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I consider myself to be one who does not easily exaggerate ... I am confident I saw a bh in the early 90's (?) on the northern side of the S52 loop not far from where it crosses the river . Although it was loping away from me up a gentle incline about 100m away and was visible for only 3 0r 4 seconds , the manner in which it was moving , the size , colour etc was too obvious to be a sh or an aardwolf .

Soon I will be in the area (see the avatar) to resume my quest for photographic proof .

Your word is enough for me, as I have also spotted a BH in KRUGER many years ago Aug 1967 on the old bridge crossing the Olifants River.

Then you are one of the luckiest (we create our own luck some times) people to visit KNP.

According to Mark and Delia Owens (they conducted research on Brown Hyenas in Botswana in the late 70's) BH are almost completely nocturnal(were seen at dusk and dawn) and are very shy animals, so that's most probably why no one sees them. They also found that they have a hierarchy system much the same as the Spotted Hyena(in Botswana, being a dry place may be different to Kruger as environment changes) but they search for food alone so if one is seen there has to be more.

Just my 2c worth.
I agree with you BF, it would be really interesting to conduct some research on Brown Hyena in KNP , i will speak to one of my lecturers tomorrow and find out if there is any current research being done on BH in SANParks

Maybe a silly question but does anyone know if BH can be found in Mozambique??
Was thinking of occasional cross bordering.

Not silly!

Will check!

I worked in the Sabi Sands for a couple of years and there were no Brown Hyena sightings during my time and that area is well traversed with all the lodges. When the Brown Hyena was seen in Sabi Sands last year, it was seen by at least 2 different lodges on consecutive nights. Djuma and Mala Mala.
Now the fact that there are no sightings in 30 odd years or more and then 2 sightings in 2 nights means that its probably the same individual and also means that they are not resident in the reserve because otherwise they would have been spotted more or at least tracks found.
My point is (and although perhaps obvious) that its not a case of a resident populations occurring throughout the park that is rarely seen but rather of nomads coming through or perhaps very small populations in the north of the park. We have had stray dogs on occasion in Sabi Sands as well as even a Gemsbok being reported once in the KNP and with documented populations of Brown Hyenas to the South and West of the park im sure they come through quite regularly as the fences are not animal proof. Kruger could easily be a population sink for this species where less dominant individuals get evicted from neighbouring populations and they come through to KNP where perhaps those that end up are killed by larger predators?

Thanks for the insider info, O-Dog. Sad to think that the once-resident populations of Kruger have dwindled so. However, like the coelecanth, I'll bet we're bound to be surprised again the future - nature has a way of coping better than we know.

I think that is the perfect answer, o-dog!

One difference could be that in the far North there is a population that has roamed rather MORE freely, or been resident and still may be, due to far smaller predator densities, and less tourist roads/sightings!

Will have to wait a month or more for info on Mozambique brown hyena, unfortunately.

1. Perhaps 35 years ago an edition of Custos carried a map of Kruger NP showing all the sightings ( probably recent at that time ) of Brown Hyena. Admittedly I remember that there were not a large number, but spread over most of the Kruger.

2. Perhaps 10 years ago, I heard that there was a sighting of one outside the Punda Maria gate by visitors who wanted to leave Kruger NP early. Apparently this one lived in Venda and was seen a few times.

3. Recent ranger reports are that there have been at least two sightings this year in the Sabie-Sand, Mala Mala reserves just n-w of Skukuza - both on night drives.

I saw Brown Hyena in KNP just north of Letaba about 6 years back on a night drive. It ran into the bushes off the road when we disturbed it. NO photo evidence though.

Ok, RUMURUTI, got a response!

One of my contacts on the Moz side of the transfrontier Park suggests as follows:

She has never seen or heard of any brown hyena tracks (spoor) on that side, despite doing a lot of leg work more to the south of the area, and sometimes finding spotted hyena.

However, she fully endorses the probability of Brownies occuring in the North of the Moz side, due to the habitat/biome being more arid and the Brownie being less water dependant...sort of like the extension of springhare into the Limpopo and Shingwedzi valleys, (And bat-eared fox in the old days)

Also, in years gone by, the scarcity of Brownie sightings was compounded by the increase in prdator numbers in the Far North due to the policy of artificial water points drawing seasonally unnatural prey and predators, (read spotted hyena again) combined with the almost infinitesmally small tourist road network in the area concerned (On both sides of the border).

One factor that emerged from the discussion, which is no big secret, is that spotted hyena seem to be the brown hyena's biggest competition...

Richprins, great! Thank you very much for getting the info.
It is a known fact that wildlife will migrate long distances and it not excluded that there is a small isolated population of brown's in Moz and that they may be moving in and across the border.
It would def be one of those projects to undertake and see if these "visits" are just temporary or what.
Thanks again!

I was paging through my new copy of Die Goue Jare by Dr. U de V Pienaar last night. Now I didn't read all of it but noticed that in almost every year during the late 70's and then through the 80's there were reports of Brown Hyena throughout Kruger, mostly from Satara north-wards.
There were also quite a few reports of Bat-eared Foxes and most of those came from the Middelvlei waterhole area.

When I have more time (after exams in October) I will try to look up those reports and get them onto the forum. Unless somebody else has got some time on their hands before then

Hello and a warm welcome, mggdyer!

Keep us up to date!

Johan, have the same experience looking at old rangers' reports, although very rare even in those days!