The wildlife volunteers in Hluhluwe, South Africa, got to welcome the new faces of the Crossroads Pack. The 10 adorable wild dog puppies were spotted during our early morning monitoring session on Sunday.After not having signal and traveling back and forth searching for signal for Ian and Bala, the sun was getting hotter and we knew that time was running out to find the wild dogs while they were still active. After driving a loop road a couple of times we finally got a faint signal, but only for Ian. From there we headed in the direction of the signal which was below us.[caption id="attachment_7888" align="alignnone" width="1500"]
Wild dog look out[/caption]While following the direction of the signal we came around a blind corner and BOOM - 10 four month old wild dog puppies. They were busy feeding on what the adults had brought back for them from the morning hunt. The adults would have gone out and made a kill, eaten extra to take back to the puppies. Once back with the puppies they would have regurgitated a yummy meal for them. The Wildlife ACT vehicle was obviously one of the first vehicles they had seen as they got a bit of a fright and moved off soon after we found them.[caption id="attachment_7889" align="alignnone" width="1500"]
Adult wild dogs taking the puppies to safety[/caption]
It did however give us an amazing visual as well as allowing us to do a puppy and wild dog count, before they were moved to safety by the rest of the full bellied pack.Post and photographs by wildlife monitor Axel Primmer