The Ultimate Hunt

During the morning game drive, myself and Greg followed up on a pack of eight wild dogs in the south of the reserve. Amazingly Greg found two wild dogs chasing an impala ram through the clearings into water!

What is amazing about wild dogs is that they are highly sociable and skilled hunters. Once the pair trapped the impala in the water, they called the rest of the pack to come and help. The six other pack members heard that something was happening and arrived on the scene.

The wild dogs kept running around the dam wishing the impala would come out. We spent over two hours watching and waiting to see what was going to happen. Eventually two male dogs decided to go into the water and pull the exhausted impala out. The rest then helped them, and the feeding frenzy began. After all that time the meal was over in 30 minutes.

As a guide this kind of sighting is very rare to see. I have seen wild dogs hunting and making kills many times while guiding here, but this sort of sighting is so special but also very hard to watch. However, for one to succeed it means another may need to sacrifice itself - we must never forget that.