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I had left the dogs late yesterday once it had become too dark to film. It must have been around then that they killed big because when I found them this morning at dawn the whole pack were well rounded.
It was a strange dawn. A dense mist had moved in covering the whole reserve blotting out any chance the sun had of peeping through.
The wild dogs’ signal was in the hills, so I walked in there. It was a very different walk, even though it was the same path I’d followed a couple of days ago. The air was completely still. Nothing seemed to stir except the odd little Cisticola that I flushed on my way through the rocks. It was a magical calm. On the verge of being eerie, but not so at all. Just extremely peaceful. The peace of course now only being broken by my incessant whistles as I got closer to the dogs.
They too were a part of this morning atmosphere hardly lifting an ear to my approach. They know the whistle and were totally happy to take in the peace. I joined them sitting on a rock several meters away and savoured this interesting dawn. It was very special.
As the clouds began to lift several hours later, the dogs stirred and the pups were soon into full on play mode.
But that was the pack done for the day. They spent the day in the hills digesting off those large bellies.
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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.
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