A morning on Lion Sands that I will never forget, just pure adrenalin from start to finish.

We followed the African Wild Dogs as they excitedly paced around in search of prey, typical of their behaviour in the early morning. Almost a guarantee that the dogs would kill at some stage , we stuck with them in hope of being part of this classic event in nature. Due to their incredibly high success rate of killing, when the dogs saw the impala’s on an open area we knew what was to come. Scattering in seconds with no intent of patience, the wild dogs flanked the area and stated the chase.

As is typical in wild dog hunts, the impala’s fled without a single alarm made.

The stotting or pronking so eminent of a dog in pursuit.

Amazingly the impala’s only employ their classic fleeing behaviour when being chased by the dogs. The pronking or stotting is a sure last hope in persuading the attacker that a less fit or weaker individual should be targeted. The lack of alarm calls in these hunts also signifies that the impala’s are aware of the fast paced enduranec attacks of the dogs. The use of alarming would be of no importance to the impala’s as the loss of surprise on the dogs’ behalf is by no means the end of the chase. Typical of cats’ once being spotted, they lose interest and carry on with their day.

In hot pursuit

Full tilt after the impala’s

An individual appears out of nowhere with the remains of an impala. From the time of losing sight of the dogs until we saw this was no more than 10 minutes, a perfect example of how incredibly fast the prey is devoured.

Just the head left

The sub adult seems more interested in using the head as a means of entertainment 

The vultures soon caught on

A tawny eagle swoops in

A hooded vulture scans the ground

And of course the hyaena’s were not far behind to steal what they could