My African Adventure Part I

THE HYENA. A RUTHLESS KILLER AND SCAVENGER OR A TACTICAL TEAM PLAYER

Sitting on the back of a safari truck with the sun setting over Africa, we watched three hyena cubs at play outside their den under the relaxed but watchful gaze of a mature female. We were in the capable hands of Mark Broderick, head guide at Singita Sands, and renowned African wildlife photographer, Adrian Steirn. Mark was clearly excited at the excellent citing of what he later revealed as one of his favourite predators.

The three cubs did not appear to be from the same litter, with the two larger cubs clearly older than the third. The female had been left to look after the cubs, whilst the other females hunted for food to feed the entire pack. She basked contentedly in the evening sun as the pups played on and around her. Her ears occasionally pricked in the direction of any sound that may hint at danger to the cubs. As the sun sank towards the horizon the pups became increasingly adventurous, and the elder two began wandering further and further from the den.

Hyenas are often identified by the role they played in Disney's The Lion King. The most common perception of a hyena is a slinking, leering scavenger who would eat its own young if given half a chance (whilst this is sometimes true, hyenas are not the only African predators to partake in this practice). Observing the peaceful scene outside the den, this preconception fell away.

In the world of African predators, killing one another's young is a common occurrence. It is a necessary survival technique, a way of eliminating future competitors. Lions in particular will go out of their way to kill a hyena pup. This is why the pups are watched with such scrutiny by the alpha female until they are old and strong enough to fend for themselves.

Anyway back to the Hyena and the point of my story. The hyena does scavenge but they are also highly efficient hunters and there is a very good reason for this. They operate as a team. The hyena hierarchy is called a 'cackle' or 'clan' of Hyenas. As we saw on that day in Africa each member of the hierarchy has roles within the cackle. The alpha female was looking after not only her own cub(s) but the cub(s) of one of the other females who was more than likely out hunting.

When the hyena hunt they will sometimes charge directly at a herd of wildebeest causing them to run in different directions. As they scatter the hyena will pick out the weakest before they start the pursuit. Some pursuits have been known to be over 20km. More importantly, when the hyena hunt as a team they are five times more capable of making a kill than when hunting alone. In fact it has been shown they have a 74% success rate when hunting as a team as opposed to 15% when hunting alone.

Together the hyena clan are also capable of taking kill off larger predators like Lions.

A few facts about Hyenas that you might not have known:

1. Hyena's are more closely related to the cat than the dog, hence the young are called cubs.

2. The female hyena is dominant (and larger) than the males and has a pseudo penis.

3. They have extremely powerful jaws which can easily crush bones. For this reason their excrement is often white from eating bones.

Next month more on my African Adventure and in particular the one animal that has a higher success rate in kills completed than the hyena.

Sam Burton Taylor

P.S - There are some good series on TV at the moment. If you were lucky you would have caught Eye of the Leopard last night. The film was made by the Joubert's. Enjoy.