I’ve been at Pafuri for 8 days now. Clearly, expectations based on the first night’s viewing were overly optimistic. So far I have checked the den site at least quickly on 3 or 4 mornings with no luck, while I’ve seen at least one in the evenings 6 times out of 8, and on 3 occasions there has been plenty of activity. Most recently (Aug 25) after waiting at the den for an hour and a half, 2 hyenas returned from somewhere at around 7 pm, alert and active, clearly smelling scent markings on bushes and on the ground in the open area.
I returned to camp for Boma dinner at 7:30 pm then came back to the den around 9 pm to find the 2 cubs and 2 adults, one of which appeared to be in charge of cub supervision – I’m temporarily calling this babysitter hyena #8. The cubs and babysitter were play-fighting, which was fun to watch! The cubs also chewed on a bone and were very curious about us, coming right up to the Land Cruiser and chewing on the mud flaps. Stay tuned for some videos, in the meantime here are a few photos.
Last night was a disappointing one in terms of hyenas, but then this happened… reminding me of the saying that when life gives you lemons, make lemonade!
Cheers for now – coming soon, an interesting observation about what I think is the alpha female!
Those cubs are pretty adorable and that’s not a word I throw around lightly!
Question: are you guys also tracking them when they are away from the den site or mainly focusing on behaviors at the den site?