Yesterday we woke up early and headed out for a game drive. It was raining pretty heavy and we got soaking wet. I love rainy and overcast days, because you tend to see more wildlife movement because the animals aren’t lying in a shady hard to see spot. We drove by a couple carcasses that we had never seen before including a buffalo and a warthog. As we stopped to investigate the cause of death we heard a lion roaring in the distance. As we continued driving we drove up right behind a Kori Bustard and watched it fly away which was very impressive to watch because of its size . When our group had returned back to camp we received word that our other group had found 4 wild dogs! I couldn’t believe my ears at first since wild dogs are so rare and endangered and on top of that they were in our conservancy! We figured it was part of the dog pack from Manyeleti reserve which happened to be right across the road. Since the pups at Manyeleti were old enough to join the pack and start running we knew this had to be the same dogs. Unfortunately we could not go out to see them and were stuck looking at pictures and hearing stories about this lucky sighting.
Today we awoke at 4am to get an early start and catch the sunrise. When we set out we didn’t see much except the occasional hornbill and impala, as we started to head to the area where the wild dogs were seen we ran into 2 Kori Bustard walking along searching for food in the grass. As we began to pull off left our sight we were about to pull off until I noticed some odd footprints on the ground beside our car. I automatically thought wild dog but asked Sean just for assurance. No one really recognized any of these strange little tracks that we had never before seen, but all felt that we had come across wild dog tracks. We jumped back into the vehicle and headed on. As we were driving along I kept seeing these tracks from the tracker seat and knew we were following right behind them from what looked like earlier this morning. As we pulled down one of the roads we came upon a large dead tree that was blocking the road. Since it was the trackers duty to remove all branches and thorns from the road that may harm the land rover . When the driver stopped the vehicle I checked for danger and did not feel there was any threat , just a herd of impala eating, so I declared it safe and jumped off to move the large tree pushed over in the road from an elephant . As I walked up to the tree I was only thinking about one thing, why was I the only one moving this large object and which direction should I push it over to without getting a handful of thorns? Just then right ahead of me I heard an alarm snort follwed by a stampede sound and saw the same group of impala running frantically across the path. Knowing that impala are skittish I did not think much of it and turned my head to the vehicle to ask Sean how I should push the tree over. Just then I heard Sean yell out for me to get back on the tracker seat and watched as everyone was gazing straight behind me with eyes wide open pointing their fingers. When I turned to see what was going on I heard the word DOG! And just then I saw a glimpse of a dark object flash across the road trailing right behind the impala and did not think to question what I was actually seeing. I ran (yes ran) to the tracker seat and by the time I had turned around one of the dogs had grabbed a female impala by the throat, thrown her down on the path and dragged her by her stomach onto the road where it without hesitation began to effortlessly tear into the stomach of the impala which was still alive and in shock. Was this really happening I kept thinking to myself! Some people go their whole lifetime without being fortunate enough to capture a wild dog kill on camera and here we were causally stumbling upon an actual chase and kill. I quickly pulled my camera out and started to take a video. The wild dogs face quickly became covered with blood and bit by bit it tore out its favorite pieces and swallowed them whole. Something really gruesome to witness was when it pulled out the impala’s baby embryo and threw it to the side. When it had finished, which took a matter of minutes it quickly disappeared into the bush to rejoin with the other members of its pack who were still in pursuit of the rest of the impala herd , oblivious to the kill that had just been made and just as quick as the dog arrived it vanished.
The dog had pulled down the impala and quickly started to feed before the lions arrived !
This was a gruesome sight!
This was our first kill to ever witness here in Africa and the fact that it was with wild dog is something we all never dreamed would happen! As the other group pulled up anxious to see a piece of the action, they were all quickly disappointed to find out that the dogs were gone. All that was left was the remains of a disemboweled impala and her baby lying next to her. Just then we saw an Ngala vehicle pull up and knew it was time to leave since we were on their property and they had guests. As they pulled by us we felt satisfied knowing what we had just witnessed and as humbly as we could explained what they had just missed, which put a huge damper on the guides drive. When we turned around to get one last glimpse of the area we saw a lioness appear out of nowhere and head to the carcass followed by another. Some of us had thought we heard small lion grunts nearby , but didn’t dream they would show up this quick to finish off the impala.Unfortunately we could not go back and watch as the lions took their turn, but we had seen something far greater that will stay in my memory forever!
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
