Sable Kill

October had been a true tester for most of us in Madikwe as well as for the nature lovers that come and visit us out here. With the sun rising at the early hours of the morning already at about 18C and continuing its wrath well into the 30’s around mid-day. If it’s not the high temperatures it’s the lack of moisture in the air or the stress of being in the height of fire season that makes us sleep with one eye open, but never the less the game sightings made us realize why we love the African bush so much.

As mentioned before some areas of the park had burned down making certain animals move to various parts of the park for feeding purposes and with this we had seen the return of the large wild dog pack to the West. This made every game drive even more exciting. On one of these exciting drives we received an update that the wild dogs had ran through one of our neighboring lodges in the afternoon, and that’s exactly what we where looking for. Matthew and I decided to approach the area from different roads to maximize our chances of finding the animals or any fresh signs of them. I decided to drive a road that you wouldn’t normally drive out of free will due to large amount of rocks paving our way down a steep hill. As we bounced and crashed down this road we noticed something walking in the road up ahead. As we drew closer I could not believe my eyes, right there in front of us stood the last sable in Madikwe game reserve. I was beside myself, that beautiful black coat shining in the sunlight and his scimitar horns curling back, almost touching his shoulders, what an animal! My guests and I sat there in amazement watching him gliding over the rocks and up the hill. We all felt that there couldn’t be a better/worst sighting to top that…. (Oh how wrong we were)

As we continued on our why to try and find the wild dogs, things got a bit quite with very few animals to see and no tracks to follow.
And then the radio call…
“Cornel, Cornel for Matt? I answered Matt and with a very nervous voice he beckoned me around back to the rocky road I was just on, he found the wild dogs and they were busy making a kill!! “What are they killing?  “It’s the sable?

It was the first time I ever hesitated to go to a sighting where the wild dogs are involved, but forced myself. We reached the rocky road and for some reason felt much worst than before and as we came down the hill we saw it, the sable on his knees throwing his horns at any wild dog that dared to come close. One dog tried to come in from the side but was quickly cut off by a swinging horn over its head. As we positioned ourselves to view this spectacle so did the dogs. Two dogs with teeth bearing and high-pitched sounds were distracting the sable from the front while three other members circled around to the back. The leading dog at the back went in for a nip at the hind quarters, the sable slashed his spears backwards, but missed. We could see how well these dogs were working together by trying to distract the sable. This routine went on for about twenty minutes before one of the dogs at the front launched herself forward and clamped down on the sable’s muzzle. Fortunately after that it was over quickly for the sable and the wild dogs went about their business like it was yet another Saturday afternoon, well, for them it was just another Saturday afternoon, but for us it was a day of extreme mixed feelings and emotions.
After all that we drove further down the hill and stopped for a drink as the sun was setting and we recapped on the joys and sorrows of seeing the sable twice in one drive knowing that it would be the last time.