Wild Dog Pups in Selinda!

The past 2 weeks have been fantastic for guests from Selinda and Zarafa Camps in Botswana’s Selinda Reserve, with regular sightings of the 4 to 5 week old wild dog puppies. The alpha female dog was heavily pregnant in early June when she disappeared into the den site. Four weeks later on one of the first visits to the den she revealed her babies, and aren’t they just the cutest thing you have ever seen?? We are really optimistic that these pups will have the chance to reach adulthood and bolster the numbers of the Selinda wild dog pack.

June - Botswana Game Report - Zarafa Camp

This recent game report comes from our friends at Zarafa Camp.

Well winter is upon Northern Botswana. The overnight lows are dipping to 5C but fortunately, and typically, midday temperatures rise to a very comfortable mid-twenties touching 30 degree Celsius. Even as the flood waters continue to push into the area, the dry season has begun; there hasn't been a single drop of rain during June. Ironically, it’s during the dry season that the most free standing water is found.

The flow of water in the Okavango Delta system as well as the Linyanti Swamp system due to massive rains in Angola earlier in the year is resulting in higher than usual water levels in the Zibadianja Lagoon, Selinda Spillway and Savuti Channel. Yet winter continues and the “dry” season unfolds with many trees losing their leaves, vegetation being grazed and dying back revealing game sightings not often encountered during the wetter summer months which are characterized by much dense green vegetation.

With free standing water in the surrounding waterholes all but dried up, the concentration of game along the Zibadianja Lagoon and adjoining waterways is phenomenal.

There are large breeding herds of elephants (Loxodonta africana) moving in and out of the tree-line here to drink from the lagoon regularly. They have even come through camp, drinking in view of our deck pools which was an absolute spectacle for guests.

By far the highlight is the denning of the wild dog (Lycaon pictus) pack. The estimate is that on the 12th of June 2011, puppies were born in the same den used last year. There have been some awesome encounters with the dogs while they have hunted as far over as Zarafa Camp and have been moving around the edge of the lagoon and even seen on Joubert Island crossing shallow water towards their den.

At present the den site is closed to vehicles to give the dog puppies some time to settle. In the very near future though, guests will be able to have scheduled visits to the den and this will provide a once in a lifetime experience watching them rear their young puppies and all the super interactions between the members of the pack during this time. The adult pack have been hunting around camp frequently to the point where a young male impala (aepyceros melampus) was chased into the lagoon in front of the deck and stayed put in the water until long after sunset.

Photos Great Plains Conservation

Where to find wild dog!

Here at Africa Adventure Consultants we have a bit of an obsession with wild dog. The little guys may not be the most impressive creature you'll spot while on safari (in terms of size!), but what they lack in grandeur, they make up for in character. Lyndsay had great sighings in Botswana and South Africa last May and several of our travelers just returned from Botswana with some amazing photos and video footage of wild dog (stay tuned for the July newsletter!). Thanks to our partners at Wilderness Safaris, read on to learn more about this unique African animal.

Revered and reviled

"The African wild dog is one of the most revered, reviled and fascinating animals on the continent. It’s unusually communal and s

eemingly caring social structure endear it to human beings while it’s hunting style has been described as savage and cruel by people who don’t understand it. It is Africa’s second most endangered carnivore.

(Incidentally, the dubious distinction of ‘most endangered carnivore’ on the continent goes to the Simean jackal or Ethiopian wolf – a reddish jackal-like canid that lives in the Afro-alpine regions of Ethiopia).

Life and times of the African wolf

Wild dogs are the wolves of Africa and their zoological name Lycaon (Greek for wolf) pictus (Latin for painted) is an appropriate moniker. Their social structure is very similar to their European and American cousins although at 27kgs, they are about two thirds t

he mass. The pack (from two to up 30 individuals) is lead by an alpha pair who, unless the pack is enormous, is normally the only one to breed. This they do once a year, normally in the winter when the vegetation is thin allowing the pack increased visibility which suits their pernicious and unsubtle hunting style. The whole pack will feed the pups by regurgitating meat for them. They do this for sick and injured members too. Wild dogs favour woodland and savannah habitats but they can easily exist in grassland.

Wild dog packs are highly efficient hunting units. They do not employ the subtleties of the stalking feline counterparts. Instead they simply sight a herd of potential prey and then tear off after them, sometimes reaching speeds of 60 kph. The alpha male normally leads the hunt and packs have been known to chase prey for more than five kilometres at a time. They’re not particularly fussy eaters and will eat anything from scrub hares to wildebeest. That said, they like their meals fresh and tend not to eat carrion or rancid meat – unlike jackals, hyaenas and the big cats.

Where are they now?

Wild dogs used to be distributed throughout Africa but for the desert and rain f

orest regions of the continent. During the last century however, these incredible animals were been reduced to an estimated 5000 individuals. Their decline has been brought about by human persecution, disease and habitat loss. Most of the remaining dogs are concentrated in southern Africa with a small population in Tanzania, an isolated group in Senegal and there are confirmed populations in central Africa. There are also anecdotal reports of dogs from Mali, Guinea, Gambia, Nigeria, Algeria and Mauritania.

In southern Africa, the dogs occur in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Malawi, Zambia, Angola and the far north east of Namibia. There are also records of individuals in Mozambique south of the Zambezi River.

Botswana offers some of the best wild dog viewing with packs found in the Okavango Delta, Moremi Game Reserve, Chobe-Linyanti river system, Nxai Pan National Park an

d Chobe National Park. They also occur in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve and Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park.

In Zimbabwe packs occur in the Hwange and Mana Pools National Parks although they also live in Gonarezhou in the far south east – these probably come in and out from the Kruger in South Africa.

In South Africa, the largest wild dog population occurs in the Kruger National Park and visitors to the southern end of the Kruger and nearby p

rivate game reserves often have fantastic wild dog sightings."

By now you are probably wondering where you can spot these curious creatures. Some of the best camps for viewing wild dog in Botswana include Duba Plains Camp, Chitabe Camps, Zarafa Camp, Selinda Camp, DumaTau Camp, Kings Pool Camp and Kalahari Plains Camp. We can create a customized safari to visit some of these camps and increase your chances of spotting wild dog, or you can book our Botswana Deluxe, Botswana Great Wilderness Journey, Botswana Wild Kalahari or our Ultimate Botswana Safari. Contact us for more information.