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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