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Story by : Narong Suwannarong
Photo by : Narong Suwannarong, Wanchanok Suwannakara
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The deer's cry subsides, only to return again in more frequent, and notably more stressed intervals. I quickly decide to rush over to the source of the commotion when my friend passes by...
"C'mon, get in the car! A pack of dholes have started feeding on a deer!" he screams.
I hop into his car at once, and we rush to the scene, parking about 300 meters from where the dholes are about to close in on a fully-grown female deer. Half running, half walking, we make it over to the opposite side
of the river, in time to observe that the chase has now been led into the water. Suddenly, two dholes begin attacking the deer's eyes, a tactic I have come to surmise blinds the prey, preventing it from being able to see clearly enough
to run away. Almost simultaneously, another dhole starts biting into the deer's hind legs, effectively wounding the deer's only means to run away quickly, in an attempt also to cause the deer's legs to buckle beneath it. Finally, we
notice a last dhole out of the water in a posture that tells us he is on the lookout for any interruptions to the feeding. |
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The terrified deer, its body bloodied and torn, refuses to give up easily, and in its wild and desperate flailing, manages to send one of the dholes flying above the water. But the dholes are relentless, and despite
the difficulty in attacking a prey in water that is also much taller than they are, their tried and true systematic mode of attack breaks the deer's defenses and ultimately spells death for the deer... and lunch for the hardworking
dholes.
No matter how brutal and vicious the feeding may appear, the pack of dholes do not kill for sport and they do not collect the remains of their prey as trophies, or as indicative of their sordid characters. It is
rather, their daily work and their method of survival... one life sacrificed for countless others. |
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The deer finally falls and the tired dholes begin to rip apart at their meal. The head of the pack starts with the deer's eyes, the others then continue onto the deer's chest, followed by the intestinal area and
abdominal meat. Should the dead prey have fallen too far from the dhole's nest, pieces are torn off and brought back to their hungry young... |
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