Zimbabwe Wild Dogs

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jul 09 2008 | By: zimbabwewilddogs

Hi folks, 

I’m pleased to be able to report that yesterday and today I saw the pups of the Maera pack for the first time.  Curiously, it seems that there are only 4 puppies which is a very small litter size, but all appeared fit and healthy.  I’ve posted a picture of them below with one of our collared males who is the alpha male of the pack and was regurgitating to the pups when I took this photo. 

Having said there were only 4 pups - I saw something very interesting yesterday.  All those readers that know about wild dogs - I’d be keen to hear your interpreation of this…

I was sitting (in the car) near the adult dogs near the den.  It was the middle of the day so the dogs were pretty lazy and not doing a lot.  And no pups were out when I arrived.  The Alpha female and male were resting somewhere near the den and then came to lie under a tree quite close to my car.  Then suddenly, for no reason apparent to me, they both jumped up and ran towards the den.  When I found the Alpha female in the binos, she was suckling the 4 pups.  Then the pups disappeared back into the den and the alpha female went into another hole of the den site and came out with what looked like a TINY pup in her mouth.  She then appeared to kill (and partly eat) that pup and then went back to the den and came out with another TINY one.  (The four pups I’d seen her with earlier were much bigger – about 6 weeks old probably).  The second tiny one was squeaking away and I couldn’t see what she did with it because the vegetation was too thick.  Now how’s that for interesting behaviour?

Now - I know there are two lactating females in that pack – the alpha female and one other female, and clearly these were two separate litters that I saw because of the size difference.  So either the alpha female had decided to kill the other female’s pups (that has been known to happen apparently) – but why do it then in the middle of the day, and where was the other mum??  OR that first pup was dead and she was taking it out of the den (may as well eat it hey?!) and then moving the other one??  I’m not sure what was actually going on, and unfortunately the vegetation impeded my view quite a bit.  But nonetheless, it was fascinating to watch, and I’d be keen to hear if any other wild dog people have seen something similar.   I went back to the den early this morning, and saw just the 4 bigger pups and the alpha pair, until the rest came back from hunting… 

Back soon,

Rosemary