Phenomenal photos of playful wild dog pups
Posted by Guest Blogger in Animal Encounters — 3 Comments ↓ Article from Africa Geographic.
Posted: October 14, 2014
Written by: Max Waugh
In July I led a photo tour in southern Africa, we enjoyed numerous leopard encounters, lions and elephants at close range (and I even found a few owls, a personal favourite). However, the highlight for me was a memorable encounter with a pack of wild dogs.
When we arrived on the scene, the pack was strewn about, napping near the road.
The adults were lounging in the grass, but their nine pups were sprawled out right in the middle of the road.
There wasn’t much activity to speak of during the first twenty minutes or so. Occasionally a lone pup would get up and walk around for a bit, but inevitably they flopped back down again.
Despite the lack of action, our ranger told us to be patient. Eventually, he predicted, the adults would rouse themselves for an afternoon hunt. And when that happened, he assured us things would get a bit crazy. After a few more minutes, our patience paid off.
We were told to expect the adults to get themselves “pumped up” for the hunt by joining together in a frenzied social gathering. Soon the wild dogs were sniffing, licking, biting and tackling each other.
The pups sprang to their feet and lined up, waiting for their turn to join the melee.
Finally, the adults turned their attention to the youngsters. The air was filled with sounds of high-pitched squeaking as the pups followed and played with the adults.
At times, the adults would tackle and bite the pups in a show of dominance. It was pretty rough play, and a couple of the pups sported bloody wounds under their throats. Sometimes, the pups would try to assert dominance over each other.
What fun it was to seeing such a rare animal engage in this unique social behaviour. It didn’t hurt that those pups were pretty darn cute as well.
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