An Endangered Species

Our first game drive in Botswana wasn’t about lions or cheetahs or other cats at all.  The guides caught wind of the news that African wild dogs were in the area and they are quite rare (thought to be no more than 5,000 left in Africa) – so CJ thought it was best that we try to find them while we had the chance.

This pack had 20+ adults and another 11 or so young ones.  Not puppies, but still not full grown.  The pack seemed to split into two groups from time to time.

It turned out we saw them several times over the next few days, as they stayed in the area.  Wild dogs will hunt impalas, warthogs, other types of antelopes, and smaller rodents too.  With the numbers in this pack, I can see them having no problem taking down animals larger than themselves.

Howard and I were both surprised one afternoon in camp.  He was reading on the cabin deck and I was walking around the grounds.  He looked up and saw several of the dogs come through the brush just 10 feet away from him.  Suddenly they took off – meanwhile, I had just seen an impala lope past me as fast as it could, when 8 or 10 of the dogs came dashing by on a mission.

Startling, but not scary.  They had no interest in me.  The camp staff saw me close to the dog’s path and they were more concerned I might be frightened by it, but I thought it was neat!

S.