A meeting with a Painted wolf pack

The Painted wolf, or African Wild Dog, is the main reason why I will travel to Zimbabwe and Mana Pools in July 2014. The Painted wolf, aka Painted Dog, is my favorite species among the big predators of Africa, with the leopard as second.

It might be a little strange to hear me say this, because I am cat lover. Still, I find them more interesting than the big cats of Africa because of them being a curious and social pack animal. In short they are more interesting to watch, study as well as photograph.

So far I have met the Painted wolves on three occasions. The first time in South Africa and the two other in Botswana. It has been three completely different kind of sightings. The first was a short and intense meeting with three Painted wolves in Kruger National Park. You can find pictures from that sighting in my Krüger Park album.

Impala killed by African Wild Dogs in Kruger National Park, South Africa — Fresh Impala kill

A quick dinner with leftovers for scavengers

They had killed an Impala, but only eaten the “best” parts leaving the rest for scavengers. We where lucky to caught up with them along the road as they hadn´t moved far. The male was really curious when we approached even standing still for a short period. It was five intense minutes and my first glimpse of this beautiful animal.

African Wild Dog or Painted Wolf in Kruger National Park, South Africa — African Wild Dog aka Painted Wolf

The second meeting, where in the famous Moremi Game Reserve, Botswana, and most of the pictures in the gallery is from that meeting.

This meeting lasted for almost 30 minutes.

I think we had a pack of twelve Painted wolves in total. Most of them where lying down in the tall grass waiting for the temperature to drop. One individual was clearly eager to hunt and was trying to persuade the others to get up and move.

Botswana is a stronghold for the African Wild Dog aka Painted WolF

They had an audience in the form of a couple of Vultures that waited for them to get active. Vulures can often be a good indicator of a carcass and therefore a great way of finding predators. Sadly poachers kill Vultures, as well as other scavengers, to remove the natural indicator of a carcass. It makes their dirty business less visible. They poison the carcass killing scavengers mercilessly without thinking twice of the implications for the ecosystem.

Sadly, we had to leave the pack of Painted wolves beforer they got active. The hour was late and we needed to grab a beer before moving back to our camp before sunset.

It was a nice ending to a great day on safari even if I think I got carried away by the sighting. It really did not produce the pictures I wanted. Still, I got a couple of nice shots that you can see in the gallery.

I will leave the third meeting for another post, and hope you can enjoy this gallery for the time being.