Recent sightings of South Luangwa’s wild dogs have brought back memories for one Marula Lodge guest…
We Brits are a nation of dog lovers. We’d rather re-mortgage the house than see our pooch go without expensive medical treatment. Take a dog for a walk and you’re guaranteed new friends.
Our pets may be precious and pampered but they can also be trained to provide essential and life enhancing services.
In the valley, Conservation South Luangwa, in partnership with Working Dogs for Conservation (a US based NGO) has its own dog detection unit helping in the fight against wildlife trafficking.
Wild dogs, however, just don’t fit that mould.
I first came across them in 2012 while on a drive. It was late afternoon. I couldn’t see them through the brush but I heard the blood curdling screams, the howling and barking as they prepared to hunt; sounds forever etched in my memory. After about five minutes the frantic vocal activity was replaced by silence and the dogs appeared beside us relaxed and calm. A sudden, sharp intake of breath is all most people can manage on first sight of these elusive creatures.
For what seemed like an age, nothing happened and then one dog got up and started off at a trot. The others, as if on cue, followed in a line, moving with an effortless, easy grace that I’ve come to love. Then they were gone.
Since then, I’ve been lucky enough to see the dogs many times. The pack of seven has increased fourfold and there’s still that sharp intake of breath whenever I come across them.
But they aren’t dogs as we know them and any attempt to domesticate them has failed.
They’re certainly stunning with their bat-like ears and kaleidoscope patchwork coats, every dog unique, but their long legs and lean body give them a malnourished air.
They have a unique social hierarchy led by the alpha breeding pair. They look out for each other and while hunting, they communicate and co-ordinate movements. They have the highest success rate of any predator. They’re ruthless in pursuit of prey and witnessing a kill is not for the squeamish.
It’s sobering knowing that they’re the second most endangered species in Africa after the Ethiopian wolf, canine distemper or rabies could wipe out an entire pack.
So why would anyone become obsessed with them?
I think it’s because they have an ethereal quality that just doesn’t sit well with our image of dogs as man’s best friend. They’re nomads, they can’t be pinned down. You never know where they might turn up but sometimes they let you into their lives for a few brief moments and it’s food for the soul.
They truly are free spirits.
