Adventure with a purpose: Bucket list: face to face with the strongest jaws in nature: the Hyena

I just love hyena's and it is just sad that they are always painted as the villain giving people the wrong impression of them. Yes they are dangerous just like any wild animal should be but when you get to study them or observe them you get to see a highly intelligent,affectionate and sociable creature just doing things... well the hyena way.

Getting up close and personal with these incredible animals has always been a dream. My uncle and aunt the late Viv and Paddy Wilson started a sanctuary for wild animals in Zimbabwe called Chipengali. They wrote many books, had research published and Viv my Dad's sister was an accomplished wildlife artist. They have since passed on and my cousin Kevin Wilson now runs things and continues to do their work. I visited there in 1974 and Viv had just breed a brown hyena in captivity for the first time. I spent hours just watching this amazing creature. I was never able to get up really close and most of the enclosure was off limits due to research. But it lead to this moment when I now sat face to face with the strongest jaws in the animal kingdom. Not a brown hyena but a spotted hyena.

Their fur was an interesting mixture of coarse and soft hairs. their paws, well actually the pads underneath were obviously a little rough. their claws not sharp and I was surprised that they did not actually smell bad.

I was surprised at just how soft the muzzle and mouth area was.

They loved to be rubbed around their mouth. Scratched behind the ears and on the head. Then of course like any "dog" they loved tummy rubs!.

I felt their teeth. My word they are strong and their jaws well lets just say I did not push my luck.

We were warmed by their handler who had reared them since tiny cubs pups?? that they are very boisterous and overbearing.

They will shove their faces into yours and stare at you. jump and sit all over you and that they did.

They love to nip and chew. We had to take off all jewelry and dangly bits.

For whatever reason all three jumped onto my daughter who is not the biggest of people and weights under 50kg. One tuckered into her boots and the other chomped on her blouse ripping it. They then settled for a short while and she became fair game. The handler then helped her out and as much as she loved being with them she loved leaving in one piece more!

My son had a really special moment with one of the hyenas.

As the photos will show a intimate moment between human and wild animal as they came face to face with each other in a gentle display of both curiosity and social interaction.

He got off lightly with a shoe lace that one of the boys simply snapped in half!!

I left my foot out instead of tucking it in. I think is came out when I tried to balance myself when all three pounced on top of me. Footage clearly shows the hyena tucking into my shoe. He wrapped his mouth around my foot and applied pressure. He did not bite me in that he drew blood but I felt the force of that incredibly strong jaw. One wrong move and I might not have a foot left. I manged to gentle "shove" him off and distract him and very quickly tucked my foot under me. I was not having any of that again. it was eina!!

They continued to play with us putting open mouths over our hands and arms but not actually biting a few gentle nips. They still hurt a bit but it was nothing compared to what they could really do. They were social love bites!

This was a once in a lifetime experience that I will treasure for the rest of my life. I always loved hyenas but now I was in love with them. Their quirkiness and unusual gait had me captivated. Their shiny mischievous eyes melted my heart. The feeling was over whelming and weeks later I am still walking on air at the incredible moment I shared and came face to face with the awesome hyenas

SPOTTED HYENA (Gevlekte hiena) Crocuta crocuta (Laughing Hyena)

Shoulder weight about 80 cm. Average mass for males is 58 kg and for females a heavier 70 kg. They are found widespread in the northern parts of the Sub-region in open plains or open woodland which they prefer but can be found in riverine-type Savannah.. They are dependent on water.

Its numbers and presence is dependent on adequate populations of medium-sized and large ungulates (antelope), which is its main food, in the absence of which it will turn to domestic stock. The result is eradication in many of these areas once this happens.

They are rather massively built with heavy forequarters and relatively lighter hindquarters which gives the impression of a sloping back.

The background colour of the body is an off-white or a greyish white, tinged with a bit of yellow. The body has dark brown or blackish suffused spots which disappear with age. It's head, neck and lower parts of the limbs are actually free of spots. It's head broad and massive with a dark brown or nearly black muzzle and broad rounded ears. The body is covered with short hair which is coarse. A crest of hair on the mid-back from the head to the shoulders with a bushy black or dark brown tail.

