Zimbabwe Wild Dogs

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Mar 04 2008 | By: admin

Howzit guys,

Thank you all very much for the kind words of support for the project.
As requested, I have put all the blogs together again, even though it pains my ordered mind. ‘Uncategorized’ indeed!

Yesterday morning, we found the pack that has been hanging around the area. They were extremely wary of the car, and we couldn’t get very close at all before they ran off. In the late afternoon we returned to the site and found them a few hundred metres away. After tacking very slowly towards them, and in spite of their early-warning vultures perched nearby, we got much closer and they seemed to be less worried about us than before. It may be that they felt less exposed and vulnerable, as they were lying in a patch of small but dense shrubs.

We believe that this pack hasn’t been located while denning and so isn’t habituated to a vehicle, not as adults anyway. I also cannot find a match for their coat patterns in any photo records, so we think that this pack may have slipped below the radar. They could have always been mistakenly reported as the Jacana pack. An old, abandoned den was found a few years ago (approximately twenty kilometres south of here) that was never attributed to any of the recorded packs, so it could well be that it belonged to these guys.

‘We refuse to be filmed.’

Unfortunately, and most probably because part of their range appears to be in a resettled area, at least two of this pack are carrying snares. One has a neck wound, similar to the female we saw a few days ago, and one has a snare around the waist. Another dog was limping on the right foreleg, but we think that is just an injury picked up in day to day life.
We have not seen or heard anything of the snared female since my last post. I have contacted the conservator, as he has the licence and equipment to dart and treat animals, and we will call on him if we see that dog again. The others will be difficult to dart as they are still with their pack, but I will see what the conservator says.

We tried to find the new pack again today, as I’d like them to get used to the car in case we have to dart, but our searching was to no avail. When we returned, we were informed that they were spotted last night, hunting to the west. We had spent the day looking further and further south. Thanks for the timely tip, lads.

While we were out though, we saw four white rhinos in a group (or ‘crash’). Whenever we see a rhino, we take note of it’s location, any ear notches, etc. and report it to the conservator or his rhino scouts. This co-operation is reciprocated whenever they come across wild dogs (I hope).

Reuben risks it.

I’ll post again in a few days.

Sarai zvakanaka,

Mike