… a young Hyena at Thanda Safari
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Looking for breakfast
Those eyes!
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PHOTOBOMBING
This is what it looks like when an Elephant is photobombing a Spotted Hyena picture 😊
Near the Olifants river – H1-5 near S-89 intersection, Kruger National Park
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THE DAILY POST – WISHFUL THINKING
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 😊.
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THE DAILY POST – THE CACKLING HYENA BY ROOT
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/
All ROOT videos are available on their YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMXQv3FdJsIERJHHKt0rX2w
Enjoy THE CACKLING HYENA 😊
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THE EVENING POST – FOR THE FRIST TIME
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 😊
Enjoy your evening.
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THE MORNING POST – A BIT OF A LAUGH
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 😊
Have a good Wednesday!
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STAY-AT-HOME SUNDAY
This morning I had the perfect sighting to explain the members of the ‘bush cleanup crew’.
This important team is lead by Spotted Hyena and includes White-backed Vultures, Hooded Vultures, Black-Backes Jackals, Woolly-necked Storks and Pied Crows. I found all of them together in one sighting on the Thanda Safari savanna.
The Hyena was feeding on an Impala carcass and all the others tried to get bits and pieces as the Hyena dragged the animal remains around.
All of the creatures play a major role in keeping the bush tidy and clean.
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Clean-Up
The cleanup-crew was busy in front of my home (Thanda House) when I left in the early morning hours (6:06am). These three Spotted Hyena were cleaning up a nearby Lion kill.
… and have a look at this recent Thanda Safari blog about our Hyena census project https://thandablog.com/2016/05/18/hyena-census/
When a camera meets a Hyena :-)
We had made up this little project to try and capture some small night creatures with my camera trap. We selected the location carefully and installed the camera high enough not to attract Hyenas.
At least that was what we thought 🙂
This collage shows the camera before its meeting with some Hyena teeth. Then the last pictures it ever took, and finally the electronic rubbish it is now after the Hyena had a go at it.
Lesson to be learned – no more camera traps without steel casing!
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