Felids Interactions - Interspecific Conflicts

[Styx38]

Leopard kills African Dog.

"The leopard grabbed one of the wild dogs by the scruff of her neck. He turned to look at us (I think he knew I was staring at him in disbelief) all the while the wild dog still kicking and groaning in his jaws. The rest of the pack had now realised what had happened and immediately ran at the leopard, giving their best effort to save the female. Unfortunately, the Flat Rock male had already hoisted the wild dog up into a sausage tree.

The pack was now desperate; a few of them were circling the base of the tree and even attempting to jump up the trunk. The rest of the pack had now started running out of the river, the pups in front so as to keep them out of danger. We were still on foot, watching from literally thirty metres away, aghast.

We followed at a distance as they ran, and every so often one of the adults would look back, hoping to maybe catch sight of the now missing pack member. This was the really tragic part to witness; their obvious distress.

The distraught dogs ran and ran and RAN!!!! We left them running off into the darkness…

*This image is copyright of its original author

Around noon the next day, we went back to the sausage tree to do some investigating and hopefully get some closure. We caught a quick glimpse of the Flat Rock male as he slowly moved off into a thicket. We then managed to get a good look at the hoisted wild dog. There wasn’t much left but from what we could gather we think it was an adult female. It is not an easy thing to witness but as I said earlier, this is raw nature.

The fascinating thing about this very sorrowful event was the behaviour of the wild dogs; it reiterated how strong the bonds are between pack members.
But to end on a positive note, this particular pack is still 15 members strong which is pretty impressive!"


https://blog.londolozi.com/2020/12/08/l ... -wild-dog/

*This image is copyright of its original author

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