Hyena Showdown

This morning as I was sitting in the office doing some work, Chris one of the managers came running in and told us to come and see. Quickly Mphoeng and I jumped out of our seat and ran outside. We ran behind Chris as he explained that there were hyenas around going crazy. Just then we saw one of the hyenas running towards us wooping very loudly. She ran right in front of us , stopped and started digging into the ground scent marking hecticly. Just then around 5 hyenas came running towards her and she took off right into the middle of camp for safety, but the other hyenas chased right behind her. It was so difficult to see what was going on as there were hyenas running every direction, and the noise was so loud and distracting. This game of chase went on for about an hour and we could not understand why. We concluded that perhaps this female was in heat, and the other males were excited by this and chased her, we then figured that the younger ones were also chasing , because they were worked up and excited. After things started to get quiet again for around an hour we heard the hyenas again. This time it was louder and even more hectic. All of the camp by now was gathered together trying to see what was happening. We saw a group of hyenas attacking eachother in groups of 3. As we inched closer to see what was happening, they ran off towards one of the guest tents. We then slowly approached the guest tent and ran up the stairs onto the porch where we had front row seats of the fight. Two of the hyenas were visciously going for the third who was trying to escape by crawling underneath the deck, but since the deck was very low to the ground she had to come out and fight back. She ran just a few feet into the water where the other two jumped on her and started to tear her apart. For the next hour and 30 minutes we sat there , watched and listened as the hyena was getting mutilated. Every few minutes we would hear bone breaking and skin tearing. At times I had to cover my ears and it didnt take long for me to get sick. I could barely stand to see this poor hyena in so much pain and just wished that they would finish her already. We had all thought the hyena was dead as the other two slowly walked off , drank some water and disappeared wooping loudly like they were celebrating their victory. Within minutes , we heard another fight taking place and ran to the other side of camp to see what was going on. When I arrived I could see three more hyenas going for eachother and I had no clue what was happening or why? this fight only lasted a few minutes and none of them were seriously injured. I then decided to go back to see if the injured hyena was dead. When I arrived she actually started moving and stood up and walked a few steps, before collapsing back down. I couldnt believe what I saw. Her ears had been completely ripped off, part of her skull was taken off and I could see her brain. I had almost wished she would have just died, so she wouldnt have to suffer like this.

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