The 2022 Africa Journals, Chapter 30: Those Impossible Hyenas and a Photo Dump (PT. 3 of A Great Day)

 (Note: to see photos in a larger format, click on one to open a film strip at the bottom, then scroll through it.)

    Chapter 30:

Those Impossible Hyenas plus a Photo Dump

Part Three of a Great Day for Everything.

Integrity's a neutral value. Hyenas have integrity too.   They're pure hyena.

-Jonathan Franzen

"It's a male," I say in reference to a hyena cub we're photographing.

"How do you know?" asks my driver /guide.    I show him the photograph.   

"I can neither confirm nor deny," he says cryptically and reaches for his canvas-covered mammal book on the Land Cruiser's dashboard.

He hands the book to me and points to a specific paragraph. He gives me a few moments to read it.   Then he says, "I can neither confirm nor deny."

And I sit there utterly astonished--mouth open, jaw dropped, eyes wife open.

Recently, I posted the photo and the above conversation on Facebook, but noted that I would probably go to Facebook jail for a lifetime  for "violating their community standards" if I repeated the information in the following link.

I don't fear Facebook here, but nonetheless I'd rather not copy and paste  it.   I will simply furnish the link and you can read if you, too, want to be educated and astonished as to why it's darned near impossible to sex hyenas.

The link is complete with explanation, photos, and diagrams.   And what a diagram!!!

https://wholeeartheducation.com/hermaphrodite-hyenas/?fbclid=IwAR0KofsLhL9dDQkQ_A_5iVThtdt6TdJovdhKaOiO0ChP4gY0fl8gmUKK8n0

As for  hyenas, sometimes they're cute, most times they aren't.

Hyenas with with what's left of a wildebeest head.

Hyenas are a necessary part of the African ecosystem, often cleaning up carcasses left by larger predators or stealing carcasses themselves from whatever animal brought it down.   They are also quite capable of taking down antelope and wildebeest themselves.

There are three kinds hyenas--the spotted, which is the most prevalent, the brown, and the striped.   The Maasai Mara is over-run with spotted hyenas, in my opinion.

Standing three feet or less at the shoulder, the sloping back of the hyena gives it a sneaky appearance but its short compact frame can reach speeds of 40mph.   They also have the unpleasant habit of drooling.

With a biting force of a bone-crunching 1100psi, there are not many animals willing to chance a broken leg by challenging a hyena.

Hyena spa.   They can often be found relaxing in cooling water or mud.

Hyena and cub.

Peeking out of an underground den.

The black blob on the right side is a much younger cub.   They are all black when born.

From Safari Africana: Hyenas are witty, courageous, and smart animals, and have no apologies to make. They are also incredibly caring and nurture their cubs better than many other animals. Many people assume that they are closely related to dogs, but in the real sense, hyenas are more alike to cats than they are to dogs.

Hyenas sleeping on the road.   The dirt is often warmer and dryer than the surrounding grasslands.

From National Geographic:  Although hyenas appear similar to dogs, they are actually more closely related to cats.

My disdain for these animals would be substantially less if they didn't steal food from cheetahs or kill the cubs of the endangered cheetahs.   Or lion and leopard cubs, too.  But then, those cats also kill hyena cubs.

There are two hyena dens close to camp and we visited them several times.

***

Now it's time for a photo dump, those photos that didn't get posted yet because there were too many to fit in a different post.

A yellow winged bat sleeping in a tree next to my tent.   These bats have wingspans of  12 inches!

Here;s an image of the bat that I borrowed from Pinterest:

NOT MY PHOTO

Gray-headed kingfisher.

Rufous-naped lark.

Slender mongoose.   These cute little mongoose are 12 to 15 inches long plus a tail that's 9 to 13 inches long.

White-crowned shrike.

This is a bushbaby nest in a tree next to SHelly'stent.

And this is the best shot I could get of the small animals.   The camera wanted to focus on limbs, not eyes and ears.   Bushbabies are primates with large eyes, long rear legs, and furry bodies.

A crop of the photo above to show the little fingers of a bushbaby.   We had a lot of fun watching these little creatures leap from tree to tree at night.

This is a young bushbaby I am holding at a rescue place in Botswana a couple years ago.

The stunning violet-backed starling.   Also called a plum-colored starling.

Water thick-knee.   Note the large eye.

Female gray woodpecker.

The always magnificent gray crowned crane.

Dark blue pansy butterfly

A Thompson's gazelle with a bent horn and flies all over its head.

Warthog sow with a piglet.

At Great Plains Expedition camp.   A kitchen to die for.