Monthly Archive for July, 2009

Puppies appear: Video

Published

on July 29, 2009

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

Them puppies were 4 weeks old yesterday and growing fast!
Then Puzzles decided to make things more challenging for me. She moved her puppies to a new den yesterday. Well actually the night before. Sneaky wench.

They’re still in the hills in a cave about 100m south of the old den. I can only barely access the den by vehicle. But visibility into the den is very limited and I now hardly get to see the puppies.

I know soon they’ll be that much more mobile and adventurous out the den.

Hopefully they don’t get too adventurous too soon as there were fresh lion tracks this morning on the track that I’ve made leading up to the den. The tracks didn’t go all the way thankfully. But I suppose it’s only a matter of time before the dogs bump into lions again as I’ve seen tracks in the area several times now. And with Puzzles screaming for food, she’ll surely blow their cover.

This morning the sub-adults went hunting and for the first time, Jiggy stayed behind. It wasn’t as if he was right at the den babysitting if Puzzles wanted to go hunting either. Maybe he just wanted some time out.

The dogs hunting escapades have been really successful recently and yesterday they were seen to kill 2 impala at the big dam.
So my days at the den continue and the dogs come and go. Well actually I come and go too. But it won’t be long and the den will be forgotten as the pack heads out across Malilangwe roaming as they did before, but this time having more than doubled their numbers. No doubt the impala are going to take a pounding this coming year!

Relentless plea for food: Video

Published

Wildcaster

on July 26, 2009

in videopost

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

The pups are growing fast and becoming more and more mobile and beginning to move with purpose. Not just floundering around.
And Puzzles has now almost totally relaxed her ‘hold’ on the pups. She’s now quite happy for the other pack members to be with them while she’s out the den getting some fresh air and no doubt a break from all those little ones.

I’m still battling to count how many pups, but it still seems like 12. They’re just all over the place like ants.
Today for the first time some of the pups were able to suckle standing while Puzzles was standing up. They’ll do this more and more as they get older.
But already since the beginning of the week the pups have started eating meat. True little carnivores.

The sub-adults bored with hanging around the den, went exploring and found this porcupine holed up in a cave close by. With each approach the dogs made, the porcupine would rattle it’s quills sending the dogs scattering.

A typical day at the den:
Dawn – the pack awake and run around frantically greeting each other, followed by some time to hassle the pups. Puzzles is usually still in the den with the pups.
The pack then go hunting. Puzzles stays behind in the den, but later comes out to rest on the rocks. And when she’s really hungry, she paces around looking into the distance and listening.

Several hours later the pack arrive back having hunted successfully. Puzzles runs around frantically begging from all pack members for food, which they regurgitate for her.
Having fed Puzzles, the sub-adults will go into the den to play with the pups and sometimes regurgitate food for them. They continue to hassle the pups until about 10 or 11am. In this time Puzzles would have suckled the pups once or twice.
Then it’s chill out time for all. The whole place is quiet for the next few hours.

About 4pm the dogs wake and greet. Wake the pups and then settle down to rest for another hour before going hunting at dusk.
Back from the hunt after dark, they feed Puzzles, play with the pups briefly and then it’s rest time for the rest of the night.
Although yesterday afternoon they never came back, only returning a few hours after sunrise today. Someone reported seeing them having killed 3 impala against the fence. So when they returned they were all well rounded with lots of food for Puzzles.

Throw a Hippo a Bone: Video

Published

Wildcaster

on July 23, 2009

in videopost

. 12 Comments Tags:adventure, africa, animal-kingdom, blogumentary, bush, bush-knowledge, conservation, den, documentary, ecotraining, education, elephants, endangered-species, experience, flickr, GLTP, gonarezhou, Great-Limpopo-Transfrontier-Park, hunting, hyaena cubs, hyena, IUCN-Red-List, malilangwe, mashable, narrowcasting, Open-Content-Alliance, pamushana, peace-parks, photos, podcasting, predators, teach, video, wild, wild dogs, wildcasting, wilderness, wildlife, wildlife-documentary, zimbabwe

Kim and I have had a few intensive days of filming a list of sequences for the wild dog film. Our days start in the dark and end way after dark – I’m loving it! Heaven forbid we skip a day on Wildcast, but I think we had good reason, so apologies all round. I’ve been making a habit of spending the mornings up on the hill to provide light for the wild dog den.

The afternoon sun shines directly into the den, and provided the dogs are around, it makes for perfect lighting conditions. I’ve also been heading to the den at sunset to be there when the dogs get back from hunting; they’ve been leaving late afternoon and coming back long after dark. Last night they hadn’t killed, but this morning they hunted really early and involuntarily regurgitated for puzzles when she performed her screaming parade. The pups came out into that sunlight today; they seem to be a lot more mobile now.

After being out the entire day, I still like to find time on my way home from the wild dogs to pop into the hyena cubs, who are finding my tyres a welcome play toy in the evenings – I worry they might make light work of my tyres when they’re older. For now I can’t stay away from the little guys, even though they’re really fowl smelling at the moment. It is so bad you can smell them before you actually have them in sight, it’s a small price to pay though.

