My 3rd quest lands on a lonely placid beach scattered with towering palm trees littered around with decaying logs & fronds of long fallen ones, on another remote tropical island that lies straight across from a not-so distant volcanic island shrouded by passing trains of stormy clouds... These isolated land & seascapes made me think of the gathered chunks of volcanic islands that surround the southeastern coastline of Papua New Guinea?? Something along those lines?? One late morning when I came out of the weedy fronds facing the beachfront I spotted a small pack of large dingo-like wild dogs... From my last sessions of observations on these indigenous primitive canids, from what Ive watched so far, their lifestyle & behaviour are more or less like dingos & wolves.. One thing for certain was that they tend not gather in large packs & tend to inhabit the beaches coastlines circling the islands though I never seen any of them when I was farther inland. They also head into the waves but never swim far off in deep water they stay around the shallow tides... That was when I came up with a common name for these island shore inhabitants, the shorehounds & its not known of there are more than one endemic species of them wandering on the other side of this island let alone other neighboring islands. From what I visualized is that these wild dogs resemble more like stowaways of Thai ridgeback dogs which are an established modern-day breed in Thailand (possibility that this dog has branched off from this sorta breed??) but the only differences are that they have tall ears that are reminiscent of modern-day Pharaoh hounds & longer tails are rowed with thick spikey hair perhaps overgrown to provide them better balance while swimming & communication.. Another thing I noted is that a thick row of spiky hair run down their necks & backs as well... Their overall coloration varies in individuals, very much shades of brown although I've claimed to have seen light grey, fawn, & reddish individuals wandering around the shorelines... As far as their overall diet is concerned from my best observations, their diet might've consisted of mostly carrion ranging from fish to beached dolphins, crustaceans, reptiles such as small monitor lizards, sea turtle hatchlings & their eggs, sea snakes, rodents, ground-dwelling birds & their eggs after my latest observation on the small pack digging deep into the sand layer after layer possibly for any buried reptile eggs However, it's not entirely certain that they hunt in well-organized packs although I did witnessed a few dogs ganging up together chasing off a deer, monitor lizard, & a seperate small pack joined together to harass a juvenile crocodilian on the tideline...
pen & ink on paper, 11" x 17"
