Wild dogs

Over the last week in Kenya, we had some rare opportunities to see wild dogs, or African Hunting Dogs as I knew them from the zoo.  Apparently, not many people get to see them since they spend a lot of the time hiding and when they aren't hiding, they are on the move.

The first siting of them was pretty exciting.  We were sitting in the middle of a plain in the jeep with Patrick at Ol Pejeta and suddening off in the distance a bunch of zebras and gazelles started running away from a central location in all directions.  The cloud of dust that arose was the first signal.  Immediately,Patrick put the jeep in gear and started racing toward the commotion.  I thought it was a cheetah at first since I have been indoctrinated by nature shows that show cheetahs far more often then dogs.  We spotted 3 hunting dogs jogging along not really after the herd.  We followed them as they traversed the area only stopping to do some marking,and then moving on.  Luckily,they were mostly moving right down the road so we had a long chance to see them.

The next lucky siting happened when we climbing a small mountain during the walking safari.  From the top of the mountain, we viewed a whole family of wild dogs on a rocky area below.  There was even a mother who came out of her den to feed about 14 little puppies, all wagging their white tipped tails.