For that reason, conservationists have long focused on reintroducing wild dogs-an endangered species-to areas where lions are scarce. Lions and wild dogs share some of the same prey species, like impala, so lions view dogs as threats to their food supply, and try to kill any dogs they can catch. But despite their prowess, there’s one animal wild dogs won’t take on: lions.Įven a small 300-pound female lion can easily kill a dog. Packs can easily take down an impala or a wildebeest. Weighing around 50 pounds, these canines may look cute with their pink tongues protruding from beneath their black noses, but tight-knit families and cooperative hunting techniques put wild dogs among Sub-Saharan Africa’s top predators. Puzzles and her young army stand their ground and enjoy a rare victory against their greatest enemy.Mottled black-and-brown African wild dogs often prance and squeak through grasslands, chattering like birds. Their boldness outrages the lions but the big cats are outnumbered by the large family. A few lions are feasting, however the pack decides to chance stealing this kill. A chance for revenge comes one day when the dogs encounter a fresh carcass.

A year after the lions killed Jigsaw, his loss still affects Puzzles.

Puzzles has done the impossible – she has raised nearly all of her offspring into a thriving pack. They continue to hunt successfully and even manage to snag a wildebeest calf.

As they cross the wilderness over the next few months, the pups learn more about their environment and discover new creatures, including elephants, giraffes, and impala. Eventually, the pups are old enough to leave the den.The older pups start to hunt on their own, led by eldest brother Jet. Most of the young pups become too exhausted during the journey, so Puzzles must carry them one by one to their new home. To increase the litter’s chances for survival, Puzzles takes her family to a safer part of the reserve.Puzzles must now raise 20 puppies on her own. She finds them close by, dead from a lion attack. Noticing that Jigsaw and Atom do not return to the den, Puzzles leaves for the first time in months to search for them. One early hunting trip ends in devastation.Puzzle’s survival and that of her tiny pups rests solely on Jigsaw and their older litter’s ability to provide food for the family.Īn African wild dog pack stands on the edge of a riverbank.

Older sisters Dakota and Atom also try to help look after the newborns. Nursing these pups triples her required calorie intake, but she can’t hunt while tethered to the den. After a year, they have another dozen children. Her partner Jigsaw must do the hunting for the family while Puzzles weans the pups. In the beginning, an African wild dog mother named Puzzles must care for her nine young pups.

Setting wild dogs apart from other carnivores is their willingness to sacrifice almost anything for their pack, a behavior wired into their DNA.Wild dogs can reach up to 40 miles an hour while running and hunting.Although rivals for one another’s kills, dogs enjoy hounding hyenas whenever they get a chance. Few things provide as much family entertainment as hyena hazing.The dogs’ only defense is to avoid lions at all times. Lions in the reserve will go out of their way to kill wild dogs because they both hunt the same animals.Puzzles and her partner Jigsaw are one of only about 700 breeding pairs alive today. The African wild dog population in the Malilangwe Wildlife Reserve in Zimbabwe has been devastated by a rabies epidemic in recent years.African wild dog pups lying down and panting. The young dogs provide some light-hearted moments while discovering the world around them, but as they grow up, they must face these eternal enemies on their journey to independence. But in this unforgiving Zimbabwe wilderness, it turns out the top dogs are the big cats – lions are the wild dogs’ ultimate enemies. Witness the loyalty and selflessness that sets wild dogs apart from other large, social carnivores in this deeply intimate portrayal of motherhood. When lions kill her mate, a wild dog mother called Puzzles suddenly must raise two generations of pups all on her own without the help of a pack. Go into the heart of an African wild dog family in “Dogs in the Land of Lions” on NATURE – August 10 at 8 pmįilmed over two years by cinematographer Kim Wolhuter ( Nature: The Cheetah Children), Nature: Dogs in the Land of Lions takes viewers into the heart of an African wild dog family.

Wild dogs in africa