The photo challenge theme for this week is waiting… showing the moments before the action. Many of the wild animals that I love to watch so much are incredibly masterful at waiting. Lions lounge around most of the day conserving energy, and then only truly pursue a hunt when the prey is in the correct range. Leopards and cheetah are much the same. Spending time on safari, you must learn to be comfortable with waiting as well. More often than not, you’ll be spending time with animals while they are in their waiting periods; it’s certainly not all action with cheetahs taking down gazelle at full speed like you see on the wildlife documentaries. But even so, there’s no other place I’d rather be 🙂
I hope you enjoy my take on waiting.
One of the wild dog pack members, watching the road and awaiting further instructions from the pack leader. Botswana, April 2017.A leopard pauses on his afternoon rounds, listening perhaps for the sounds of other leopards nearby, or prey is the distance. He was very deliberate in his patrol, often pausing to listen, then make a slight correction to the direction he was heading. Botswana, April 2017.A lioness looks off into the distance, towards a herd of impala and zebra. She’s wasn’t making a move at this time, as the herd had spotted her, and pursuit would have been futile. Much better to watch, and wait. South Africa, May 2017.
The heavily pregnant alpha female of a wild dog pack pauses while the rest of the pack played and lounged just out of the photo. The pack denned at Ngala and I believe she had a litter of 18 puppies. For the future of wild dogs, successes like those are definitely needed. May, 2015
My first trip to Africa, I was lucky enough to see a pack of wild dogs, and we spent a short amount of time with them while they lazed away a hot afternoon under the trees. This trip, I spent a great deal of time with the pack, as we tried to monitor them twice a day; first thing in the morning as they were settling in for their days rest, and then in the late afternoon as they set out on the move. This much time in close proximity of the dogs gave me ample opportunity to witness a variety of pack dynamics and behaviours. Watching them play was definitely one of my favourite moments with them.
One of the dogs rolled in the dirt for ages, kicking up quite the dust storm. 1/1250 sec, f7.1, ISO 1600Time for a headlock! 1/1250sec, f7.1, ISO 1600A pair of dogs wrestle on the road, while another member tries to catch up on sleep. 1/500sec, f5.6, ISO 1600
Since Monday I have been at Zimanga Private Game Reserve as a photographic volunteer with Wildlife ACT. The primary focus on this reserve is monitoring and tracking wild dog and cheetah. While the cheetah has remained elusive thus far, I have had the opportunity to spend some time with the pack of six wild dogs. I’m having a brilliant time. As it is very soon time for the afternoon monitoring session, this post will be brief; I wanted the chance though to share a few photos from the past days, as a hint of what is to come.
A bull elephant heading straight towards us on the road, while we drove in reverse! He was completely cool with our presence, but was also on a mission along that road, so we had to get out of his way. 1/320sec, f8.0, ISO 200A juvenile brown snake eagle. 1/1000sec, f6.3, ISO 200A member of the wild dog pack eyes us; we woke them from their afternoon nap. 1/160sec, f9.0, ISO 200A pair of waterbuck, moments before they bolted for safety away from our gaze. 1/500sec, f8.0, ISO 1000A giraffe in front of a jacaranda tree. 1/640sec, f10, ISO 400
Before I left for my first trip to Africa, people would ask me what I was most looking forward to seeing. Of course, I would say “Everything!”. I enjoy nature, love watching wildlife and birds, and enjoy traveling and seeing new places, so I really was looking forward to seeing everything. When pressed though, I would admit I would really love to see a baby elephant, and wild dogs.
As we were traveling to the Zambezi River and a taking a day trip into Botswana, I knew the chances of seeing a baby elephant (or many baby elephants as it would turn out) was quite high. In talking to people though, wild dogs seemed very unlikely. My ranger at Londolozi explained that for private reserves, unless the wild dogs den on the site, viewings are very rare because the wild dogs travel over great distances, and are a threatened species, so there are not many of them to see. She also told me of more than one group she knew of that had been on several safaris, never to see the elusive wild dogs.
In Botswana, we spent a lovely morning on a boat cruise, viewing elephants, hippos, water buffaloes, crocodiles and loads of different types of birds. In the afternoon, we went for a game drive in Chobe Park, allowing us to get much closer to the elephants. Our lovely guide Mike pulled over early in the drive to read a text message sent by another guide, and told us that wild dogs had had a kill the previous day in the area, and would likely still be near the water hole – would we like to try and find them? I answered yes for the group and we went off on an hours trek, up to the water hole, following their last tracks, over to their kill site – which by this point was nothing more than a pile of bones being fought over by vultures.
Just as we were giving up hope of seeing them, another guide had found their position, and a few minutes later, we were sitting amongst a pack of wild dogs – 18 in total. They were enjoying the shade, trying to beat the mid afternoon heat and digest the large meal they had recently had. The lighting was unfortunate for photography, but the experience was simply amazing.
African Wild Dog, April 2013African Wild Dogs April 2013
