The time I almost got eaten by African Wild Dogs (with photos!)

Since I can’t go anywhere due to the coronavirus pandemic, I figured why not tell some of my favorite/most memorable travel stories. Up first, the time my family and I almost got eaten by African Wild Dogs.

In July 2017, my family and I took a safari in Southern Africa. We spent a total of nine days between three different safari camps, one in Zambia, and two in Botswana. At each camp, we had a designated safari jeep driver who would take us around to see different animals, and at the last camp, let’s just say this guy was a bit… crazy. His name was Phinley and he would drive like a maniac to get around logs and the closest he could legally get to certain animals.

To give you an example, when we first arrived at the airstrip, Phinley picked us up and it took about 45 minutes to get from there to the camp to drop our luggage off. It was fairly uneventful, we only saw a few birds until we were about 500 feet from camp, when a herd of eight elephants were blocking the road, including one or two babies. Elephants are fairly harmless, but quite territorial and protective, especially when it comes to their young. Normally, you would just let them be and eventually they would wander off after determining you weren’t a threat.

Except Phinley, being in the rush that he was, decided to challenge the largest male elephant so he would move out of the way. Phinley revved the jeep’s engine, slowly inching forward and yelling, “Bah! Get out of the way!,” while my family and I were terrified in the back seat. The elephant put up a little bit of a challenge, but eventually gave way and let us pass, however not without a mock charge which knocked my socks off. So, yeah that gives you an idea with who we were entrusting our lives with.

Anyways, on the late afternoon/evening of the third day at the camp, we had finally caught up to a pack of African Wild Dogs that we had been tracking for several days. Wild Dogs are some of the rarest animals in Africa and there are estimated to only be around 6,600 left in the wild, so it was pretty lucky we were able to see them. They’re about the size of a large house dog and hunt in packs of around 40-60 dogs. 

We followed this pack from about 4pm onward as they looked for prey to hunt. Phinley had heard reports from other jeeps in the area that the Wild Dogs hadn’t had a meal in about a week, so they were hungry and desperate for some food. After 2 hours of mad dashing through the African brush, we ended up witnessing them kill a small antelope called a Steinbok, when we got hungry ourselves and decided to stop for a late afternoon snack. 

As we left the jeep to get our snacks, we heard the barking and howls of the Wild Dogs in the distance, which worried us, but Phinley said to think nothing of it. We milled around for about 15 minutes, looking at the Lion King-esq sunset (yes, I know it’s a sunrise but just watch the scene in reverse), when Phinley offered to take a picture of our family. 

We said, “Sure why not?” and handed the camera over to him. He started snapping photos left and right, but little to our knowledge, the pack of Wild Dogs had creeped up behind us and surrounded us about 10 feet from where we were standing. Phinley said, in a much less serious tone than the situation entailed, “Turn around, slowly.” And there they were, about 35 African Wild Dogs, surrounding us on all sides. Obviously, we were scared sh*tless and I can’t speak for my family, but I was paralyzed with fear. All the while, Phinley offered us NO help whatsoever and kept on taking photos.

We didn’t know what to do. Do you show strength to scare them off? Do you not move, hoping they think you’re a tree or something? Do you back away slowly, demonstrating that you’re not a threat? I mean, obviously I’m still here today, in one piece, so the Wild Dogs must have gone away somehow, but I honestly can’t remember how. And thinking back on this almost three years later, what was Phinley doing?!?!? Just nonchalantly taking our photo as carnivorous predators who hadn’t eaten in a week stared down some American tourists. Man, what a strange situation…