1. Wild Dogs

    Posted in: Videos on Friday, December 23rd, 2011

    African Wild Dogs

    There’s a reason they’re called wild dogs.  Just watch them in action jumping, biting, play fighting with each other and the first thing you think is,”These guy are wild dogs.”   Then when they go on the hunt their relentless full on pursuit of their prey further cements that reputation.  But those same characteristics that some call wild, have made these dogs one of the most successful predators in Africa.  When they go after an animal, it’s estimated they come home with a meal about 80% of the time.

    I was in Sabi Sabi Game Reserve in South Africa where I spent a couple of days with a large pack of wild dogs and filmed the pups as they put on quite a show with their exuberant play.  The adults would go off hunting every day and then return to regurgitate a hot meal for the kids.  It’s not a recipe you’ll find in the Martha Stewart cookbook.

    More recently i was in Zimbabwe at the Singita Pamushana Lodge in the Malilangwe Wildlife Reserve where I filmed a much smaller pack of wild dogs.  Kim Wolhuter, an old friend and filmmaker who’s made several films for National Geographic, has been living on the property for several years and following the wild dogs.  We hooked up with Kim who drove us to where the dogs were eating an impala  they had killed a few minutes earlier.

    Kim, whose father and grandfather were both game rangers in South Africa, has spent most of his life in the bush, so it should have been no surprise to learn he often gets out of his vehicle and runs with the dogs, crashing through the trees and bushes with them when they go on the hunt.  Still it’s pretty amazing when you think about it, and it does allow him to capture the kind of footafge you won’t see elsewhere.

    I interviewed Kim for my radio show National Geographic Weekend while we were together with the wild dogs.  That interview is now up online at national geographic weekend, or as a free podcast on itunes.  Wild dogs are now endangered and Kim’s films are helping draw attention to the crisis they face.  In this video you can hear part of the interview and see the dogs Kim has been following as well as the ones I filmed playing and jumping around at Sabi Sabi in South Africa.

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  2. Elephant Fight

    Posted in: Videos on Thursday, November 3rd, 2011

    Elephants play fight at sabi sabi

    Showing off for the girls, pushing and shoving, picking fights, refusing to listen to their mothers, I could be describing teenage boys, but in this case I’m talking teenage male elephants.  Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference in their behavior, and the similarities were on display when I was at the Sabi Sabi Game Reserve in South Africa.  In the young male groups one minute they would be eating and the next they were butting heads and crossing tusks.

    By the way, it seems as if elephants are always eating.  You can’t maintain that figure without consuming some super sized portions.  This week on my radio show, National Geographic Weekend, I talk with Sabi Sabi Earth Lodge guide Brett du Bois about elephant behavior and we also discuss our encounters with rhinos and leopards.  This video shows some of the elephant action we witnessed.

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  3. Baby Rhino Playdate

    Posted in: Videos on Thursday, October 13th, 2011

    playful baby rhino

    I’m watching a white rhino mother and her calf when I think I overhear the mom quote George Bernard Shaw and say, “Youth is wasted on the young.”  The calf, just a few months old, is full of energy and ready to play, racing around in circles and periodically charging our vehicle.  I’ve got a front row seat for this entertaining show while on safari at the Earth Lodge in South Africa’s Sabi Sabi Game Reserve.  It’s just one of many memorable wildlife encounters on my three week trip.  I’ll be posting several videos from the trip and talking about my experiences on my radio show, National Geographic Weekend in the coming weeks.  Meanwhile enjoy this first one which also shows you how a rhino scratches an itch.

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