DAY 6 OF A TRIP TO TANZANIA - Feb-March 2010

Day 6 - Lake Manze Camp, Selous Game Reserve

In the morning the usual loud dawn chorus woke me at about 6am, and I lay back enjoying the cool of the dawn and the calls of the many water birds.
After breakfast, the guests all left on game drives, and I retired to the office to struggle with the internet connection again. Suddenly Richard called “Flo come with me, and bring your camera”.

I rushed out with video and still cameras, and we walked rapidly along with an askari and a guide, till we reached the end of the camp. Richard pointed north-eastwards and suddenly I saw running shapes outlined against a grassy hillside. It was African Hunting dogs! Known usually as Wild Dogs, the Selous is a great place to see them and on this trip I had not been fortunate to spot them so far. It was amazing to see them from the camp itself, as they hunted a large male impala, who fled before them in panic. The beautiful brindled coats of the dogs – black, white and amber gold – stood out against the greenery and from our vantage point we could see what the impala could not – canine shapes slinking along, concealed behind bushes.

This was the “Manze pack” – I had seen them before in June 2009, when the alpha female of a small pack of 4 dogs gave birth to 7 puppies. Most of the puppies survived and there is now a pack of 10 dogs who tend to hunt often in the Manze area.

The wild dog puppies, about 3 months old, in July 2009

There are videos (taken by Jan Corlett) of the puppies on our website. The 4 adults were 2 males and 2 females who broke away from a larger pack – along with 4 other dogs who had moved towards the area close to Selous Impala. They were not so lucky in producing puppies, but may do so in the coming year.

We returned to camp and after lunch, I decided to go out on a game drive as it seemed there was a very good chance of seeing the dogs in the neighbourhood. They would likely be resting somewhere in the heat of the day.

Sarah had taken some wonderful photos recently of the Manze pack – one of the now 9 month old puppies was completely fascinated by the sign to the camp! (No the pix are not photoshopped!) They are about 9 months old here, just as playful and naughty!

all ten of the Manze pack lay scattered on the grass in the shade of a large tree

 

I was excited to see them again, hunting efficiently with the four older members of the pack.
After lunch I joined two visiting American journalists, Rita and Anthony, on a game drive, and our first stop was at a creek near Lake Manze, where our guide had spotted all ten dogs, resting in the afternoon shade. The six youngsters had beautiful bright fur, healthy and shining.

We knew that soon they would start to get restless, and calling to each other with their strange bird-like cries, would spread out on an evening hunt. Each adult dog needs about 2 kg of meat a day, so they do need to kill at least once or twice a day for a pack this size.

We drove on through the green terrain, enjoying sightings of giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, elephant, Impala and lone bull buffalo, one of whom decided to charge our car. He stopped about 5 yards from us, and we quickly left him to his angry devices.

Soon we were driving through glades of flat-topped trees – Terminalia, Jackal Berry and Acacia. The grass was very high and the ground was muddy from the recent rain. One of the joys of the Selous is that one can drive off-road, as long as care is taken to protect the flora of course. Drivers are strictly trained not to create new roads everywhere, for example, but to follow in previous tracks.

We saw a large hyena, with its heavy neck and ginger-spotted fur, loping away with her strange two-sided gait.

 

A little further on, we saw vultures decking the trees and soon we came upon a lion kill – a wildebeest, almost stripped of its meat. Beside it was a sated lioness, relaxing in the cool of evening. Beyond her was our magnificent male lion, who obliged us by sitting up and stretching, fixing his amber eyes on us and grunting a little. After a while he rolled on his back and lolled in the grass.

Soon the mother lioness came from the direction of the lake, where she had been drinking. This was the same group we had seen before. The mother of the two cubs greeted the male lion affectionately, touching noses with him. She then went over to the other female and did the same before settling down to have a little gnu snack.

 
The lioness called for her cubs repeatedly and the other lions looked around attentively

But she was restless. Where were the cubs? Soon she rose and started to call, long low insistent grunts. Nothing happened. She called again – the other two lions raised their heads and looked around. She called yet again, but nothing happened.
She sniffed the grass in two places nearby; we grew worried too, remembering that hyaena so close by. These are one of the main dangers to lion cubs.
The cubs had been hidden by the parents and they are known to be very disciplined about remaining concealed while the parents go to hunt or to drink. They certainly were well hidden now!

We waited as long as we could to see if the cubs would come, but the driver and guide were worried about the time (all cars must be back in camp by night fall) so we had to leave the little group, the mother lioness still staring forlornly into the bush where that hyena had disappeared.

That evening after dinner I settled down in my tent, and went to sleep to the sound of lions calling not far away. I thought it might be our little Nzelekela pride, the male’s deep roars proclaiming his territory to the world of the night.

.....forward to Day 7