Mandy Taplin, 45, experienced this emotional scene in Moremi, in Botswana.
After Mandy shared the scene with me, she explained what happened
Around 8am we saw buffaloes in the distance and calves playing so we decided to take a closer look. As we approached, we realized that there was a large pack of wild dogs.
Arriving there, we saw a herd of buffalo being slaughtered, in the middle was a herd of jackals eating two wild buffaloes.
The remaining buffaloes started moving towards us to join the rest of the herd. I think, in a split second, the alpha dogs, I think they were in front of the pack, scaring the whole pack.
The dogs reacted very quickly and in the chaos they pounced on 2 other calves. The remaining 4 buffaloes and 1 calves separated from the herd, the dogs could not catch the calves.
In total they caught 5 calves and the buffaloes couldn’t do anything about it. While this is fun to watch, it’s also very sad and especially terrible to watch. Dead calves take 15 to 30 minutes and they continue to bleed the whole time. It’s really gut-wrenching. We left as soon as the last calf succumbed.
I think this is a once-in-a-lifetime sighting. We bushwalk quite often and have never seen anything comparable. Our guide grew up in the plains and has been guiding for many years and even he, and all the other guides we spoke to, had never seen anything like it. so. therefore. like this before.
If you see a sight like this in your lifetime, be prepared to be amazed at the effective hunting abilities of these dogs.