45-year-old Mandy Taplin experienced this highly emotional sighting in Moremi, in Botswana.
After Mandy shared the sighting with LatestSightings.com, she explained what happened:
We had left our campsite early and had already seen wildebeest, zebra, impala, giraffe, jackal, saddle billed storks, wattled cranes and 2 male lions.”
“At around 8am we saw buffaloes in the distance and what looked like calves playing, so we decided to get a closer look. As we were approaching, we realised that there was a large pack of wild dogs. It was unbelievably exciting as we had heard them 2 nights prior but were unable to locate them.”
“On arrival, we saw that the buffalo herd had been split, and in the middle, the wild dogs were actually eating 2 buffalo calves.
What happened next was a roller coaster of emotions and an absolute adrenaline rush…”
“The rest of the buffaloes started moving towards us in order to join the rest of the herd. In a split second, the alpha dogs, I assume they were, went directly for the front of the herd, which sent the herd into a panic. The dogs reacted very quickly and in the chaos managed to take another 2 calves. Another 4 buffaloes and 1 calf were left separated from the herd and the dogs made short work of taking that calf as well.”
“In total, they had taken 5 calves and the buffaloes could not do anything about it. Although this was so exciting to see, it was also very sad and exceptionally gruesome to watch. It took between 15 – 30 minutes for the calves to die and they continued bleating the whole time. It was gut-wrenching. We left shortly after the last calf succumbed.”
“I think this was a once in a lifetime sighting. We go to the bush fairly often and have never seen anything that can compare. Our guide has grown up in the delta and guided for many years and even he, and all the other guides we spoke to, had never seen anything quite like this before.”
“We had not intended on going to Moremi, but my husband and I decided to spoil ourselves for our 23rd anniversary. We literally saw the safari vehicle in the car park at a Spar when were doing some shopping, and we then made inquiries. The next day we were off to Moremi and had an unbelievable experience.
If you have a sighting like this in your life, be prepared to be in awe at how effective these dogs are at hunting.”
“In total, they had taken 5 calves and the buffaloes could not do anything about it. Although this was so exciting to see, it was also very sad and exceptionally gruesome to watch. It took between 15 – 30 minutes for the calves to die and they continued bleating the whole time. It was gut-wrenching. We left shortly after the last calf succumbed.”
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