SANParks.org Forums

Saw one under the restaurant deck at Lower Sabie one night in Feb. Restaurant/bar was quite busy and a few people had spotlights. And the good news was that I did not see anyone throwing food for him.

hard time for hyenas.
we saw this one near Berg an dal : she was exhausted too, the ear is bleeding and it looks like she has lost the right eye ...

For those that want to know, the location of a den:
S24.04.039 E31.44.118 (That is near Olifants.)

As spotted by Madach.

I am not sure if it would be the same den as the one we saw before, but this one was in a culvert that runs through under the road and it was between the Ngotso North waterhole and the S89, on the H1-4.
There were a lot of hyenas of various ages running around, at that time, with one main babysitter in attendance.

Thanks Elsa, we also saw them at that exact spot few times before. Just didn't think they would still be there!
Will go and have a look

Take route 9 for about 9km. When you see a group of tall trees count from left to right and at the 9th tree look to the right.

Saw this specific den in 1999.
Looks like a well used and established den

Spotted Hyenas hunt in packs where they will mostly tack the stragllers of their quarry, they chase their prey until exhaustion

They create "chaos" by running in the dark through, for example a group of impala's so that it will be easy to attack a disorientated animal.They call tham masters of CHAOS.

Once the pack has decided which animal in the herd to attack, the Spotted Hyaena chases its prey over long distances, tiring the animal until it falls. They also bring prey animals down by tearing at the flesh as they run. They mostly hunt at night.

Ambush attacks also take place at times.

You are correct in describing the hunting behaviour of the Spotted Hyena.

I do not think that they are really good at ambush though! They are not built for stealth, in fact they sound more like a bulldozer when you hear them moving through the bush at night! Although, when opportunity presents itself they will use ambush as well.

I once saw a program on a pair of Hyenas that actually used an ambush technique. The one would prod the animal in the direction of its mate that was hiding in a dip. When the unsuspecting prey got close enough, it would rush out and grab it. The pair regularly used the same technique and place. I do however think that this is the exception, rather than the rule.

Spotted Hyena is able to drive lions from a kill. This often leads to serious altercations and sometimes animals (both Hyena and Lion) are seriously injured or even killed. If there are enough Hyena to substantially outnumber the lion pride, they will attack and harass the lions, until they leave!
There is however one factor that mostly prevent them from being able to do this! A big male or coalition seems to be just too intimidating! They are just so much bigger and stronger than any Hyena, that they seem to negate a numerical advantage the Hyena might hold. A lot of instances have been noted where male Lion have intentionally attacked and killed Hyena.

Nature just published an article about pregnant dominant spotted hyena's giving their offspring a heavy dose of testoteron in the second half of the pregnancy to help them up the ranks even before birth.
It seems to work,

Greetings from the bush

What would this be and how did it get there?
Clue: Aepyceros melampus


resized by bert

Greetings from Biyamiti

The dung in this photo is olive green in colour. Please help, what was wrong with this animal?

resized by bert
Yes to my knowledge nothing was wrong with this animal. It was indeed dung from hyaena and as you correctly said dung from predators (especially hyaena) tends to be olive green when fresh, turning white when drying out. The high calcium content (from eating bones) having that result.

The dung is very typical shaped, which is a dead giveaway for hyaena, there are some fine hair in (remember the regurgitation of the furball by hyaena) but not as much as would be expected from lion dung. Lion dung would also tend to be more sausage like and generally much darker (almost black) because of the blood (with less bone) intake at a kill.

Indeed baboon dung would show the plant material (seeds mostly) clearly visible in the dung. The baboon would also make smaller droppings with a slightly pointed defecation.

Leopard dung would be much along the lines of that of lion – just much smaller with less hair as they prefer plucking their prey before eating.

Just to give you an idea of the size of this dung heap – it was measuring about 25 cm across.