Wait a Season For Their Names

The African Wild Dog is on the knife edge of extinction, and for one pack living near the Chobe River of Botswana, survival is a daily struggle. Aalwyn, the matriarch, must lead her family through the perilous breeding season of winter. Her mate, Grootboom, must provide his family with kills. Through it all, a lion is hunting them, and the scent of a litter of pups has not escaped his notice. A predator may be on top of their food chain, but they must compete nonetheless - with other predators, time, hunger, and with the unpredictable wrath of humankind. The Wild Dog pack is on the move, and searches for a home through the dangerous wild of Botswana, from the lush riverfront dominated by temperamental elephants to the sparse Ngwezumba pans. Their adventures take them through Zimbabwe, where starvation forces them to venture close to poachers. Finally they escape to Mozambique, and the promise that Gorongosa National Park may hold. Aalwyn knows the end may be near for her kind. The pups that are her love, her life, and her world entire are not aware that they will most likely die. The indifferent savanna compels her to wait out the season to find names for her children, should they pass the tests given to them.