My fascination with African Wild Dogs is probably also influenced by their rare sightings in the wild.

Wild dog pack size is ranging from 12 to sometimes even up to 30 dogs. However, only leading pair, alpha female, and the male who are the representatives from different gene line are allowed to breed. Second in the hierarchy are beta female and male who sometimes mate, however, the alpha female will kill their puppies. The rest of the dogs in the pack supports the alpha pair breeding effort collectively by performing different roles that are either hunting or den guarding and caring for the pups.

There are many great places, game parks and reserves where to see Wild dogs as well as other Africa’s endangered animals, follow to the website: https://blog.rhinoafrica.com/2017/11/29/best-places-to-see-endangered-wildlife-in-africa/

Our mission to see Wild Dogs in Madikwe, started with guide’s well-reiterated question before game-drive, ” Any specific animals you might want to see? ”

In response to our request to see Wild Dogs, I thought I saw a slight expression of  ” You are giving us too big of a task”.

Wilderness for us is a meditation of its own kind. Listening to the sounds of nature; tranquillity of the bush, driving around for hours to soak in the presence of untouched scenery and if you encounter some animals on your path, – it will be a bonus. However this time we went to the Game Park with a specific purpose, – to find the painted dogs.

It was just in the early hours of the morning when the sun started to peep over the horizon, extending golden light through scrubs and bushes, when we stumbled upon a group of Wild Dogs. The group was not collared, and our guide was just driving based on where the Wild Dogs were seen a day ago.  Considering that the Wild Dogs are nomadic carnivores with an area of occupancy ranging over 250 square kilometres, it was just pure luck for us and answer to our wishes.

They are very efficient hunters with 80% success rate compared to other carnivores.

I felt aghast when our guide stated that the death in the jaws of the Wild Dogs, is less cruel than of the other carnivores. Even though witnessing this is a gruesome act, but the tactic Wild dogs use to kill is by disembowelling the prey, – well executed and devoured within minutes. This type of killing tactic terminates a life of the prey almost instantly versus suffocation tactic that other carnivores use.   I am sure it would be a gory sight to witness such an execution.  This is also a reason why wild dogs have gained a ferocious reputation and have been misunderstood by people in the past, that has caused their eradication by humans.

Even though a great work is done by many organisations and by Wild Dog Advisory Group in South Africa, due to the active expansion of civilization causing habitat loss, Wild Dogs remain an endangered species that stand on the brink of extinction. In addition to this is contributing factors to poaching, other predators, parasite diseases and probably also their social structure.

Proactive conservation may be the reliance needed to defy the odds for African Wild Dog existence.