Wild Dogs

    In recent months we have had a number of encounters with Wild Dogs. I should explain first that these are not domestic dogs run wild. They belong to the same family, the Canidae but are not part of the genus Canis and are sometimes called Painted Dogs from their Latin name Lycaon pictus. I prefer the simple name – Wild Dog.

    Hwange is home to the very successful Painted Dog Conservation project which has a base near Main Camp. They monitor the Dogs in Hwange and elsewhere and try to raise awareness of these beautiful and endangered animals. In many parts of the Park the Dogs are struggling to survive because they often travel out of the Park and run the risk of being killed in road accidents, in snares or by diseases of domestic dogs. Here at Sinamatella we are very lucky to be in the middle of a huge area of protected land and the resident pack of Dogs rarely, if ever, runs these risks so, for the moment at least, they are doing well.

    Back in November we met up with the largest group of Dogs we’ve ever seen. There were eighteen pups and seventeen adults……

Part of the pack on the road near Gurangwenya.

The adults were not bothered by the car and simply bypassed us but the pups stayed on the road in front, watching us carefully…..

We watched them for a long time but eventually had to go and Sue got some nice close-ups as we drove slowly past….

Since that day in November we have seen the Dogs quite often. They range in colour from very light…..

 

To mostly dark……

They rarely take much notice of us and spend a lot of time relaxing……

But occasionally they are playful……

And they are surprisingly keen on bathing……

They are normally very successful hunters but on the two occasions we have seen them hunt they have failed both times when their intended prey risked being taken by crocodiles and took refuge in fairly deep water.  Although we haven’t seen them actually catch anything we have several times seen them feeding on Impala or Kudu and they can become quite gruesomely stained with blood, losing a lot of their “cute” looks …..

Currently, the Sinamatella pack seems to have split and we have a group of eleven Dogs regularly in the area. They are no doubt taking a heavy toll of the newly born Impala but of course Impala are nowhere near as endangered as the Wild Dogs and we’re pleased to see the Dogs so often so we hope they will stay in the area.