On losing a loved one...RIP TEDY

The craziest yet most amazing part about this job is its unpredictability. There are days where it rains day and night and we are bored out of our minds just itching to go for a drive. And then there are days in the field where you find elephant tusks in the middle of a territory and alert the rangers, follow mating hyenas for extended periods, find a new tiny black cub, see a hyena you thought was long dead, watch your hyenas hunt down a baby wildebeest, or maybe even get a call that a hyena was found dead in the Mara river.

Yesterday, while enjoying our French toast and coffee after morning obs, we got that call. We had no idea if it was a hyena from our clan, though it seemed likely since the body was found in the middle of our North territory. My heart instantly sank hearing this. Though I try not to pick favorites, North clan is definitely the clan I know best at this point and it is a particularly exciting time to be a North clan member since there are many tiny cubs running around.

So we do what any hyena researcher would do, grab our cameras, ensure the necropsy kit is in the cruiser, and set off for Hippo Pools and Toilet, the spot where the hyena was reportedly seen. We roll up and since that spot is an area where anyone can exit their vehicles, we start to take a look around. Eagle-eyed Jess spots the hyena first, its body floating in a shallow part of the edge of the river. We call a ranger, since we will need one to escort us down to the river’s edge, and wait.

I can’t lie it was a pretty amazing experience summiting down to the side of the river to photograph and examine the hyena. Once we got close, it was without a question that we knew this hyena very well. That circle on her hind left leg was unmistakable…it was indeed TEDY. We were all totally stunned. TEDY is WAFL’s (our North clan’s matriarch) best friend. Up until recently, TEDY was at the den every single day playing with Waffle’s cubs. She LOVED them. She would spend the entire time trying to get them to play with her. Groaning over them…picking them up by their neck…moving from cub to cub. She was funny because it seemed like she didn’t quite know how to make them love her but she wanted them to SO badly. We always knew when TEDY was arriving at the den because she would run in bristletail and immediately aggress onto someone before making her way over to the cubs. Kate, Jess and I always joke that TEDY is Waffle’s bodyguard. Making sure no one messes with her. Interestingly, in the past couple weeks, SOUP as well as her cubs LOBI and CHOW, the next highest ranking females, have been acting aggressive toward Waffle’s and her son Hershey’s. Perhaps this is because TEDY has not been around to help Waffle’s defend her throne…or perhaps Waffle’s is simply ready to give it up and focus on raising her two new cubs.

Kate, the bold soul that she is, waded into the murky water full of hippo poop to flip the body over and examine for injuries. After taking tissue and hair samples from her body  as well as seeing that she did not have any obvious wounds, we had a moment of silence for her over the river. It was definitely a sad day over here on the Serena side, though we know it is all a part of the circle of life.

TEDY will definitely be missed. RIP.