alongside the dogs. AND they let me! This is such great confidence building stuff with them. They’re now really starting to accept me and I still dream of the day when I can go running with them.
A Sharpe’s Grysbok was on tonight’s menu and again when I arrived there was little left with the pack chewing on the last bits.

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Monthly Archive for February, 2009

Puzzles caught with her pants down: Video

Cooling off before the hunt: Video

River snookers wild dogs: Video

Dogs in Waterworld: Video

Just Wild Dogs: Video

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