One can almost see this young hyena thinking: ‘I wish I could climb trees’; as she was watching a Leopard eating on an Impala carcass while lying on a branch. Leopards often drag their kills into trees and Hyenas often trail Leopards in the hope to steal the food before they get a chance to lift it to safety.
On this occasion the Leopard dropped one of the Impala legs by accident and the Spotted Hyena got its share ๐.
This is the ninth video with music from the album ‘Under the Marula Tree’ by ROOT, a local band. It features some of my pictures and videos.
The music is composed to symbolize African nature icons (eg sunrises, Lions, Leopards, Elephants, …). This very special album is available on Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, Deezer for streaming and download! https://root.hearnow.com/
In my eight years at Thanda Safari I had never seen a Brown Hyena. But yesterday morning we were lucky. As we drove onto the savanna this specimen stared at us for a few seconds and then started running fast towards nearby thickets.
I was not fast enough to catch the staring on camera, but I got the running ๐
This little Hyena baby was carried by its mum back to their den. It is incredible to see when the pup relaxes immediately as soon as it gets picked up by the ample skin on its neck๐
Spotted Hyenas often look like they are laughing. But fierce competition within their species and pressure from Lions provide very few reasons for laughter. I love to watch these incredible creatures, the leaders of nature’s clean up crew ๐