Reflections…

What a truly gratifying and memorable 4 months we have spent immersing ourselves in the social and reproductive behaviour of one of the most engaging yet endangered mammals on earth!

Many of our guests have been eagerly following the development of the wild dog pups, enthusiastically arriving here and hoping for a glimpse of the youngsters!

Well the good news is that 7 of the 8 pups are still healthy and growing fast, we are not sure what happened to the 8th pup. The fact that 7 have made it this far is a credit to the experience of the Alpha pair and the hard working pack, so we now have a pack of 13 dogs!

They have now resumed their nomadic lifestyle as the pups are now old enough (14 weeks) to run with the pack. They do still sometimes make use of different termite mounds as short term dens for the pups while out hunting! The pups are also getting old enough to begin joining in on some of hunts which is all part of the learning process.

Biting a sibling’s tail, all part of the development of hunting skills.

When a kill is made the pups are mostly allowed to feed before the adults get to eat. They are allowed to eat first until they are a year old, which is the time that the hierarchy in the pack should be firmly established. The pups are dependent on the pack for 12 – 14 months.

So while we don’t know when the pack may appear on our traversing area we do eagerly await their periodic hunting forays to delight our guests for the rest of the year.

The pack of 13 out on the hunt!