A friend of mine is in the Peace Corps stationed in Botswana. I love receiving emails from her and following her blog describing her daily life there, her work, her travels on safari. It’s certainly not a glamourous existence by any stretch of the imagination, but extremely interesting.
The other day she sent me an email saying: I have been going through photos from the safari and thought you might enjoy seeing wild dogs up close. Apparently they are very hard to see in the bush, she went on to say. Our guide was dumbstruck that we were able to sit and watch them [from inside the vehicle]. In truth, they were not interested in us (none of the animals were). Their markings are really something–the line down the forehead and all that crazy patchwork of colors. Their ears are like satellite dishes.
I wrote back thanking her for the photo. I said I would share it with my readers, knowing that those who follow my blog would, most likely, be as interested as I am in this wild breed of dogs. She wrote back telling me that the dogs are totally in the wild, never seen except on safari, and rarely then. They live in packs and hunt together.
I asked her if the dogs would attack a human being. The safari code, she explained, is that you never leave the vehicle. When we are traveling through the parks, through the world of the animals, they see us as one (weird) animal and as long as we pose no threat, they ignore us. If we were to get out of the vehicle or scream and flail our arms about within the vehicle, they would perceive us as a threat and most likely attack.
She told me that the elephants ignored them, but if we were to get between them and their young, they [the invaders] would be toast. I have seen an elephant get bothered by the cameras poking out and whirring, most all wild animals will make a scene first and not attack unless absolutely necessary. The elephant flapped his ears and stomped aggressively – and we were gone.
I was thrilled that she emailed another two photos, enabling me to get a fairly detailed look at these dogs. Notice the proximity of the front left side of the vehicle to the pack of dogs. Do these dogs remind you of one of our domesticated dogs here in the United State? I wrote back to my friend saying that they reminded me of our German Shepherds. She concurred, adding that they are about the same size as a Shepherd, as well.
The history of dogs is long and fascinating. I’d love to devote more time to investigating their past. I hope you enjoyed seeing the photos of wild dogs in Botswana and learning a little about their existence. I thank my dear friend for sharing these special photos – a rare view of the wild dogs of Botswana – with me and with my readers. And, I wish her a splendid journey of great discoveries.