The first time I ever went to the Kruger National Park, I wanted to see the big five. My eyes were sore from looking for lion. Then we saw something I found rather boring – three litters of African wild dog puppies. We spotted them in a ditch because there were two mamas standing sentry in the road and one with the pups. There were at least 12 puppies. I took two or three bad photographs and on we went.
It was only afterwards that I realised these are the rarest and most endangered animals in the park – African wild dogs, aka painted wolves. There are only 5000 left in the whole of Africa. I thought in the beginning that they were hyena.
UPDATE:
The African Wildlife Conservation Fund is now looking for people to send in photos of their wild dog sightings in different parks in Africa.
The African Wildlife Conservation Fund included three archival images (below), showing different coat patterns. I had no idea their coats could be so different.
