Friday, September 21, 2012

Spotted Hyena: An Elusive Predator spotted at Maasai Mara, Kenya

For some reason, I have always wanted to watch the Hyena in the wild. In my mind space, the Hyena occupies a much higher ranking than the usual predators – lion, leopard, cheetah, leopard, tiger, etc. May be, it is because I have always been fascinated by their hunting technique that is portrayed on TV (Nat Geo, Discovery, Animal Planet, etc.).

Spotted Hyena - an elusive predator
But, what I didn’t really know was that the Hyenas are more elusive than most of the big cats. And, in 14 game drives in Kenya, I saw the Hyena only once and that too in the wee hours of the morning.

Spotted hyena looks into the lens as it crosses the jeep track
The Hyena that I saw was a Spotted Hyena on the eastern side of the Maasai Mara Game Reserve as he crossed the jeep track. And even while crossing the jeep track, he was very shy of the vehicles. I hope this shyness ensures that their population remains healthy and they remain happy in the wild.

4 comments:

  1. Anuradha ShankarSeptember 21, 2012 at 10:22 AM

    i wonder if we actually have hyenas in India! have not only never seen one, which is no surprise, but havent heard of any spottings either... this was  great sight anyway... 

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  2. Sankara Subramanian CSeptember 21, 2012 at 3:07 PM

    There are some striped hyenas in the wild in india, but very very rare. I haven't come across any in India and that is why this hyena sighting even though it was in kenya was very special.

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  3. dNambiarOctober 4, 2012 at 12:37 PM

    This was another great opportunity, I'm sure. Just curious -- did you hear it laugh? 
    Hyena's are rather shy right? They don't travel in groups?

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  4. Sankara Subramanian COctober 4, 2012 at 9:41 PM

    No, I didn't hear it laugh. Yes, they are shy of humans, but they travel in groups quite often.

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