Hunting the hyena: Part I

Over the past few years we've had a few encounters with hyena while traveling through the southern African countries and after our very first visit, I decided to put together a plan and fit in some hyena hunting the very next time we made plans to visit the Dark Continent. We've encountered Spotted Hyena (Crocuta crocuta) in South Africa on a number of occasions, always in the Limpopo Province, both on private property and in a few areas within Kruger Park. In Botswana we came into contact with Spotted hyena along the Chobe River and in Moremi and Savuti Game Reserves. 

Cruising along the Chobe River in Botswana made for quite regular encounters with Spotted Hyena.

Brown Hyena (Parahyaena brunnea) on the other hand have proved to be much more elusive.  At Cape Cross on Namibia's Skeleton Coast we found spoor along the beach, weaving in and out of the Cape Fur Seal colony that litter the beach.  While the Black-Backed Jackal is content to traverse the beach front in broad day light looking for the sick and dead seals that make up the bulk of their diet in these parts, the ever cautious Brown Hyena maintains its mostly nocturnal and shy disposition and evaded our waiting Canon DSLR on our visit. 

Black-Backed Jackal (above) frequent the Cape Fur Seal colony at Cape cross along with the Brown Hyena looking for an easy meal - sick, injured or dead seals.

 The unpleasant smell at Cape Cross, a combination of dead seals and excrement are brought to shore by the strong and icy winds of the South Atlantic Ocean. For those of you that are keen on experiencing the natural wonders of the world, the Cape Fur Seal colony and the accompanying stench is one of those sights (and smells) you must see to believe! 

Now that is a lot of seals!!

Most hunters that visit Africa shoot hyena opportunistically. We put aside time specifically for the purpose of hunting them and our professional hunters are generally not impressed! On this trip, the hyena were our priority species and everyone involved knew that we had quite a task ahead of us...

Spotted Hyena skulk along the roads in Kruger National Park; this photo was taken near Orpen Gate.

In 2009 we spent 10 days hunting both hyena species along the Matlabas Riverin the Limpopo Province. We were dragging and hanging baits and building blinds in areaswhere we'd found recent sign of hyena, a rotten old nyala ewe that had died onthe property and an impala I'd shot. We had baits in three locations and itseemed that regardless of where we sat on any given night, the hyena would hitone of the other baits.  We had one excellent sighting of a lone spottedhyena on the way to the one of the bait sites but I wasn't in a position toshoot in the 1/2 second he gave us! 

Spotted Hyena spoor alongside the .300 Weatherby.

Stefan and Fanwell wire up the gut from a blesbok to run our drags to the bait site.

Stefan and Fanwell hanging the old nyala ewe carcass where we found fresh spoor.

We didn't see a brown hyena at all. We hadan animal come in to the bait a couple of times but nothing close to a shotopportunity! I think it was the ninth night out that we were calling, it was asteenbok in distress call, a sound not unlike the tin whistle we use forrabbits, when we heard the distant cackle of a couple of hyena.  My hairwas standing on end.  It was pitch black as I cocked the .300 and pointedthe rifle over the bow in the direction of the approaching hyena. The calls gotcloser and soon we could hear them grinding the course sand under their paws.They were close. 

My PH Stefan grabbed my shoulder in the darkness -
   "Dagga, I'll hit the light on three. Okay?" 

   "Yep. no problem," my heart was racing, I love a bit of buck fever!

When the light came on the reticle was a metre off its mark; a quick adjustment as I squeezed the trigger caught the dog broadside, alongthe centerline of the foreleg, about half way up the body. He dropped and Ifired again, hitting him through the spine. I roared; after nine long days andnights of strategising and tracking and sitting and driving. I was excited andexhausted after what had been a great hunt.

Fast forward three years, to three short weeks ago when Ifound myself in a game reserve, again in the Limpopo Province about 90kmoutside of Hoedspruit.  Like many reserves, the game is well managed andthere is a tendency for the wildlife populations to increase at a rate muchhigher than losses due to old age or predation, so as part of theirmanagement strategy, in the last two years they have started bringing in trophyhunters before the choppers come in to cull animals at the end of the season,before the rains start. They had a fairly limited quota but there were ahandful of species that I was quite keen to hunt, Spotted Hyena being one ofthem.

