Having the wild dogs and their pups on the property has been nothing short of amazing. A few days after the initial sighting of them on the northern boundary, we had tracks of them all moving around central Londolozi. We were struck with a bit of luck and happened to stumble across the adults trotting straight through the bush towards us. With only all seven adults present, we presumed that the pups had been left behind and the adults were setting off on a late afternoon hunt.
After possibly jinxing it, the wild dogs disappeared into a treacherous block where we were unable to follow them. We decide to sit tight where we are while the other vehicles loop around to see if the wild dogs pop out on the other side. Within minutes Melvin’s voice crackles over the radio,
“they are highly mobile through the Maxabene River. One dog is chasing something, it looked like it could be an impala or maybe a nyala!”
Excitement levels shoot through the roof and we scramble to get ourselves there as quickly as possible to hopefully see some of the action unfolding. From there we are treated to the adults returning to the pups to complete the entire process.
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Sean, thank you for a fascinating video with the wild dogs and their pups.
You are welcome, William. I hope you enjoyed it.
Just incredible, Sean. And I so appreciate your thoughts about how the adult wild dogs figure out how much to regurgitate. I’ve found that each time I’ve been to Londolozi one ‘peels the onion’ on these kind of ponderings.
Thank you so much, Willa. It is something that I had been thinking about a fair amount since the previous sighting of them.
Hi Sean, so exciting to see the 19 pups again, they are growing up so quickly. I am sure there must be a sense of knowing when to stop regurgitating the food for the pups, so that they can sustain themselves. I would of thought if the females stopped letting the pups suckle that there milk will dry up. Nevertheless the video is stunning and we could see from start to finish how the pups get fed. Poor Inyala had to sacrifice his life for them, but that is how it goes in the bush.
They really are growing so quickly. I would have thought that if she had stopped suckling the pups then the teats would have stopped producing milk and would no longer be swollen like that.
Great blog! Sean, I was thinking the exact same thing that you spoke about. How do the adults know how much to regurgitate for the pups? If they were to regurgitate all of their meal it would defeat the purpose as they need the nutrition as well. If you find out, let us know! Thank you
Thank you so much, Mija. I will let you know as soon as I find out anything further.
Amazing footage Sean of what I’m labeling “the hunt, the kill, the frenzied eating, and subsequent feeding the pups!” I could sense the excitement from you and the rangers, once you were able to move in close and additionally, I appreciated your pondering. I have wondered how, with 19 active pups to feed, each pup is able to grab enough food from one of 7 adults in order to thrive……
Thanks so much, Denise. It was amazing to see the whole process and spend some time with that many pups.
Sean, What an awesome video! You caught it just right. Your feeding questions are good ones and we guess that the parents must know how much food they can share. Or maybe they have ingested some of the protein etc. before sharing with their young.
Thank you so much, Michael. I had been pondering those questions for a while.
Getting news about the pups is always great.
What an amazing video, Sean, with all the stages of hunting, eating and feeding the pups.
Hopefully you will be able to enjoy some more time with them on Londolozi. And good to know that all 19 are still fine.
Thank you, Christa.
Great footage of the wild dogs Sean!! I really am fascinated by them, and this “full cycle” hunting and feeding video really was epic!!
Thanks so much, Paul. Wild dogs are phenomenal animals and having the chance to spend so much time with them is amazing.
love love love those pups! so happy there are still 19! would that batchelor (?) eagle grab a pup? would love to see a wild dog hunt! is there any older footage you can share from one? ALSO on a technical note…used to be able to full screen these videos and no longer can…is that a new thing? 🙁
The wild dog pups are the best to spend some time with. No, so the Bataleur wouldn’t be able to grab/kill a pup, they would only feed on the scraps left behind on the floor after the adult wild dogs regurgitating some food for the pups. Let me look into that for you, it is strange that you are not able to view full screen any longer.
Thank you! It appears now I need to jump over to YouTube to get full screen instead of watching the feed from my email…all good…worth the extra step! 🙂
I’m so impressed (and glad!) that all 19 pups are still alive and doing well. Let’s hope that trend continues. 🙏
I love all videos of Londolozi, but as I wrote in other circumstances with other predators, lions and buffalo in particular, it’s enough to know that such things exist, I don’t understand why it’s so exciting looking at such a wonderful animal like nyala or impala, bushbuck ans so on torn into pieces alive. On the researcher ‘s perspective, or simple nature lover, it’s interesting to look at every development of species and their interactions. As a child I remembered wild dogs (called licaons then) as endangered animals and I couldn’t understand why they were so persecuted. Of course they need a great amount of food, otherwise they can’t survive and thrive. Still a curiosity for me to understand how they can keep all 19 pups alive while lions that are apex predators and live in groups too loose so many