The Early Bird Catches the Wild Dogs!

My fellow wildlife volunteers and I are privileged enough to have the opportunity to help out on two different Wildlife ACT projects. We have been working on both Zululand Rhino Reserve (ZRR) and the Panthera Leopard Survey, which happens to be on the same reserve, which is nice and convenient.

Zululand Rhino Reserve. A much-needed caffeine fix! (All photos by Johannes Freese)

A much-needed caffeine fix! (All photos by Johannes Freese)

Our mornings working on the Zululand Rhino Reserve project sees us leaving camp around 4am (when it’s still dark) to go out and monitor wild dogs. The reason for leaving so early is so we can find the wild dogs before sunrise – which is when they start becoming active.

African Wild Dogs Sighted on Zululand Rhino Reserve

Dogs Zululand Rhino Reserve.

We’re still getting used to the early mornings, but it does give us the opportunity to see the wild dogs in action and to witness spectacular sunrises and views. We are thoroughly enjoying getting to know the wild dog pack that lives on Zululand Rhino Reserve by watching their social behaviour and learning about their movement patterns.

Sunrise Zululand Rhino Reserve.

We hope you take joy in the pictures above that we took on this monitoring session.

Post by Johannes Freese, Julia Jaksch and Lara Burgermeister