We met the Game Warden, Kobus, at a remote side gate with our PH Floris de Meyer. Weneeded to stay clear of the game viewing vehicles as this was purely aphotographic safari operation with a luxury lodge attached.  Funny isn'tit? I asked Kobus about how he felt about our team coming to the reserve tohunt and kill the big game that he is charged with preserving:

"The idea is growing on me," he replied -"we have tourists here and they pay good money to stay at the lodge,however to keep those tourists coming on photographic safaris we had to buildthe lodges and now we need to maintain them. We have a huge team of staff. Wehave to provide meals and there are lots of costly logistics associated withthat out here. We have to provide large volumes of clean water and then dealwith similar volumes of waste water and sewerage in this pristine environment. You guys come in and leave nothing behind except your cash - that goesstraight to the bottom line. The lodge itself has yet to make a profit in 14years of operation! If our game viewers don't see big cats they are oftendisappointed, if you guys only see impala and warthog you think it's been agreat day out because you've seen some game!" The missus and I liked Kobus; this fellow had a think man's head on his shoulders. 

The short wheel base Land Rover Defender bounced along therough roads south of the river that cut through the reserve from east to west. The game viewing vehicles would stay north of the river today.  Wekept a sharp eye out for giraffe at all times and stalked the tangled edges ofdry river beds hoping to bump warthog or catch a hyena napping in the shade. Wewalked seven kilometres that first day, mostly in sand. It was 34°C and there wasn't a hintof a breeze, the sun beat down on our heads and the hot sand cooking us in our boots.So hot! 

We stalked the dry riverbeds looking for hyena camped in the shadows in the heat of the day.

We were heading towards the gate at last light - day one was over. At 5:08 pm I caught the flick of a big round ear in thick bush to ourleft; I recognised what it was straight away but didn't want to create anycommotion so I let the vehicle roll on.  A couple of hundred yards downthe road I tapped the roof of the Rover and Eddie pulled up.  I hoppeddown as I hissed "Hyena!".

Floris and I tip toed back with the rifle good to go; Florisextended the sticks as we walked, both doubled over... both secretly willing the hyena to keep his head down as we moved in. It was almost dark when we gotinto position in the thick bush; slowly, we stood upright and I raised my rifle ontothe sticks that Floris had set up in just the right place. On cue the hyena raisedhis head on that muscular neck and looked straight at us. I had the reticle on him, he was still lying on his side as he worked us out, looking back over his shoulder, the bolton the .300 Weatherby was closed.   

"He'll stand in a sec Dagga.  Take him when hedoes, you won't have much time."  

The big dog got to his feet and reeled backslightly on his stumpy hind legs. As he started to turn I sent a bullet intohis shoulder; he was quartering towards us at that instant and the bullet exited ahead of thehind leg on the off side. He ran 20 yards and collapsed. Floris and I looked at each other in disbelief - I was ecstatic atsuch an outcome on day one - and on foot, in broad daylight (well almost), without baiting or the aid of a light.

We heard the Rover humming down the track shortly after the shot.  The boss was pleased as punch and Kobus the Game Warden and Eddie our driver for the day (also a PH) were both impressed with the sighting, the stalk and the perfectly placed shot. This would prove to be the only "easy shot" we would have for the remainder of the safari.  Reckson was pleased that he had something to carry to the skinning shed.  And a couple of the crew back at camp are particularly partial to hyena, so this fellow was not going to waste.

Floris our PH, Reckson out tracker and skinner, Kobus the Game Warden and The Boss stand over the fallen Spotted Hyena in a Game Reserve outside of Hoedspruit.

Reckson carefully loads the hyena into the back of the Land Rover.

 Its great being out in the bush on a hot day, when the sun is setting red in the harsh African sky, the smell of the bush and the wafting dust fill your sense, and our first skin in the salt and many days of hunting ahead of us...