A Sabi Sand wild dog pack looking for a den, with a lion pride in the vicinity

Eight dogs. A pregnant alpha, days from a den. And the Nkuhuma pride in the same drainage.

For the last few weeks we've been seeing the same pack of wild dogs in roughly the same area. The southern drainage line of Hoffman's has become the spot to check first. Around two sightings a week for the past month. Not every drive turns one up. But the rate is high enough now that we're paying close attention.

There are eight in the pack. The alpha female is heavily pregnant. Days away from giving birth. The way the others are moving with her, hunting close, staying near, suggests the pack is doing what wild dog packs do at this point in the cycle: looking for a den.

Wild dog gestation runs 69 to 73 days. From the moment the alpha conceives, the pack has just over two months to find a den site, settle her in, and start hunting in a tight radius around it. Pups arrive in a single litter, often ten or twelve, occasionally more. Only the alpha breeds. Everyone else's job is to make sure she eats, and that the den is safe.

And then there are the lions. The Nkuhuma pride is moving through the same area. That's the variable that complicates everything. The textbook says wild dogs den where lions aren't. The Nkuhuma are exactly where the cover is best.

If the alpha commits to a den here, the pack will be reading the lions every day. They'd tighten their range to a few square kilometres. Hunt in the morning, regurgitate at the den, hunt in the afternoon. Other pack members take shifts babysitting. The pups stay underground for the first three or four weeks, only emerging once their eyes are open and their legs can hold them up. After that we'd start seeing them at the den entrance in the late afternoon. Ears up. Climbing on the older ones.

Whether the female commits to this drainage or pulls south to find something quieter is the thing we're watching. The Nkuhuma are the reason that question is open.

Globally, there are fewer than three thousand African wild dogs left in the wild. South Africa holds somewhere around four hundred. The Sabi Sand and the surrounding reserves protect a meaningful slice of that. Most of our guests arrive without expecting to see wild dogs. A pack settling into the southern drainage with pups on the way is the kind of thing we don't take for granted.

As Clayton always puts it, nothing in the bush works to a script. The pack will commit or they'll move on. The lions will press the issue or they won't. We'll keep watching.

If you're on a drive with us in the next week or two, expect us to check the southern drainage line of Hoffman's. We'll be looking for pups. If that's the kind of trip that interests you, plan a stay at Silvan Safari.