Matthew Arrowsmith encounters a family of African wild dogs in Mana Pools National Park.
On a hot day at the end of October in Mana Pools National Park, I was still trying to come to grips with just how picturesque a place I was in, when word came through that one of the families of African wild dogs (also known as painted wolves or hunting dogs) were in the vicinity.
I have to be honest and say that, having grown up with domesticated dogs at home in Shropshire, the call of painted wolves didn’t excite me as much as, say, a leopard or lion. I have seen Australia’s version of the wild dog, the dingo, chasing kangaroos in the Outback, and while quite the scene, it was still just a dog chasing another animal, not so dissimilar from my terrier chasing rabbits.