Killing Machines of Wild Africa-The

African Wild dogs

October 23, 2014, 8:23 pm
Text and Pictures by B
A Mahipala
The African wild dog, sometimes known as the African Hunting dog or the
Painted dog (due to its beautiful coloured skin pattern in the African
continent are today classified as one of the most endangered mammals in
the Planet !arth"According to the information a#ailable, once there were
about $%,%%%% wild dogs, but today, the numbers ha#e been drastically
reduced to &,%%% in Africa" Human acti#ity and diseases were the main
threats to its sur#i#al" My first sighting of the wild dogs was in '(() at
*ruger +ational Park in ,outh Africa" ,ubse-uently, +ational parks in
Botswana and .imbabwe"
during recent #acation of our grand /hildren in August 0%'1, 2 together
with 3ilani along with our daughter, 4ushani, her husband and their four
sons #isited *ruger +P for se#en nights mainly to see the big fi#e and in
search for the wild dogs" 5ith my past tra#el experience to *ruger, 2 was
confident in spotting the big fi#e at the park" But finding the 5ild dogs,
need a lot of luck and search" 2t is estimated that there are only 1%%61$%
dogs left in the park and finding them in an area of the si7e e-ui#alent to
that ,ri 3anka was not an easy task"
5e spent our first two nights from the 0&th August, in the south off at
,abie camp facing the beautiful ,abie 8i#er" Thereafter, we dro#e towards
the north of the park for the next two nights at 9lifants camp o#erlooking
the 9lifants ri#er which was the best look6out point of the camps that 2
ha#e stayed at *+P, while the last three nights were at the ,atara camp,
where the surrounding bush and the sa#annah are famous for the big cats"
Also the sightings of 5ild dogs are possible in ,atara especially in the early
morning hours when they are acti#e in hunting"
4uring our se#en nights stay at *ruger, we managed to see the big fi#e
and there was an instance in one morning ,afari at ,atara, within an hour
we saw the big fi#e ie: 3ion, 3eopard, 8hino, Buffalo and the !lephant"
;rand children were busy with their cameras" Although, 2 dro#e the <5, (
seater on many routes of *ruger in search of the wild dogs, my attempts
were unsuccessful"
9n our last day at *ruger, we were out of ,atara camp by = a"m> while
dri#ing towards Paul *ruger gate,suddenly a pack of 5ild dogs were
sighted far away on the road mo#ing towards our direction" 5hat a great
exciting moment for the rest of us when 2 #oiced dogs, dogs?" The dogs
were in a hunting mood running on the road looking for a prey" They can
run up to a maximum of 11 miles per hour" ,uddenly, a dog from the pack
ran off the road and caught an 2mpala by surprise from the back of the
prey" The antelope could not escape when the rest of the pack @oined for a
good breakfast" 2t was not a happy moment to watch when the killing
machines of Africa were using their ra7or sharped teeth to tear off the Prey
while it was ali#e"2t lasted only a few minutes when the dogs mo#ed away
after a good meal" ;enerally, the wild dog always feed on a fresh kill" They
are highly social animals while there were times when the pack si7es were
from A% to =%, but today, 2 ha#e not heard of sighting a a pack si7e
exceeding thirty" The pack we saw was se#en"4uring our stay at *ruger,
we also had many sightings of the endangered white rhino apart from the
sightings of a few prides of 3ions, fi#e leopards and three cheetahs"
After *ruger, we boarded a domestic flight from *ruger Mpumalanga
2nternational Airport to /apetown for four nights with a night in
Hermanus>the famous whales city where the sightings of ,outhern 8ight
whales at #ery close proximity from land could be obser#ed" Thereafter,
4ushani and her family returned to ,ri 3anka from /apetown, while 3ilani
and 2 extended our expedition on wildlife to ;reater *ruger at two pri#ate
/amps, *irkmanBs and Mala Mala for ,e#en +ights followed by further four
nights at Phinda Pri#ate ;ame 8eser#e in *wa.ulu6+atalin of ,outh Africa"
The guideCdri#er from *irkmanBs who came to pick us up from ,kuku7a
airport ga#e us exciting bush news of the sightings at *irkmanBs
concession which included wild dogs which 2 did not expect" 4uring the
four nights stay at the camp, we had two great sightings of the dogs, the
first was in the morning of the )th ,eptember where a pack of '0 including
& puppies feeding on a female 2mpala on the ,and 8i#er while the other
was in the late e#ening of the following day on the same ri#er but different
location of the same pack"
9ur @eep was @ust in time when the pack killed an 2mpala in the late
e#ening on the ,and 8i#er bank, but the puppies were not there" 5hile
keeping the prey on the ri#er bed, the dogs ran to the bush to call the
puppies" 5hat a surprise? A leopard from the other side of the ri#er saw
the prey crossing the ri#er hurriedly to grab the kill" But the dogs came
back running and chased the leopard that ran for its life and climbed a
nearby tree" 5hat an exciting moment of action in the wildD The following
day, we found that the same leopard on the same tree with the carcass
that was killed by the wild dogs" 4uring our stay at *irkmanBs we also had
great sightings of eight 3eopards at close encounters including a mother
with a tiny /ub of one month"
4uring the three nights at Mala Mala, once again we had a sighting of a
pack of wild dogs of '%, which was different from the one we sighted at
the *irkmanBs" These hunters tra#el almost an area of 'A% s- km in search
of food when necessary" ,ighting of leopards were fre-uent in Mala Mala"
5hen compared to the two camps, the *irkmanEs *amp would seem to be
better managed with personalised ser#ice"
9n the '1th ,eptember, 5e were transported to Phinda ;8 by air from
Mala Mala airstrip" 4uring our four nights stay at Phinda, the sightings of
white rhinos were more fre-uent"5e also had the luck to see a black rhino
with a calf of an year old" 2t was surprising to note that the lions fa#ourite
prey in the south of the park were the warthogs, while in the north were
the +yala belong to the antelope family, where we witnessed on two
occasion of their chase on the prey that were successful" This may be due
to small number of bigger prey such as wildebeest and buffalo in the park"
,ince off road was permitted at the pri#ate camps concessions in both
;reater *ruger and Phinda, 2 managed to capture excellent images,
especially the big cats and the wild dogs during my expedition into the
,outh African wild"
5e spent further two nights in Fohannesburg before retuning to ,ri
3anka"There is a bird sanctuary named Marie#ale, one6hour dri#e from the
Tampo airport where we spent a few hours in bird photography on both
days, especially on the water birds"
Posted by Thavam