The amazing spotted hyena lives in matriarchal clans (ruled by the larger more aggressive females) which occupy demarcated territories but will also forage alone or in groups, killing medium sized or even larger mammals or will take to scavenging. They will roam single or 2-3 together belonging to a group of up to 12 animals occupying a territory. Each clan defends a territory of about 130 km squared. The group will regularly scent-mark their area and make use of communal dung heaps in the territory. A hyena's droppings are very conspicuous and turn white on drying. this is a result of the high calcium content from eating bones. Leopard tortoises sometimes will eat hyena scat to benefit from this calcium content to bolster their bony shells!!. Hyenas make use of these well-visited latrines as part of their territorial demarcations, however the males do not respect these boundaries and both male and female will ignore them if food is scarce. Females are more dominant and they have a rank hierarchy among themselves and all females (and their female cubs) are dominant over all males. Female cubs will inherit their mother's status and they form coalitions around her in which they operate eg: hunting together. These coalitions, especially if lower ranked will sometimes break away to from new clans where their status is improved.

The younger males will leave the clan at about 2 years of age to be inducted into a new clan which will give them a slightly elevated status as they are genetically vigorous. They will work harder to gain social favour in order to mate with the females, however some male will simply remain alone. Hyenas are sometimes seen during the day, but they are primarily nocturnal mammals. They are scavengers by and large but will hunt in a pack. This scavenging is thought to play a important role in the natural control of diseases like anthrax by disposing of carcasses. The degree to which hyenas scavenge will depend on the concentration of lions within a area. Where lions are many the hyenas will scavenge more regularly, however if lion numbers are low and hyena numbers are higher they will be then forced to hunt more which will then lead to the lions actually scavenging from the hyenas! Hyenas will actually dispossess lions of their food it they have the advantage of four hyenas to one lioness.

Hyenas are coursers, hunting by chasing prey until they or the prey are exhausted. they will from a vital ecological function of eliminating sick and old animals from populations which become the easiest targets. They will choose a victim by blundering into the middle of a herd of animals and will not stalk their prey like a cat does. Hyenas are more successful as hunters than similar sized predators due to their remarkable endurance. They are able to chase prey at a speed of 60km/h for over 2 km and have been known to follow hers of animals for nearly 30 km before making a kill. Really amazing!!

Litters of one or two young are born in holes in the ground at any time of the year. Clan females will den together however each only suckles her own cubs. Th clan members do not carry food to the cubs. The call is a serious of long drawn out who-o-oops, rising in pitch and sometime trailing out in a low moaning. It also grunts, groans and giggles, and it will also yell and whine particularly when squabbling at kills.

as mentioned 1-4 young are born anytime during the year with a peak in late summer after a gestation period of around 3 months. The female has 1 pair of abdominal mammae. They live to around 25 years old.

The main focus of a hyena clan is around the communal den which is normally a disused aardvark hole with multiple entrances for easy access. The den is where all the females keep their young. As mentioned unlike lions they do not mutually suckle each others young but like lions they come and go as they please, members separating and reuniting randomly. The adults will seldom go inside the den where the cubs typically dig small tunnels to escape into if danger is eminent. The remain at the entrance where they suckle their young on the richest milk of any terrestrial carnivore. The cubs will remain in the confines of their maze-like den being fed on only milk for a protracted time and weaning is typically at around 14-18 months old. The hyenas goal is to keep their young safe by leaving them at the den and out of harms way for as long as possible. This avoids the attention of other competitors like lions by taking food back to them in the from of milk rather than actual meat.

Other that the communal dung pile hyenas scent mark their territories by wiping an averted anal gland over a shaft of grass. This deposits a strong smelling secretion on it. This behaviour is known as pasting. cubs as little as 4 weeks old start practicing this.

Giving birth is actually a huge task for the hyena and not an easy one! The birth canal actually traverses the pseudo-penis and is therefore twice as long as in other mammals. the umbilical cord disconnects from the placenta while the cub is still inside the birth canal, The opening of which is far smaller than the cub's head. as a result first-time mother will often produce still born cubs due to oxygen starvation. Because the uro-genital opening has now split the subsequent births are a little easier.

The hyena cubs are very lively and playful creating some very entertaining viewing if you can spot them. They chase each other around and jump over the adults and pick up objects like sticks during their games. These activities will all help to hone their developing muscles as well as the lifestyle skills they will reacquire once they have reached adulthood. They are born with their eyes open unlike other carnivores which are closed at birth. Their canines are fully erupted and aggressive tendencies are intact. The females usually give birth to twins, should they be females the battle for dominance will immediately begin and the result is one cub usually dies, if one of the cubs are male then the female will naturally dominate him and there will be no need for fighting.

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Photo Credits: Kim Williams Copyright