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.

The 2020 Africa Journals

Chapter Eight:

Trouble with a capital T, 
but BOY! He's cute!

                                                      

The really good photographers I know are gifted with an artistic foresight  that enables them to imagine and plan the photo they want long before they push the shutter button on their cameras.   Thus, it was no surprise when I saw my friend Marg Wood crouching in the dirt, camera in hand, and ready for an animal with a fearsome reputation to burst forth from the darkness into the light.

Good idea, I thought, picturing the black and gray critter emerging from a black background, white teeth and dark eyes catching the sunlight.  

I look around for a spot to kneel down where I could be at the same level as the animal.   I see Marg still hunkered down in the dirt, Mary has fallen off the edge of the rubber tire she was sitting on and is now trapped deep in its well, and Janine has a whirling dervish wrapped around her ankles.

I decide upright is a good place to be.

That critter with the white teeth and long claws is a honey badger, one of the least seen and most frightening animals on earth.  This one, however, is a rescued orphan that is being hand-raised at a near-by rescue and educational facility.   Just a few weeks old when it was found, it was called by a feminine name until its advancing age and forming male genitalia convinced its caretakers to substitute a male name.   And Badgey it became.

Badgey is now a juvenile, or “juvenile delinquent” as Marg calls him.   He’s black with a gray mantle down his back.  Because he knows only humans, and humans that play with him, he hasn’t developed the anti-social tendencies of his breed, but his play is getting rougher and he is starting to mark his territory with a tell-tale musk.

In general, honey badgers aren’t badgers at all, but are more closely related to weasels and polecats.  Though they resemble wolverines, they aren’t closely related to them either.  About a foot high and up to 30 inches long plus the tail, the males weigh about 35 lbs.

They are fearless and rated by the Guinness Book of Records and the bravest animal on earth.   They chase away lions, Cape buffalo, cattle, and horses if those huge animals intrude on their territory.   Their loose hides enable them to twist out of another animal’s bite.

Janine, who is married to Pangolin owner/operator Guts, is one of Badgey’s foster moms.   She visits him often and plays with him.   I found it fascinating that Badgey obeyed her when she summoned him to his enclosed cage.  Then, she opened the door and Badgey shot out into his walled outdoor area, which is why Marg was crouching where she could capture the shot.

Badgey spots Mary on the rubber tire and tries to climb into her lap.  Mary is a good sport about it, but Badgey plays rough.  Plus, he runs over to his small water pool, walks in it, then runs back through the dirt and climbs on Mary.

Badgey also loves Marg’s semi-open sandals, much to Marg’s dismay.   Those sharp little teeth can reach her skin through the openings.  In trying to shoo him away, Badgey accidentally leaves his dental autograph on Marg’s forearm.

Marg's honey badger souvenier.

For the rest of the trip, we wow people by telling them about—and showing them—Marg’s honey badger bite.

Poor baby.

 

Badgey and Marg's sandals.

 

Badgey also left his autograph on the back of Mary's shirt. 

 

A hard rain begins to fall before we leave the animal compound.   We are drenched by the time we get outside to the car and head back to the lodge.

 

Trying to protect the cameras.

Some other denizens of the animal center.

Marabou stork

Marabou stork

 

Marabou stork

Caera shy Marabou storks?   No, just dissipating heat.

A bushbaby.   Now that's cute!

Bushbaby

 

Mongoose