Zimbabwe Wild Dogs

Hi guys,

Just a very quick note as I am flat out with field work at the moment.  I just got back from completing the spoor survey in Gonarezhou National Park (more about that later), and have had a busy few days catching up with the dogs.  I went to the Maera pack den site very early this morning and was lucky enough to see the new pups briefly – the first pups to be out so far in 2009! 

Whilst trying to maintain a semblance of detached professionalism – I do have have to say that they are utterly ADORABLE!

I had had some camera traps up at the den whilst I was away on Gonarezhou and it seems the pups first emerged on the 10th June.  You can see them as tiny dark blobs behind the adults in the photo below.

I saw a total of six pups and I think that is the full litter, but will need to confirm that at subsequent visits.  That’s not an especially big litter for wild dogs – they can have up to almost 20 – but is more than this alpha female had last year. 

I’m also pretty sure now that this pack has split: the second collared male has been missing for a while now, and there are three other males who also went missing around the same time.  Unless they ran into a snare line (which is too terrible a thought to entertain) – the most likely scenario is that they have split.  Unfortunately the collar is a GPS collar with a very short tracking range so we are having no luck finding the collar, but we shall persevere!

Back soon – just wanted to post these pics and let you know the denning season is officially underway!!

Rosemary