Knowing that the wild dogs were released in the first half of 2010 I knew that this time I had a very good chance to see them in our own Limpopo-Lipadi Game & Wilderness Reserve (LL) during my stay for six days with three good friends at Unit 6 in August 2010. For the last 15 years, in which I visit South Africa at least twice a year for holidays in the bush, I never saw them in the wild. Of course I saw them in the boma at LL (August last year) and at Kapama (the Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre (HESC)) in Hoedspruit but that doesn’t count. The wild dogs are the last of the "bigger" mammals I didn’t see so far and it would be nice to tick them of the list.

On 15th August, the day after arriving on LL, we went for the first time on a afternoon game drive with Spencer and a German couple (Burkhard Freund) from Unit 2. The weather was good and the morale high. The other had had excellent sightings of wild dogs and cheetah that morning and the day before a leopard in the tree with an impala kill.

After one and a half hours of seeing some general game we saw a nice steenbok (steinbok) near a waterhole on which we spent some time enjoying it and making some great photographs. Around the next corner near the water hole I saw my first wild dog (5.30pm) on the right side walking towards the car, soon followed by four other wild dogs. FANTASTIC!

Not long after these magnificent moments the African wild dog pack start hunting on the steenbok but missed her. They then returned one after one to the waterhole to drink and surge for new prey. They spent at least 15 minutes around the waterhole giving us good opportunity to photograph them as much as possible. After this short break they went to hunt for prey and left us for a well earned sundowner outside the car. After some Coca Cola, beers and Pringles we heard an awful cry on our left and Spencer immediately said it was an impala which was strangled while I was more thinking of a yelling baboon! He urged us up in the car and off we went to investigate this strange noise.

After I guess 250m we found in the thick bush one injured and bleeding impala standing against some small bushes and the hunting wild dogs around her. After a few moments the wild dogs brought her down in front of our game vehicle and start eating it. Because of the falling light we used spotlights and torches to see all the action and to take numerous stunning wild dog pictures. A brutal jackal was charged a few times away but in the end he got the opportunity to steal some of the fresh meat. We left the scene at 6.28pm. While the wild dogs were not visible disturbed by the light and the camera's clicking we in the car only heard the clicking of four cameras in such a speed that the flashlights couldn’t cope up with it. I guess in 58 minutes almost 500 pictures of wild dogs were made! Hopefully also the prize winning one. What a moment of excitement, unbelievable and that on our first game drive without any tracking. Just luck!

The next day on the morning game drive we saw the five wild dogs again for a few moments on the road ahead of our car. Again they were on the hunt and to us they looked healthy and capable to raise their four pups. Let’s all hope they succeed in raising their young so that we can enjoy their presence on LL in the future.

Jacquie & Peter and the rest of the involved staff of LL thanks for all your care for raising the original nine wild dog puppies. It is good to know that the wild dog pack of five are now raising four puppies by their own in the wild.

This was a game drive adventure that will not be easy to forget!