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Robbie | profile | all galleries >> India: Satpura Hills >> Wild Dogs attacking Gaur calf tree view | thumbnails | slideshow

Wild Dogs attacking Gaur calf

Our guides were alerted by the plaintive bleating of the gaur calf.
We arrived at the scene very near to the start of the attack...the calf was still standing!

At the start all six of the dogs (only about the size of foxes) engaged the gaur mother together, with some goading her to charge,
whilst others nipped in at the side or back to bite the calf.
After a while both dogs and gaur were fairly exhausted...and only three dogs engaged the gaur...leaving the others to get their breath back.
Then they swapped around.

In my pix, the gaur mother looks a bit static and disinterested, but that is probably because I have tended to select the sharper pix,
with less movement.(low light was a problem!)
Actually, she tried very hard to defend her calf ... trying to by butt, kick or even stamp on the dogs...
but to no avail.... after about an hour the calf had been bitten so many times that it had stopped bleating and probably bled to death.
The mother had also been accidentally treading on her calf... in her attempts to keep the dogs away...which probably didn't help!

However, the gaur mother continued to defend the body for several more hours.
We had to leave (after more than 3 hours, as it was Wednesday when the park closes at 11am).....
At that time there was still a stand-off between the gaur and the dogs.... By the following day, there was no trace of either the dogs, or the calf's body.

Wild dogs never give up... it is, however, possible that some wild boar(who were in the vicinity) could have muscled-in and taken the prize for themselves.

There is a 15 minute video on You Tube
Three wild dogs attacking Gaur mother (from video)and calf.jpg
Three wild dogs attacking Gaur mother (from video)and calf.jpg		 Gaur Mother trying to protect her calf from Wild Dogs
Gaur Mother trying to protect her calf from Wild Dogs		 Mother Gaur trying to defend her almost dead calf from Wild Dogs
Mother Gaur trying to defend her almost dead calf from Wild Dogs		 Mother Gaur trying to protect her nearly dead calf from Wild Dogs
Mother Gaur trying to protect her nearly dead calf from Wild Dogs
Wild Dogs trying to drag nearly dead calf from Gaur mother
Wild Dogs trying to drag nearly dead calf from Gaur mother		 Wild Dogs trying to drag dead calf from Gaur mother
Wild Dogs trying to drag dead calf from Gaur mother		 Gaur mother licking dead calf
Gaur mother licking dead calf		 Wild Dogs trying to drag dead calf away from Gaur mother
Wild Dogs trying to drag dead calf away from Gaur mother
Gaur mother defending dead calf from Wild Dogs
Gaur mother defending dead calf from Wild Dogs		 Gaur mother defending her dead calf from Wild Dogs
Gaur mother defending her dead calf from Wild Dogs		 Gaur mother defending dead calf from Wild Dogs
Gaur mother defending dead calf from Wild Dogs		 Wild Dogs trying to drag dead calf from Gaur mother
Wild Dogs trying to drag dead calf from Gaur mother

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