It has now been around two years since the resident pack of Wild Dogs had puppies, but we have been cautiously optimistic that they would den again this year.
A pup from the previous litter taken in September 2015
The alpha pair were seen mating at the beginning of March, again towards the middle & end of March. We kept a close eye on the pack to see if they would start investigating potential densites.
Camera Trap Image
Towards the end of May, they were seen scouting some known densites, and then in the middle of June we noticed that they were spending more time in the mountains – an area where there are plenty of den options.
Camera Trap Image
Head Guide, Armand, along with Wayne headed up the mountain on foot while the pack was away and set up a few of our camera traps in areas that we suspected as potential dens. We left them up for two weeks, and recently collected the camera traps. On downloading all of the files, we had over 6000 images, with the majority of images being those of the pack of Wild Dogs. So we were successful in locating the area they are frequenting.
Camera Trap Image
Camera Trap Image
Camera Trap Image
Although we have not seen puppies yet, we are confident that the Alpha female has dropped her litter up there, and we will head up to collect the next camera trap in the coming weeks and post another update.