MOST regular visitors to southern Africa’s wild places have their personal unicorns. It is the creature that tops your wish list, the bird or animal that everyone else encounters but that remains so elusive to you that it begins to take on mythical properties. Like hunting down a unicorn, finding it turns into a hopeless seeming quest. Perhaps your unicorn takes the form of a leopard, a cheetah, a Pel’s fishing owl or that buff-spotted flufftail that many birders don’t believe exists at all. For many years my unicorn was the African wild dog. Well, eventually I found my unicorn and the memory of that momentous occasion still fills me with joy.
For the last couple of weeks we’ve been taking a virtual stroll down Memory Lane, so I’d love to share this memory with you. Many, many years ago I caught a tantalising glimpse of a pack of wild dogs melting into the long grass at Mana Pools in Zimbabwe. So began my long search for these mythical painted wolves. Everyone else seemed to spot them but by the time I arrived at wherever they’d last been seen they would be long gone. I remember the frustration of arriving at Pretoriuskop in Kruger National Park some years ago. The visitors’ sightings book was filled with descriptions of the doings of a pack of wild dogs that had spent a day next to a road. By the time we arrived, they had of course gone. All the same, I just had a feeling about Pretoriuskop.
Something told me that this lovely old Kruger camp would eventually produce the goods. Then, in 2009, on a visit to this rest camp, my hunch proved correct.
It is a little off the tourism beaten track, but Pretoriuskop is one of our favourite Kruger camps and the surrounding scenery – all undulating grassland, rocky outcrops and koppies – is really stunning. We’d spent a long afternoon exploring the pretty little loop roads around camp and were slowly wending our way back to camp. I remember so clearly coming round a corner and there, in the middle of the road ahead of us, was a single, heart-stoppingly beautiful African wild dog. I was ecstatic! We edged a little closer. So intent was I on watching the magical creature in front of me that I didn’t even notice what was happening behind us.
Bill whispered to me to look back and – what a thrill – I saw four more painted wolves walking in single file towards our vehicle. They walked right past the passenger door of our vehicle, almost within touching distance from me, and joined the one in front of us, twittering their greetings. These wild dogs seemed almost clownish creatures. They were quite adorable with their big, round ears, bright eyes and plumy tails, each one sporting its unique shaggy coat in striking patterns of black, white and tan. So alert, so inquisitive, they were all so full of life. I wanted to reach out and hug them. A few other vehicles had joined us and we reversed a little to allow the new arrivals a better view.
Looking around us it was clear that everyone else was as awed by the painted wolves as we were. We all sat there quietly for ages, keeping company with some of Africa’s most endangered predators. The dogs didn’t seem to mind our presence at all and were perfectly at ease. It was an unforgettable, magical experience. Then the sound of a vehicle engine starting up broke the spell. The sun was sinking fast and we all needed to be heading back to camp before the gates closed.
The vehicles all started to edges forward slowly and and we reluctantly follow suite. Amazingly, the wild dogs joined the procession, loping along in between the cars, quite relaxed, as if they were joining in some sort of game. Then, at some unseen signal, they peeled off the road and disappeared into the surrounding bush. The unicorn spell was broken and Bill and I have since enjoyed some more lovely wild dog sightings, at Kruger and at iMfolozi Game Reserve. On one unforgettable occasion a single wild dog loped through our camping site, just metres away from where we were sitting, at Marakele National Park. Yes, the spell is broken but the magic remains and I am never less that exhilarated by an encounter with a pack of wild dogs. It is sobering to think that the gorgeous creatures that have given us so much joy are so very endangered. Will there still be painted wolves to enchant our grandchildren one day?
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