Wild Dogs

March has been a very good month for game viewing and also started showing signs of the dryer winter times approaching….well, not quite.
The weather has been playing around with us for the past month, from four-day rain spells to half-an-hour thunderstorms, but never the less the game viewing truly was one for the books.

We started off with the first five days packed with leopards, buffalo, lions and wild dogs on consecutive drives with elephants and rhinos filling in the quiet times.
Cornel stumbled upon the only cheetah in the reserve on one rainy morning and followed him on his morning hunt, but unfortunately it was not a successful one. He was found sitting in the middle of the road watching a group of giraffes wandering by when a young male impala strolled past too close to pass up and the chase was on. Fortunately the “death race”? took place on a nearby clearing so all that was watching could see the amazing agility of both animals. The cheetah was unable to match the fleet footed impala’s skill and was left to ponder its mistakes.
The month closed off with a bit of a discovery channel episode unfolding right on our door step;
At around 6:45am all the vehicles left for our early morning adventures, just to be called back to the lodge by the office ladies claiming to have heard some ghostly noises coming from the waterhole. Chris and Cornel were the first to arrive back at the lodge. Chris drove around to the waterhole to find the pack of wild dogs hanging on for dear life to young kudu bull. Once all the members of the pack arrived it was all over for the poor kudu. Within five minutes into their feast, the ever present scavenging hyena made its appearance from behind a sickle bush thicket. Not one, but three hyenas joined the action. The hyenas took no notice of the shining snarling teeth of the dogs and proceeded to close in on the kill. With one loud cough the dogs regrouped and made their stand.
The biggest of the three hyenas decided to charge first, but the dogs were ready for this and two dogs on either flanks closed her off. At this point tensions were high amongst the predators and it was do-or-die time.

The other hyenas joined in but the ferocity of the wild dogs was too great to match and the hyenas started to hesitate, but the dogs were not about to let them off that easy. The dogs encircled the hyenas with jaws gaping. A few bursting runs at the hind legs made the hyenas realize that this is a fight they were going to lose. With hair raising chatter and laughs the hyenas ran for all their worth and disappear into the undergrowth. A few seconds later it all calmed down and the wild dogs returned to finish off the last scraps of their morning hunt. With a little bit of a chill down the spine we all returned to camp to indulge in a hot brunch and to recap on the day’s excitement.

It truly was a great month for game viewing and we hope that April will deliver the same kind of excitement that we have experienced.