-James Madison, 1818
"The central thing for which Conservation stands is to make this country the best possible place to live in, both for us and for our descendants."
-Gifford Pinchot, 1910
"...the modern technoscientific revolution, including especially the great leap forward of computer-based information technology, has betrayed Nature a second time, by fostering the belief that the cocoons of urban and suburban material life are sufficient for human fulfillment. That is an especially serious mistake."
-E. O. Wilson, 2006
-The grand and ultimate illusion would be that man could provide a substitute for the elemental workings of nature."
-Fairfield Osborn, 1948
Full-bellied and happy, a pup from the Sausage Tree Pack of African wild dogs. 
African wild dogs are incredibly social and intelligent. Several hours out of each day are used by members of the pack to play and interact. These two wrestled for nearly a half hour near a wetland in the late evening.
After a big wildebeest meal, the pack's pups played keep away with an older subadult dog. The subadult carried a stick in its mouth and ran from the pups, resulting in the entire group of pups forming a collective unit to chase down the subadult and its stick. Watching this behavior, it was rather evident that the subadult was teaching the pups how to hunt as a pack. In order to get the reward (the stick, the wildebeest, the oribi), the pups had to form a unified group and coordinate a series of flanks and attacks. The subadult would concede the stick to the pups from time to time and let them wrestle with it amongst themselves. But not to be left out of the fun, the subadult would dive back in and wrestle with all the pups, ultimately grabbing the stick again and running from them. The expressions in these wild dogs' eyes, mouths, and tails were reminiscent of dogs at home playing fetch or keep away in the backyard... In a world far from home, these dogs were good company.
Three subadult wild dogs "stalking." Wild dogs will stalk each other as a form of social greeting, as an indication of the beginning of a hunt, or just simply as an enjoyable thing to do in the evening. On this occasion, the wild dogs were beginning to stalk a small herd of wildebeest.
Packmates. Allies. Friends.
2 comments:
We are going to Liuwa in Desember from the 15th to 28th do you think the plains will be flooded?
To Christi:
You will run into some problems by mid December, most notably being the road from Mongu to Kalabo. By mid December, it's a risky gamble to drive from Mongu to Kalabo, as you're not guaranteed that the road will be open for your return trip at the end of the month. To clarify, the Mongu to Kalabo road is in the middle of the Zambezi floodplain, and the road gets flooded and becomes undriveable around that time of year. In other words, you run a very realistic chance of getting your truck stranded in Kalabo for the duration of the wet season... Driving within the park might be manageable, but closer to the end of the month it will be too wet and flooded to get anywhere. If you can push your trip to Liuwa up by a couple of weeks, you will be doing yourselves a huge favor. November is arguably the best month to visit Liuwa anyway, due to the great accessibility and the wildebeest calving. Hope this helps.
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