Botswana, Animals

Spotted Hyena

In bed at night, we heard all kinds of animals making noises outside. One night, a hyena woke me up by howling very close. The crew told me that they were drawn to the kitchen by the smell of food almost every night.

Driving in twilight, we saw them in the distance. In full darkness, one ran across the road in the headlights just barely ahead of us. Another appeared just off our path, but hidden in the shadows so we almost missed it.

All of these sightings happened in the dark — no photos possible. But early on our last morning at Selinda, we came across this female. She walked around, then lay down and just looked at us.

I like to talk quietly to all the animals, saying hello as we found them and goodbye when we departed. But Dom said not to talk kindly to hyenas. They are a bit odd!

We saw the dumbest hyena ever at the scene of a dead elephant, but that was quite gruesome. If you want to see those photos, click here.