An evening with Wild Dogs

Africa » Kenya » Rift Valley Province » Laikipia
February 22nd 2008

Published: March 13th 2008

Edit Blog Post

Peregrine

A Toast

To the dogs!

Early this morning I awoke to the most peculiar night noise I've yet heard in the African bush. So strange, in fact, that when I woke up for work a couple hours later, I wasn't convinced it was anything more than a vivid dream.

Initially, the sound wasn't anything particularly unusual - nothing more than the call of a fairly unimaginative owl giving a single hoot every second or two. Then, suddenly and without warning, that single hoot became a cacophony of melodious hoot-warbling. I was completely taken by surprise - I'd never heard anything like it before! It certainly wasn't an owl, as I had previously thought. The only bird to which I could liken the sound was an Australian Magpie, if it were singing with a half dozen other Australian Magpies. I eventually fell back asleep, wondering what had made such a curious noise . . .

It wasn't until lunch that day that I determined the source of the racket during the lightless hours of the morning. Rosie, head of the Wild Dog Project, had asked the table if anyone had heard the wild dogs that night. In a bewildered epiphany, I knew that's exactly what

Kayna & Talik

Kayna pointing out the dogs to Talik, who keeps a dubious eye on his distant cousins outside

I had heard, even before asking Rosie what, exactly, African Wild Dogs sound like. She confirmed my revelation by describing the hoot-like contact call made by one individual, followed by the hoot-barking response by the rest of the pack. Needless to say, I was quite excited to add wild dogs to my growing list of nocturnal mutterings, and even more excited at the prospect of seeing this pack, called the Sosians, while they roamed the area.

Just before heading into the field for the afternoon, Kayna approached me to ask if I wanted to join her for sundowners with the wild dogs, since they were bedding down for the day no more than ten minutes from the research center. YES! It would have to be an abbreviated afternoon in the field, but well worth cutting the field day short.

After an unsuccessful two hours trapping, I rushed back to the research center so as not to miss my date with wild dogs. I caught Sarah and Kayna just as they were getting prepared to leave, and hopped into the red Wild Dog Project LandCruiser. During the short drive (less than ten minutes) to the dogs' location, Kayna provided

Sarah & Kayna

Sarah and Kayna raising their glasses to the dogs

a brief background on this particular pack: 18 dogs total, with 4 adults, 7 yearlings, and 7 8-month-old pups. A couple years ago, a female had vied for the alpha female position, and was subsequently exiled. So what did she do? She gave birth to and raised 4 pups on her own, only to return to the pack to prove her strength, resilience, and alpha-caliber. She remains the alpha female today.

The Sosians are also the first wild dogs in Eastern Africa to be vaccinated for rabies in years. I should know more about the specifics of the story than I do, but the gist of it is that years ago a major die-out of wild dogs in the Serengeti coincided with a vaccination trial, leading critics to falsely believe it was the fault of the researchers and vets that administered the vaccinations. It's taken a lot of time to heal the wounds caused by those events, and the Kenyan government has been quite wary of giving Rosie and the Wild Dog Project the authority to undertake another trial until recently. In fact, it's taken Rosie two years to get the go-ahead. The study and the trial have serious

African Wild Dog

One of the 18 Sosians we encountered, checking us out.

implications for wild dog conservation since rabies are one of the leading causes of anthropogenic deaths in the species (by way of rabid domestic dogs).

With the help of a GPS unit, Kayna decided she had located the wild dogs behind a small kopje immediately off the road. Sure enough, Rosie's treads, from earlier in the afternoon, could be seen diverging from the dirt track and into the bush. We followed her path, crashing through the least dense brush we could as we dodged more formidable obstacles. I stood on the back seat, keeping a sharp eye out for dogs passed out in the shade of an acacia (and for thorny branches reaching out to slap me across the face).

It took a few minutes of navigating the bush and scanning for animals, but we eventually found the pack spread out underneath several acacias at the base of the small roadside kopje, lazing on their stomachs or sides. It was amazing how close they were to the road, probably 20-30 meters, yet it would be impossible to see them from there. I couldn't help but wonder how many times I've driven past a pack of wild dogs, or

Portrait of a Wild Dog

a lion, or leopard. Countless times, no doubt.

The Sosians are quite used to the red Wild Dog Project vehicles, and didn't seem to mind us tearing through the brush to get a decent view of them. An occasional glance up was about all they could muster before falling back asleep. They are a somewhat crepuscular species, hunting in the evening and early morning hours, then sleeping throughout the majority of night and day. Our hope was to watch them until they decided to wake up for their evening hunt, a celebratory event during which one or two of the dogs become aroused and begin twittering, an excitement that sweeps throughout the pack until all the dogs run about in a frenzy, greeting each other in a frantic twitter and generally just getting pumped up to hunt, kill, and eat something.

