19 October 2015
We started
without rain today and halfway in the morning the sun came through again. Our
highlights were dominated by the very rare wild dogs today. The first sighting
was found by our colleague Gert and we counted about 12 wild dogs hanging out
in the road. Suddenly all ears perked up and they all looked into the bush:
something got their attention.
But nothing
really happened apart from them getting up, as one team they moved into the
bush, around our vehicle and then went to lay back down on the road. On a side
road the youngsters had found a chain of a no entry sign and that was of course
fun to play with! They started picking it up and pulling it testing their
strength. Dogs will be dogs and love playtime!
Then further on
we were looking at the Sabie river from a bridge, when suddenly a wild dog came
running out of the bush, into the middle of the dried river, behind a bush and
then we heard some weird sounds of a wounded animal in need.... Three more dogs
came running out towards the same spot. Backing up gave us a view just at the
back of the bush where the wild dogs now with bloody red faces were digging
into something that looks like it once was a small antelope.
After they had
eaten all the high nutritious parts two dogs put their mouths full of
intestines and ran away with it. Probably back to the pack to feed an alpha
female that was left behind with pups. A third one also took some back and the
fourth stayed behind to guard the kill from the vultures that already showed
up. A hooded vulture and three white-backed vultures started to move in the
carcass the moment the last dog around left the carcass and ran off in the same
direction as his pack mates did.
Other animals
seen: lots of vervet monkeys, bushbucks, impalas, baboons, hippos (of which
twice a hippo outside the water on the side of the road), three times a herd of
elephants, buffalo bulls, dwarf mongooses, banded mongooses, spider hunting
wasp, warthogs, giraffes, lions, nyalas and a pretty kudu bull which came to
greet us while having breakfast at the Skukuza Golf club.
Birds incuded a
marabou stork, african hoopoe, african fish eagles, grey louries, burchell's
starlings, yellow-billed hornbills, grey hornbills, white-breasted cormorants,
hadeda ibises, blacksmith lapwings and a goliath heron.
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