Sun Destinations

You read correctly. A standard blog title would be “…Hyenas Stealing a Kill” but Marius Zeilinga from Umkumbe Safari Lodge actually witnessed hyenas making their own kill. Hyenas normally have their food served to them on a silver platter. When super-predators make a kill there’s a guarantee that a kettle of vultures and a clan of hyenas will be waiting in the wings, ready to devour the left-over morsels. These awkward looking dog-like carnivores, when in groups, will often steal a kill from a pride of lions. Quite gutsy scavengers! Despite being proficient hunters, it’s rare we see hyena’s doing the hard work and taking down their own prey.

This is what makes Marius’s sighting so extra-ordinary. These masterful hunters just happen to be incredibly resourceful carnivores boasting the ability to hunt and scavenge – with great success. They’re extremely quick and mobile creatures, which means they travel great distances in the night to source food. With plenty of big cats around, it means an abundance of kills. So clearly scavenging and thieving is easier than expending energy on the take down of plains game. When they do hunt, they target the weaker members of the population and will chase them until they are exhausted. They don’t hunt with stealth or grace, but simply barge into a herd with an air of bolshy confidence !

Marius witnessed a hyena ripping apart a 3 week old kudu calf, which is clearly a weaker member of the herd. His video captures the tail end of the kill, just as it was being devoured.

A very excited Marius mentioned that this is the first time he has seen something like this in his guiding career.

Here are 5 interesting facts about hyenas:

• Hyenas live in clans dominated by the older female. Females have their own internal ranking system – the more pushy females become the dominant ones.
• This species looks like a dog but is more closely related to a cat. They’re the missing link between a dog and a cat!
• Hyenas are incredibly vocal creatures who make a series of calls ranging from whoops, grunts, laughter and whining.
• The genitals of a female are similar to a males and trying to sex a hyena is a rather arduous task!
• A hyena clan will occupy a disused aardvark burrow as a den site. They will stash their cubs in the den, out of harms way.