The quest for chaka - chaka
Thought it might be time for another episode of Jon’s blog so here is one on Hunting or Painted dogs.
To see a large jumbo on a game drive is great. To see a tusker when the dusty drive is completed is even more satisfying. But then, a tusker is the local Kenyan beer! It was in the bar at the Intrepids lodge in the Mara that I was reflecting on how good life could be, with Africa all around me and a cold tusker beer in my hand. As I sipped my pint, a man walked in, obviously also desperate to see a tusker. He looked weary, ordered his pint and sat on the stool beside me. We nodded and, as is customary, I asked him if he’d had any good sightings. The American said that he’d just flown in from Botswana and that this was the second leg of his safari.
He added that he’d seen some interesting species on this trip, but had spent the entire previous day pursuing one species and that he was bruised and sore from the constant bumping around in the jeep. He didn’t seem too impressed that his guide and driver insisted that they didn’t leave this species all day, and that they had also missed the moment of the kill. Intrigued, I asked him what it was that had so excited his spotting team. A pack of about thirty wild dogs was his reply. And with that, he ordered another tusker.
When he later departed, I thought how sad it was that somebody should view such an opportunity with such disinterest. No wonder his guide and driver were so keen to follow the dogs. It was possibly the chance of a lifetime.
The wild or painted dog were once relatively common throughout Africa, but due partly to shooting and poisoning by farmers, being killed by lions, habitat reduction and the effects of contracting diseases from domestic dogs, its numbers have decreased dramatically to between 3000-5000. Some experts consider it to be the most efficient of Africa’s carnivores, hunting in a pack, where the lead animal is replaced as it tires by the next in line for up to 5km. With its individual marbling colouration and its complicated social structure, where only the alpha male and female breed, but the entire pack provide food for the pups, it is one of the most interesting of Africa’s mammals. As I reflected on the sighting he’d had, I thought how much I would like to see the painted dog in the wild. And with that thought another quest began.
It took about six months’ research before the trip was organised, then over nine more months before we had saved enough to actually book it and depart. Destination Selous in Tanzania, one of the last strongholds of the wild dog.
That’s how my wife and I found ourselves standing by a dusty air strip in the Selous one hot July morning. Greeting us were our guide Ezra and his driver Raj. Introductions over and Ezra asked us what we most hoped to see during our four-day visit. When told wild dogs he gave a wry smile and said that they would do their best but that a splinter pack, known as the Darja la fisi pack, which included the lodge area within their home range, had not been seen for over two weeks and that the original pack of over twenty dogs was thought to be over thirty miles to the south. It didn’t look good, especially bearing in mind that a home range could cover up to 2000 sq km.
The next morning at first light we started looking for the dogs. The best chance of seeing wild dog on a regular basis is when they have a den of pups which ties them to a location for about nine weeks. We’d factored this into our plan before booking, but Ezra stated that the last time they’d seen the dogs the female didn’t look pregnant, although it was the right time of year. It really was like looking for a needle in a haystack. We quartered the ground, especially around a lake where they sometimes came to drink and relax after a kill, but it was worrying to think that as we drove up one side of some bushes, the dogs could be lying on the other, and we would never know they were there. Ezra further depressed us by saying that one of the males had been killed, probably by a lion, a couple of months earlier. We were looking for only three dogs, the odds seemed stacked against us.
Day two followed the same pattern. Hours spent driving around bushes, studying tracks, and in communication with two other vehicles with the same goal. Again we drew a blank. Day three dawned and the pattern was repeated. The dogs just didn’t seem to be around. Dispiritedly, after almost three hours driving around the lake, we gave up and started driving to view a pride of lion.
After a couple of miles, the radio crackled into life. Ezra answered it and turned to me with a grin on his face.” You’re a lucky man Jon, the dogs are back”
We turned and careered back. This time it was easy, because one of the other two jeeps had stumbled upon the dogs after an impala kill, and had followed them back to the lake where they were drinking. The occupants of the other jeep greeted us with huge grins and thumbs up. We cut our engine and watched the three animals taking it easy. Nobody spoke, we just drank the view in. For over an hour there was silence apart from the click of cameras and the panting of the dogs. It was magical. Then the first jeep left us alone with the dogs until the third jeep, having been summoned by radio, also turned up with grinning occupants and it was our turn to depart. We had been incredibly lucky for the next day, when we went back, the dogs had moved on.
We later learnt that another lone dog joined the pack and that the female did give birth in the area. Hopefully, if the pups survive, this small group’s future will become secure and others may share in the delight of seeing truly wild dog or chaka – chaka, “The ones that trot,” as they are called locally in the Selous.
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