THE AFRICAN HUNTING DOG in 



Soon exhaustion and loss of blood tell their tale, and the 

 hunted animal falls to the ground, when the pursuers 

 rush on it like hounds into a fox, tearing it to pieces and 

 devouring it in an incredibly short space of time. It is a 

 ferocious method of hunting, and the state of the quarry 

 when at length pulled down is often pitiable in the 

 extreme. Two Hunting Dogs once ran into an impala 

 ewe close to one of my camps on the Sabi. They were 

 at once driven off by the natives, and the ewe was still 

 alive, and trying to rise, when I came up. She was in an 

 appalling condition : both her flanks torn open, and the 

 flesh of one quarter stripped entirely off from the base 

 of the tail to the point of the hock, so that the bone 

 showed throughout. 



During the lambing time of the impala and reedbuck, 

 the young of these species seem to form the principal 

 prey of Hunting Dogs, and the number of lambs destroyed 

 is enormous. I remember following a pack of about 

 thirty, which for two days, about the end of November, 

 had been playing havoc among the young impala near 

 Sabi Bridge. I counted at least a dozen kills within 

 a radius of less than a mile all those of small lambs. 

 An impala of about a week old forming one meal for a 

 single dog, and there being but little difficulty in running 

 it down, the harm that is done to the increase of the herds 

 in this way may easily be realized. I crept up to three 

 dogs which were busily employed in eating a young buck, 

 and was struck by the frenzied haste which they showed 

 in rending it in pieces and bolting the flesh in huge 

 lumps. 



One instance will serve to indicate the rapidity with 

 which these animals dispose of their food. Two native 

 police, stationed at one of our pickets, heard a duiker 

 cry out close by. Pausing only to seize their spears 



