African Wild Dogs were one of the first wildlife sightings we had on a road trip through Namibia in 2015. 

The multi-coloured dogs, with striking resemblances to pavement special mutts often seen in SA’s townships (with much larger ears), were lying next to the road outside a Namibian national park when we spotted and drove up to them. 

We stopped about 2m from them, but they seemed disinterested – their tummies protruding grotesquely from their fit frames, with every heavy pant. 

They’d just eaten and the warm gravel road provided just the spot for an afternoon nap. 

We drove a little loop around them, took a few photographs, and pushed on. “We’ll see them again tomorrow…”

We thought nothing major of the sighting, really.

What I didn’t realise at the time, was that I was seeing four of only 500 individual African Wild Dogs left in the wild in Namibia. 

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