Finally I am very very relieved to say the wild dog is off the property. It leaves a trail of death and chaos. We had been trying to lure it into range of the vet's dart gun by playing the chattering call of wild dogs. To do this we drove around the farm at night parked and played the call at high volume on a loop then waited. This technique works well for Hyena but only resulted in sleep deprivation and a wish to never hear the call of a wild dog again.
The first night was totally fruitless and to add insult to injury we found a dead animal in the morning. We were going to try again but thought it wise to drive around the property trying to find footprints which might narrow our search. Rounding a corner early evening we did better than footprints we found the remains of a Puku. The wild dog was sleeping off it's huge meal in the grass.
So began an epic chase. Wild dogs must at some point in life have worked out the range of a dart gun. We played the game of you move forward it moves you stop it stops. The chase involved two 4x4's trying to herd the dog into range. After several hours of this game we had driven threw woods open plane's and were on the edge of an open area which had recently been burnt. We were ready to give up as soon as the dog entered the long grass. Then as all hope was fading the dog ran along the edge of the grass towards the vet's vehicle. The wild dog paused to take one last look at the strange things that has followed it all evening. Ian Parsons the vet shot from the drivers seat backwards and the dart struck home.
The picture shows the wild dog just after it had been darted. It is quite eary as she is still awake with eyes moving and sneezing but immobilised. We transfered her to a create with bedding and water and she is now being housed at a zoo and will be moved to a national park in the south of the country after a few months.
She may be one of only a few thousand remaining, beautiful, graceful, and a highly tuned hunted but good riddance to her.
The first night was totally fruitless and to add insult to injury we found a dead animal in the morning. We were going to try again but thought it wise to drive around the property trying to find footprints which might narrow our search. Rounding a corner early evening we did better than footprints we found the remains of a Puku. The wild dog was sleeping off it's huge meal in the grass.
So began an epic chase. Wild dogs must at some point in life have worked out the range of a dart gun. We played the game of you move forward it moves you stop it stops. The chase involved two 4x4's trying to herd the dog into range. After several hours of this game we had driven threw woods open plane's and were on the edge of an open area which had recently been burnt. We were ready to give up as soon as the dog entered the long grass. Then as all hope was fading the dog ran along the edge of the grass towards the vet's vehicle. The wild dog paused to take one last look at the strange things that has followed it all evening. Ian Parsons the vet shot from the drivers seat backwards and the dart struck home.
The picture shows the wild dog just after it had been darted. It is quite eary as she is still awake with eyes moving and sneezing but immobilised. We transfered her to a create with bedding and water and she is now being housed at a zoo and will be moved to a national park in the south of the country after a few months.
She may be one of only a few thousand remaining, beautiful, graceful, and a highly tuned hunted but good riddance to her.
2 comments:
looks appetising!! *drools*
The Drool is a side effect of the drugs used to sedate the dog. By the time we got back to the house the Ute had a big puddle of drool in it. The vet said that they can suffer from dehudration from the crazy drool. It was lovely having it run down my leg when I carried her!
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