The AfricaAway Safari Companion - Wildlife
surprise that they purr just like a domestic cat.
True Stories Number Twelve: The Hyena and the Leopard Kill
Hyena
Once, on a night drive, we were watching a leopard feasting on a recent impala kill in the dried-up river bed just below us. Suddenly a hyena rocketed in, and the leopard leapt to safety on top of the bank right by the side of our vehicle (leopards, unlike lions, are solitary hunters and cannot risk injury in defending their prey from scavengers such as the hyena – which was almost the same size as the leopard). So fast did it happen that there was no sensation of the hyena running in, or of the leopard leaping away – just the instantaneous appearance of the hyena and the abrupt change of location on the part of the leopard. However the leopard was clearly unwilling to give up just like that, and so the hyena then snatched a complete foetus from the impala carcass and ran off with it, allowing the leopard to return.
Within a Spotted Hyena clan, all females are dominant over all males, being larger and more aggressive than the males. Then there is also a definite linear hierarchy within this female society - females remain in the clan throughout their lives and daughters inherit their mother’s rank. Males, on the other hand, disperse at about 18 months of age and join a new clan. They are both scavengers and predators. Their droppings are white, like chalk (and are sometimes known as ‘missionary chalk’), because of the high calcium content of the bones that they consume – nothing is wasted.
Jackal Black-backed or side-striped. Quite elusive to spot. Jackals mate for life and often forage together, or return to share food if foraging singly.
Wild Dog
One of Africa’s most endangered species, with only some 4000 individuals said to remain in the whole of the continent. Their favourite prey is antelope, which they will run down for hours. Not particularly shy, there are several accounts of impala being ripped to pieces in camp itself – an event of somewhat mixed
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