Get It! Get It!

After coming back from two weeks of vacation, I was itching to get back to the Serena hyenas, but they've been moving dens so often I was a little afraid Jana and I wouldn't really get to see a lot of them. But, my first time transcribing in South after my break, the hyenas brought the action! After leaving the den, Jana and I went to explore the territory only to come and find SNUG*, one of our moms, hunting a baby topi! And even better, the hunt was successful!

With SNUG's cubs SASS* and MPRS* in tow, we watched enraptured as SNUG chased and isolated a baby topi. For a split second we thought the topi might get away as an adult topi lunged at SNUG, causing her to back off. But one lunge wasn't enough to stop SNUG from providing for her cubs. As you can see in the video below, after arriving at the scene SNUG had brought the baby topi down in less than a minute! If you do turn the sound on, please be prepared for Jana and I excitedly cheering on SNUG.😁

SNUG hunting the baby topi, with ROUG* following behind

Once the topi was down for the count, SNUG and her cubs completely monopolized the carcass. ROUG (another South mom) spent the entire time sitting back from the carcass. SAMI*, a sub-adult never got closer than 10 meters from the carcass, even after her mom PALA* showed up to the scene. HATH* another sub-adault, also showed up to the carcass, but no one even got near the topi as SNUG and her cubs ate the entire thing. At 0706 SNUG took down the topi, and her, MPRS, and SASS never left the carcass until 40 minutes later when the entire carcass was demolished and all that was left was a few bone scraps for ROUG and a couple black-backed jackals to nibble on.

SNUG, MPRS, and SASS monopolizing the carcass

Neither Jana nor myself had previously witnessed a successful hunt or a complete carcass from start to finish. We have seen a few test chases, but most of those are brief and the hyenas give up fairly quickly. We have also seen carcasses before, but especially in South clan's territory, by the time we show up to the actual carcass it is mostly gone and not very busy. So this was even more exciting! Although none of the other hyenas present tried to infringe on SNUG and her cubs feeding, there were still interactions whenever someone got close, and SNUG even chased off the two black-backed jackals when they tried to sneak into the carcass. Black-backed jackals are surprisingly bold.

So there you have it! After coming back from two weeks away from the beloved Serena hyenas, they rewarded Jana and myself with possibly one of the coolest sightings so far.

*SNUG (Silver Nugget), SASS (Assassin Bug), MPRS (Empress Cicada), ROUG (Moulin Rouge) SAMI (Sam I Am), PALA (Palazzo), HATH (Hathor)