The Wild Dogs Cry Out In The Night

Not exactly at night, but in the early evening as we approached our camp in the NG-32 concession of the Okavango Delta, we encountered a pack of wild dogs and their puppies.

Adult wild dog

This was a rare treat: they are protected in Botswana and not easy to find. Our new guide for the next few days Master had some intelligence from his drive out to Maun earlier that morning, and we were lucky to find the dogs resting in a clearing next to a denser forest.

They had likely eaten recently because the wild dogs eat all the time. They looked like… dogs. Laying on the ground, rolling to their backs every once in a while with their legs in the air, every once in a while standing up then plopping back down to the ground.

Then a commotion started: a dog ran out from the woods; let’s call him the “puppy crier”. He ran around with ears back in submission, making the rounds to all of the resting dogs. In our heads he was either announcing the arrival of the puppies, or asking permission to bring them out.

Wild dog puppies playing

And they came out of the woods in a flurry! They acted like puppies, but were hungry and did the rounds visiting adults who sometimes willingly regurgitated food back to them. They would play and get rambunctious with each other, but eventually joined the adults and rested.

Within another five minutes a few adults, including the alpha male (he had on a collar), left the clearing and went off on what we think was another hunt. Here’s a video showing some of the fun activity: