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The following video, called Survival of the Fittest - Wild Dog and Kudu Kill, was captured by Neil Steedman who works at Jaci's Safari Lodge in Madikwe, about an hour from where we are based at Tuningi. The video shows three African Wild Dogs pulling down and killing a female Kudu at the edge of a watering hole in Madikwe.
There have been many debates as to who are the more 'humane' killers - cats or dogs? The debate is still open but this video shows how Wild Dogs hunt. The Kudu in this video will probably have gone into shock as soon as the Dogs pulled her down which, if it at all helps, would have made her not feel that much. Still a truly brutal scene but purely nature unfolding as it has for many hundreds of years. (Note: This is purely my view and I know that we cannot project those kind of emotions onto a scene like this but when you get to see things like this for real you cannot help but think about it from a 'human' perspective!!)
While on this amazing video thing - I assume most of you have seen the famous Battle at Kruger video on YouTube. This video has already been viewed more than 38 million times and when you watch it you will see why! Sightings like this also do not happen everyday and this is truly one in a million!!
For those of you who have not see it yet, here goes (and if you understand Afrikaans you will get a good giggle out of the background commentary as well!)
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3 comments:
Wow, what a fantastic video! It took the BBC ten years to get footage of a wild dog kill, so this is amazing!
Pretty gruesome and I personally feel more difficult to watch than a cat kill, but still nature acting in the way it should.
For me, I think it's always harder to watch on video than in person, so maybe that is why I found a little more 'shocking'.
I have seen 2 young lionesses take down and eat an impala alive when I was in Zimbabwe and I was completely absorbed in watching them and didn't think anything at the time but the fact that they were acting naturally and I was extremely privileged to witness it. But thinking back and telling people the story they always seem horrified!
I also saw a wildebeest kill in Kruger and seeing that in broad daylight, with nobody else around was nothing but exciting! It seemed to me that the lioness actually drowned the wildebeest rather than killing 'normally'. I could have interpreted the behaviour in the complete wrong way but that's sure what it looked like to me.
The lioness brought it down and as soon as she had a firm hold she pulled it to the waterhole, dragged it in and virtually lay on top of it, putting all of her weight on the head and shoulder area, so she was practically straddling it whilst it was under water. Obviously it made a real struggle but each time it tried to lift it's head up, she grabbed the neck in her mouth adjusted herself and pushed it back under with her paws.
It was all over within a few minutes and as soon as it was dead, she dragged it out of the water, dropped it down and walked away as the rest of the pride, about 15, came in to feed.
I stayed with them for two hours with very few people coming along, and it was just unbelievable.
I personally think watching a kill is nature at it's worst and best, and is one of the most fascinating things you can witness in our wild world.
I just need to see a wild dog kill now in person so I can compare the two to see if I find it 'easier' to watch than on video! :p
Alot of my friends when they see a kill on TV are like 'poor antelope' or 'poor warthog' etc.
But a little reminder to them that without those kills there would not be any lions, leopards, wild dogs etc to admire, soon helps them to understand.
And for the record I think dogs are probably the more efficient killers.
Just my thoughts..... :-)
Excellent footage. You are right, the chance to video something like this does not happen every day but visitors somehow do expect to see it when they come over for a visit. :)If only we could satisfy all their wishes and dreams!!
Not for the faint hearted the first video, still things like this need to be shown to give a true feel for the wilderness out there, its real and happens and well worth sharing.
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