It’s me back on my bi-weekly Wildcast ‘special’. Well at least I can call it a special, just cos I can!
The wild dogs are all doing so well and have killed daily. Kudu on Monday, impala on Tuesday and Wednesday.
AND the good news is Puzzles really does now look pregnant. It’s so hard to tell when the dogs are killing regularly like this and all their tummies are swollen but Puzzles does seem somewhat bigger than all of them.
And today the pups were all over her. One of them would go up to Puzzles resting, and nuzzle its muzzle in her groin and soon all the pups would be doing it. And Puzzles accepted all this harassment. They kept doing this through the morning. Do they know mom’s tummy is growing and something’s about to happen?
I was resting with them in some thick mopanie when a pup took off after something and the next thing I realised a big warthog boar was beaming down on me with dogs on his heels. Thankfully he swerved at the last second and was left to go on his merry way when the pups realised he was too much to handle.
But on Monday early, the dogs had been hunting and in the cold morning rested all huddled up together in a small sunny patch in the mopanie. Suddenly a pup took off past me and the rest followed. 2 young kudu calves had come trotting their way and seemed to be playing, until they saw the dogs. They froze not knowing what was going on. The pups too froze about 5m from them, not knowing what to do. Usually their prey runs away from them, but these guys weren’t and now they were puzzled. But the kudu soon gave in and took off and the one youngster wasn’t lucky. 5 minutes later there was hardly anything left to talk about and the dogs had moved on.
And now today the dogs have again crossed the Chiredzi River. They seem little concerned with the water these days and cross easily. I too am a lot more acceptable of them being on the other side of the river, but I do worry if they move too far to the west.
Walking back to the car after following the dogs I came across these 3 elephant bulls in the river. Luckily they had already past there when I arrived.
Some more interesting news, 4 wild dogs were seen in the north yesterday. This is in the heart of my dog’s territory. Where did they come from? What will happen when the 2 packs meet? Are they too not possibly denning in the area? Is Whisky one of them?
I wonder so much about them, but I’m sure in time we’ll meet.
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