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Interesting subject, Ice.
Would love to see those pics, Rosemary
Just found this bit of information:
"A vulture can see an animal carcass on the ground while soaring at heights up to 2.5 miles, distances at which humans can't even see the bird in the air! The vulture has a concentration of one million cones (photoreceptors which perceive color and detail) per square millimeter in its eye, at least five times that of humans."

well, I should have made it more clear:

the guide made it sound as if the hyaneas actually wait until the vultures are gone...I can see that vultures may detect a carcass earlier than them...

I am also not an expert on this but in nature documentaries and so on the hyaenas chase the vultures away just like most other carnivores.

yeah, that's what I saw / thought and will continue to believe.

Can only relate to nature films
Usually the vultures find the meat but when the scavengers enter they seem to chase the vultures away.

But have seen a giraffe next to the road with only vultures.
No Hyaena around.
Suppose both situations occur

hmm I doubt that very much.

I know that hyaenas use vultures to locate kills. Beside the fact that their smelling senses are extremely good. Hyeana's will not neccesarily chase vultures off .. they would go for a piece of the carcass and take off .. It will be a case of everyone for himself.

I doube they will wait ... If a strong pack is able to "seize" a carcas from Lions .. what threat would a vultures pose them? Nope I think your guide was incorrect with his information.

There is no rule here , it all depends on circumstances such as species numbers , terrain , predator types at the carcass , the type of animal killed , age of carcass etc etc etc .
It all boils down to first come first served , and an animal making sure another predator or scavenger does not injure or kill it during the squabble .

Cheetah will normally eat very fast , because they are not good at keeping there kill from hyena or any other large predator , as said they even get botthered by vultures , although there kills are normally quick and it takes while for a large group of vultures to collect and chase a chetah off .
Chettah only eat there own kill while it is fresh, they do not eat carrion .

If the hyena/lion/leopard find a carcass first , then they will eat it .
If the vultures , then they eat it .

If its a tough animal like a rhino or buffalo , then possibly lappet faced vultures or one of the bigger predators will need to "open" up the carcass first , and then its all fair game .

I have seen jackalls fighting the small vutures from a kill .
Hyena seem to go in and get what they want without bothering about the vultures at all , they certainly do not wait for them , if anything the vultures are not keen on getting to close to the hyena .
Lions hate anything getting near to there kill , but for some reason are not to bothered by the odd jackal taking a scrap (When they arent feeding.)

I agree Bucky

On a trip to Kruger a few years ago we saw how hyena's looked up at the sky and spotted vultures and started running towards them and a short while later found another hyena making it's way towards the vultures but I don't think this is the oder, I think it just depends on circumstances

On mmy recent trip to Kruger if you read in the trip reports we saw a Lion kill..they took down a Buffalo, We frequented the kill as much as possible to see the Vulture and Hyena acticities but only saw the first Hyena on our night drive on the second evening of the kill and the vultures(there were only 2 sitting in a tree about 7km away from the kill were basically never there

was that near shingwedzi? on a non-public road?

Nope
Near Orpen on a public road the s106 for more info check my trip report on the trip reports page a under Mafunyane-blessed beyond believe-27March-1April...

Bucky is absolutely correct.

Hyenas wander around smelling & looking for something.Once we saw a cheetah take down an impala and before he had a chance to start eating 4 hyenas found the kill and chased him off before the vultures started arriving. This is not the norm. Hyenas often look skywards for vultures and follow them to a carcass.

I have been to the KNP this easter weekend.We stayed at Maroela tent camp near Orpen camp.I only saw Elephant two times in that region in the five days I was there.Is it something to do with the vegetation or what.

I have the same problem.

I have seen only one ellie in the Shingwedzi area over easter. And I saw about 4 ellies over the duration of the whole trip.

Would never have said that Kruger had an over population problem.

Yes, as I have said before, there is a whole lot of veld in Kruger with not much in it.

Having said that, I don't believe there is a shortage of eles anywhere. You are just lucky or not. We drove the H7 a few times in December and on our last drive saw one ele, whereas there was a large herd the day before.

The bush is sometimes so thick they cannot be spotted, but heard, 10 metres from the road.

They must have seen you coming Eagle 1, btw, nice avatar!

Elephants are concentrated in the northern sections of kruger although luck and skill do play a major role in spotting them