African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) were once widespread across most of Africa, but have been exterminated over most of their range. The entire thinly-spread population on the continent has been estimated to be at about 6600 individuals, with only about 1400 of those being adults and the remainder juveniles and subadults. So in visiting Kruger National Park in Sept 2016, we hoped to see a pack of them, since this park contains about 300-350 of them in what is one of the only sizable self-sustaining African wild dog populations remaining in the world.

Well in keeping with the phenomenally fortunate viewing opportunities thus far present on this trip, we saw a pack of about 10-11 individuals today, resting and playing near the roadside, causing a traffic jam of tourists gawking for a view of these rare canids. The first viewing was during the daytime on our morning wildlife drive, where we spent a good 35 to 40 minutes watching 4 or 5 adults minding over 6 adorable pups about 5 to 6 weeks old. Then we saw them again on the night safari, which you can sign up to join at the Protea Hotel. Ironically, the view of the pups was much better at night since they were hanging out only about 10 feet from the road, as opposed to 100 feet back into the bushes as they’d been doing earlier in the day. What a marvelous stroke of good fortune to be able to see these rare dogs. And so cute too!

African wild dogs need huge tracts of land to roam, which are increasingly rare in Africa as the human population grows. Plus only the alpha male and female of a pack breed, so their reproductive rates are lower than normal. And competition from other big predators is also a threat. Lions kill them regularly in fact. So do humans. Factors of habitat loss, predator competition, and human hunting have all conspired to reduce these rare canids to alarmingly low levels and I hope their decline can be arrested, since these dog relatives exhibit some interesting behaviors and adaptations to survive in their homes.

This is one of the adult dogs returning to the spot where the pack was resting in the shade earlier in the day, during daylight hours. As stated above, the dogs were quite a bit farther away than later that night, and while I snapped off hundreds of photos the majority aren’t all that good because of distance, blurred motion, and vegetation being in the way. The pups were evident playing and resting in the shade but again the nocturnal photos were so much better. Either way, it was fortunate to see them twice and get photos at all, since many visitors to Kruger never see a single one.