I went out early to the wild dog den and took up my position above the den. None of the adults were around and the pups were in the den. This time I had my camera. Just as the sun was setting the alpha female (the same alpha female from the group of 3 I had filmed some time ago.) came trotting up to the den and called the pups. She was totally unaware of me, although she had come along the same path I’d left my shoes on. I went bare-foot as I could then be quieter when approaching. I peered over the edge of my rock and saw what looked like 9 little pups suckling madly while mom stood there keeping a look out. I was keen to take photos but worried the sound of the camera clicking would disturb her. But I had to get at least one photograph. So click I did. She heard it, looked up, saw me, barked and took off. The pups took off into the den. I got the photo but I don’t like to disturb them like that. It’s just so hard in that rocky area to observe anything from a distance. You have to be almost on top of them or else you see nothing. The pups look like they re 4 to 5 weeks old. I left the den with the alpha female barking at me as I went. The lions, well the lions. They were on the move south and at Chikwete Cliffs took an east and kept that direction all night. A couple more unsuccessful hunting attempts through the night and the pride are starting to look a little lean. At dawn they’d reached Chimize pan where Manyari took the lead and went in a wide circle around some zebra. She was very much in the right place but wasn’t getting support from the rest of the pride and when she charged in the zebra took off with no confrontation at all. While looking for the pride to regroup, Manyari was suddenly confronted by her cubs that came out of nowhere. 4 lionesses and 1 young male. These are the same lions the Nyari pride chased off the zebra kill recently. The big cubs and Manyari were all happy to see each other. But only until Sjambok came charging in and chased them off with his brother hot on his heels and Magwaza too. Manyari followed but didn’t seem to keen to see them off. Then Manyari followed after the youngsters. Her pride followed her. She called softly but the youngsters were now nervous. When they did get close again, the males saw them off. It’s strange that the Nyari males should chase off 4 available lionesses. But I’m sure it’ll just be a matter of time and they’ll have joined the Nyari pride. As for the one young male, well he’s likely to be sent packing by the Nyari males. adventure, africa, african, african birds, animal, animal kingdom, animals, blog, blogumentary, bush, bush knowledge, conservation, documentary, dog, ecotraining, education, endangered species, experience, experience adventure, flickr, GLTP, gonarezhou, Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, hunting, lion, lions, malilangwe, manyari, mashable, narrowcasting, nature, night, Open Content Alliance, pamushana, peace parks, photo, photos, podcasting, predators, puppy, teach, video, wild dogs, wildcast, wildcasting, wilderness, wildlife, wildlife documentary, youtube, zimbabwe