We weren't satisfied with our initial view of just a few dogs and, while trying to find a better vantage point, stumbled across a sleeping Spotted Hyena just meters away. I was floored that a pack of wild dogs would tolerate a hyena in their midst, but apparently there is some sort of mutualistic relationship going on

Spotted Hyena

One of the Spotted Hyenas resting near the dogs, a strange tolerance on behalf of both parties.

here. Hyenas are often seen around wild dogs, presumably because wild dogs have the highest success rate of all hunting carnivores and are a reliable source of kill remains to scavenge. What the dogs get in return, I'm not sure - perhaps the presence of hyenas deters larger carnivores, such as lions or leopards (both known to prey on wild dogs).

We eventually found a place to get settled and pull out the wine, after driving back out to the road to skirt the kopje and find a path on the opposite side. From this viewpoint we could see the majority of the dogs, including the nearly full-grown 8-month-old pups and a few of the yearlings. A couple stood up to investigate the rumbling red beast that parked itself a couple dozen meters away, but soon flopped back down on their siblings before falling back asleep. There were literally piles of dogs scattered throughout the bushes! Such social creatures . . .

It wasn't long before the hyena we had seen earlier began milling around and was joined by a second, clearly becoming restless while waiting for the dogs to wake up and begin their evening hunt. As

Keeping Watch

we had suspected, however, the dogs didn't feel an urgency to begin their hunt since the recently full moon provided more than enough light to hunt during the dead of the night. Instead, they continued relaxing and dozing well into dusk, at which point we had to leave and return to the research center for dinner. Unfortunately, we had put ourselves in such a position that backing out was nigh impossible, so we had to basically find a path through the sleeping canines. As we slowly motored through a resting pile of dogs, they reluctantly got to their feet and wandered a few steps out of our way before settling down again. No wonder they can run an average of 25 miles an hour for hours on end - they reserve energy by sleeping 20 hours a day!

Back at the center, we enjoyed another glass of wine on Kayna's veranda before heading up to dinner. Walking by the moonlight and without the aid of our torches, Kayna was startled to hear something scuffling through the dry grass at her feet - turning on her torch, she discovered it was a hedgehog! I couldn't have been more thrilled -

Shooting Dogs

Snapping a few shots of the hyena and dogs

while I thoroughly enjoy seeing the charismatic megafauna like elephants and lions and wild dogs, sometimes its the smaller and more rarely seen creatures about which I get the most excited. African Hedgehogs aren't necessarily rare, but they're not often seen, so I was quite excited at Kayna's find. I once had a hedgehog as a pet, and enjoyed seeing one in the wild far more than in my living room.

So our night in a nutshell: sundowners with African Wild Dogs and Spotted Hyenas, and dinner with an African hedgehog! Not bad . . .

In fact, the past few days have had some fantastic and memorable highlights. Yesterday morning, for instance, I woke up to a completely unexpected total lunar eclipse. At 0530, walking to breakfast, I noticed that the moon, which had been full and radiant the night before, was disappearing - the Earth's shadow covering all but a tiny sliver. Over the next half hour I watched our planet's shadow descend upon and completely envelope the moon, giving it the appearance of an opaque lightbulb lit from the inside at full eclipse. It was a brilliant sight and a fantastic start to my day.

Curious Hyena

A Spottie checking us out as it plods by.

I also forgot to mention in my last entry the night drive by full moon from the night before. Sarah joined me on a quick drive to some moonlit clearings, where I was curious to see what could be coaxed from the shadows with my newly-discovered ability to make dying-animal noises. The only real success was at our first stop where, within a few minutes, a White-tailed Mongoose approached the car. It was from this same spot that we heard some elephants trumpet in the distance, more or less in the direction from which we had just come. I made a mental note for when we finally decided to move on, which required backtracking, just in case they actually were immediately where we had been. As we dipped down into a little gully with thick green bush, I said outloud (more to myself than to Sarah), "Boy, I sure hope we don't run into any elephants in here!" Not thirty seconds later, I thought I heard something in the bush to the left of the car and I noticed Sarah was a bit startled. It was a subtle noise, so I wasn't sure what it was - but she

African Hedgehog

The prickly little bugger we found on our way to dinner

had heard it more clearly than I from her position in the passenger seat. I slowed down since I didn't want to run - literally - into an ellie. Just as I did so, a little (at least, by elephantine standards) face poked out of the bushes just ahead of us - baby elephant. Shit. I stopped, not knowing if I should reverse or charge ahead . . . but a sudden crashing of trees close behind convinced me to just blast through and get the hell out of there, and we tore past the little guy (with tusks about a foot long) to safety. An invisible heard of elephants gets the adrenaline pumping like no other, believe me. Especially when you're right next to their baby! My little Suzuki is a tin can, and an elephant is a massive can-opener. An ellie could push it over without a second thought, and puncture the metal with its tusks. Definitely not a car in which you want to confront elephants. That will be the last night drive attempted in Bloodzilla.

I've also seen and been able to photograph some beautiful birds in the last few days. Enjoy the pictures!

Additional photos below

Photos: 22, Displayed: 22