African Wild Dog

[Bush Baptist]

I have checked my records and my first wild dog sighting was near Pkop circa 1980. It was a brief but unmistakeable sighting of a single dog down one of the dirt roads. By the time I turned around and got there it was gone.

I have been fortunate to have had another 16 wild dog sightings in Kruger since then, including 2 kills.
4 sightings have been a single dog, while the largest pack was 24.

I have seen the same pack on 3 consecutive days (I count each day from scratch) twice.

Most of the sightings have been on the Croc Bridge - LS tar road (5) incuding a kill, and 4 (but long ago) in the Pkop area, with 2 on the H7 and 2 at the Transport Dam (kill) or on the road down there.

My last sighting was the 24 on the S33 in Nov 2009, my sixth consecutive trip of doggie sightings.

[shaheen]

[Elsa]

We had a very brief but definite sighting of a single dog a km or so before the Phalaborwa gate on 12th June.
It appeared to have an injured leg and we think it was trying to catch up to the rest of the pack.

[onewithnature]

Shaheen, that's so special. Dogs are one of the few animals that are really difficult to predict and, mostly, it's potluck. Glad you finally got to see them.

Elsa, a dog is a dog, whether it's a pack or a loner. As you say, most likely the pack was up ahead somewhere.

BB, thanks for sharing your stats with us. Makes interesting reading. It shows how seldom dogs are actually sighted; my stats read somewhat similarly and I have also been going to Kruger for yonks. What is magnificent for me is that I almost always remember every wild dog, cheetah, and leopard sighting, and many of the lion ones. Bet you remember every one of your wild dog sightings too?

[Carol g]

On our recent trip to Kruger we were lucky enough to see 2 wild dog sightings .The first was 9 dogs on the S25 and the next 4 Dogs on the Satara/ Olifants tar road, about 5 km from Satara.

Our very first wild dog sighting I remember vividly, even though it was in 1982, it was between Skukuza and Tshokwane, 15 doggies running on the road, will never forget that sighting.

[flying cheetah]

Adult and Youngster:

[Mfezi]

Some Wild Dog pics... The first pic was taken on the H3 about 500m after the turn off from the H1-1. The second pic was taken on the S82.

[KobusF]

Hi friends

We saw these Wild Dogs on our trip in January 2013 on the way to Lower Sabie just past Nkulu. The first pic was on the bright of N'watimhiri.

[SamoesaWoestyn]

During November 2011 we saw this pack of 17 dogs at Rabelais Dam. The young ones were very playful the whole afternoon.

[onewithnature]

Love this thread as every wild dog sighting is thrilling and special.

[bshepardson03]

I don't see a link for this animal, so I though that I would start one. we've seen them 4 times now in Kruger. These photos were taken at Leeupan off the H1-2.

[Selamat]

Our experience with wild dogs:

Kruger Park - South Africa - 15 september 2012

A rainy morning, around 9 am. We're driving on the 'Circle Road' near Pretoriuskop.

On the road ahead, we see an unexpected animal. It appears to be a domestic dog, complete with collar and leash around his neck.
He probably strayed away from a village close to the border of the Krugerpark and must have gotten lost; he's running around aimlessly.

Suddenly we notice a group of 'Wild Dogs' walking high up between the rocks. They spotted the little domestic dog as well and climb down towards the road.
Fearing the worst for the little dog, we could do nothing but watch the violent confrontation happen in front of our car.
The three Wild Dogs attack and they engage in a wild and unfair fight, chasing the defenseless dog into the high grass.

The little dog gives everything he's got: he bites, growls, barks, bares his teeth...

Just when we're thinking the little animal must be getting devoured in the bushes, something even more unexpected happens:
the three big dogs give up their fight and flee away, tail between their legs.

After his surprising victory we see the domestic dog one last time. Limping slightly on his rear leg, he disappears along the road.


http://youtu.be/j7wM7rvE4kU

[Heksie]

What a strange and once in a lifetime experience Selamat. It is strange and peculiar due to the fact that wild dogs actually even kill single dogs that is in their territory and this pet made it out alive amazing pics and a big WOW!

I'm just putting the link up so the other mites can view it directly:

http://youtu.be/j7wM7rvE4kU

[flying cheetah]

I'm just back from my annual trip to Kruger.
Sightingwise the trip started very slow (took me 2 weeks to find my first leopard) then it got better and better and the last week was simply incredible.
Altogether I had 6 wild dog sightings and I would say that I spend more than 6 hours with them.
The most spectacular sighting I had on my last morning and now I would like to tell you the story:
Last Wednesday I saw a pack of 11 dogs at 6 pm just 1 km north of the Matjulu bridge (BnD area).
They were walking in the Afsaal direction and of course I made a plan to find them again the following day. In the morning I was second at the gate, ignored the lions beside the road and drove to the tar road where I have seen them the day before.
They were just 2 km's away and still sleepy when I found them.
After 15 minutes they got up, started to socialize and I thought that they soon would start to hunt.
Suddenly 3 adult dogs walked a bit away from the others and looked up the tar road northwards.
First I could see nothing but soon I saw 6-7 other dogs speeding towards "my" pack.
I thought they belong together but when they got nearer they all started a serious fight.
They attacked each other in the same way as they attack their prey animals and for more then 5 minutes there was hell all over the place and it was nearly impossible to follow all the action.
But from what I saw I think there was at least one dog killed and one seriously injured!!
Has anyone of you seen something like that before and do you know if this happens regularly?
For me it was a fascinating but also shocking sighting and all that I know after this experience is that I definitely have to learn more about these amazing animals!

[Elsa]

That must have been a rather unnerving sighting FC, lovely to see them but not fighting to the death like that.
I would imagine they were from a different pack and had intruded on the first packs territory to cause such aggression.