Bushlife Safaris News – December 2011
2011 has been an amazing year for the wild dogs in Mana , spiked by the start of the wild dog research which started in Nov 2010 , the last safari for that year , so it was all new this year .I am hoping to put the work on the dogs towards a Masters degree. I am signed up to do the refresher course for the Wildlife game capture course, so I can dart dogs for the research . I did the course last about 8 years ago, and I need to do the course again.
We have identified 75 dogs fr om 4 packs along he river.
Vundu pack started off with 26 dogs, which splintered when the pack denned 18 dogs stayed with Tait and Jed the alpha pair and raised 11 pups, so the Vundu pack went up to 29 , 2 adults and a pup have been killed by lions, leaving 26 dogs, with one dog coming back into the pack from the splintered off group bringing them to 27, and there is an unconfirmed 3 more killed in the last week.
The long pool pack of 9 had 3 pups, still all alive to date =12
The Nyakasanga pack of 17 split at denning again, 11 of which stayed around little vundu for most of the season, the rest stayed with the alpha pair and raised 8 pups, plus the 7 adults, so 15 in that pack 26 in the nyakasanga pack but they are separated now.
The Ilala pack of 8 a dults had 12 pups, 20 dogs. The pack at Chitake has a total of 16 dogs, Chitake is 40km inland from the river.
2011 has been an extremely dry year, with the rains ending effectively in February we have had quite a few animals dying off and the rains arrivi ng now in late Nov are none too soon. Let’s hope we have a good long rainy season.