I think I connected with one of the mothers last night. When I was heading away from the den she was lying in the road, I stopped next to her and made some hyena type sounds - the best that I knew how. She immediately responded and weighted forward. I was a little surprised when she moved up to sniff my arm sticking off the side of the vehicle, she is fairly used to me coming and going all the time, but she seemed content that she had finally checked out this human sharing their den space.

Cub Compare: Video

Published

Wildcaster

on July 21, 2009

in videopost

. 7 Comments Tags:adventure, africa, animal-kingdom, blogumentary, bush, bush-knowledge, documentary, ecotraining, education, endangered-species, experience, film, flickr, GLTP, gonarezhou, Great-Limpopo-Transfrontier-Park, hunting, hyaena cubs, hyena, hyena den, IUCN-Red-List, malilangwe, narrowcasting, Open-Content-Alliance, pamushana, photos, predators, teach, video, waterhole, wild dogs, wildcasting, wilderness, wildlife, wildlife-documentary, zimbabwe

I arrived back on Malilangwe with an icy cold tail wind blowing me all the way from Mutare. My vehicle was still on the hill lighting up the wild dog den, so first things first, I caught a ride with Kim to the den. I ended up doing the lights while Kim was filming; I was quite excited as this was my first visual of the pups.

Strange little guys - as good looking as little bulldogs I would say. I spent most of the morning on the hill catching up with Kim and exchanging stories. I was dying to check up on the hyena cubs so that was the obvious next stop. I saw two of the little guys as I arrived at the den; actually, they are not that little anymore.

They didn’t hang around and I thought they had forgotten the sound of my vehicle – I was a little disappointed. I drove around later in the afternoon until the sun was setting, then went back to the wild dog den to deliver some light. The dogs had left late to hunt and we stayed waiting long after dark. They hadn’t returned and I was again keen to get back to the hyenas.

As I had hoped, they were all back at the old den and lively as ever! Six cubs headed straight for my vehicle and proceeded to bite anything they could get their teeth into. The video I’ve posted is from before I left, this will help us see their progress; that is, as soon as I produce a clip of the footage I got this evening. It’s good to be back!

Mischief at Dawn: Video

Published

Wildcaster

on July 20, 2009

in videopost

. 7 Comments Tags:adventure, africa, animal-kingdom, baboon, blog, blogumentary, bush, bush-knowledge, bushveld, conservation, documentary, dog, ecotraining, education, endangered-species, experience, film, filmmaker, flickr, GLTP, gonarezhou, Great-Limpopo-Transfrontier-Park, groom, IUCN-Red-List, malilangwe, mashable, narrowcasting, Open-Content-Alliance, pamushana, peace-parks, photo, photos, play, predators, teach, video, wild, wild dogs, wildcasting, wilderness, wildlife, wildlife-documentary, youtube, zimbabwe

Very suddenly over the last 2 days the wild dog pups are now so much more mobile come right to the entrance of the cave. Right up to where I’m sitting.

The great thing is Puzzles doesn’t seem at all phased with me there and will actually move off while her pups play close to me.
Puzzles also seems to have resigned herself to the fact that her sub-adults will in time anyway be playing with her pups, so why not just let it happen now and save herself the hassle of continuously having to chase them off. And the sooner she can trust them, she can leave one behind to look after the pups while she’s out on the hunt.

One of the pups ventured right out on it’s own seeming ready to take on the world out there.

But that was until his big brothers and sisters came bouncing in. The sub-adults just couldn’t resist the little one and all 8 of them were all over it. I couldn’t see the pup for the dust and commotion. They all just couldn’t contain themselves and were overly excited. The sound too, was something else. Eventually after a couple of minutes the little one emerged from the dust cloud none the worse for wear.

So I suppose it’s not surprising that Puzzles keeps them away from the pups when they’re first born as this sort of mass excitement could harm new born pups.

Tender Hyaenas: Video

Published

Wildcaster

on July 18, 2009

in videopost

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

Chilly chilly dawn! And nothing to show for it.

Golly the last few days just don’t seem to be showing any progress. (well that’s for me as the ever not-so-patient filmmaker.) Puzzles has her pups right at the back of the den behind a huge rock where she can suckle in peace and nobody can get to her.
I only get brief glimpses of the pups before Puzzles has them all back in her little hidey-hole.

There was no hunting this morning but that didn’t stop the sub-adults constantly badgering Puzzles to get to her pups. And when they do, they’re very gentle and don’t do anything but sniff the little ones. In time she’ll come to trust them and soon will leave them in the care of one of them while she goes hunting. She must be itching to get back out there on the hunt.
The pack had a successful afternoon hunt arriving all bloodstained back at the den after dark.

Puzzles ran around frantically screaming and begging from all, and not even 5minutes later it was all over and she was back snuggled next to her little ones.

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Monthly Archive for July, 2009

Puppies appear: Video

Relentless plea for food: Video

Throw a Hippo a Bone: Video

Cub Compare: Video

Mischief at Dawn: Video

Tender Hyaenas: Video

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