Sunday, March 30, 2008
Hyenas Are Very Large: Wednesday, January 3, 2007
(A panoramic view east at the bridge on the H1-6 crossing the Letaba River on the way south to Balule Camp, Kruger National Park: double click on the image and you will be able to magnify the image and pan across it using the "slider". There are elephants feeding on the southern bank.)
We packed up and drove to Balule Camp via Letaba Rest Camp for lunch and Olifants Rest Camp in order to register for Balule (a satellite of Olifants). We arrived to occupy the last open site at Balule (I had reserved it long in advance). There was the initial awkwardness of getting settled in the narrowly confined camp -- but we were beginning to vaguely understand the local preference or need (really) for "laagering up" at night due the presence of large game. Once we had finished setting up, our neighbors invited us over to their site to look at "something". Standing with its nose next to the chain link fence was a fully grown hyena. It was joined by two others but the new arrivals didn't approach as close to us. The hyena must have stood 40 or more inches high and was much more massively built than a dog. Their great size was a revelation. Eying our neighbors' little daughter it was clearly entertaining thoughts of a meal of some sort. While the Park is constantly warning visitors not to feed the animals -- particularly the hyenas -- people do so anyway. While it is easy to understand why this policy is very wise it nevertheless provided us with quite an experience. Our neighbors were not feeding them, in fact the father was explaining to his daughter how he dealt with them safely in the wild as a soldier. But the bad behavior of previous guests had made the hyenas bold and thus willing to stand just inches away from us so we could get a really close up look at them.
I didn't want to scare the hyenas off with flash photography (it was nearly nightfall) and therefore ruin the show for everyone so you must just imagine looking into their faces and at their rough, spotted fur at a very short distance.
(A grey heron in the Letaba River near the the bridge on the H1-6, Kruger National Park)
(A panoramic view east at the bridge on the H1-6 crossing the Letaba River on the way south to Balule Camp, Kruger National Park: double click on the image and you will be able to magnify the image and pan across it using the "slider". There are elephants feeding on the southern bank.)
We packed up and drove to Balule Camp via Letaba Rest Camp for lunch and Olifants Rest Camp in order to register for Balule (a satellite of Olifants). We arrived to occupy the last open site at Balule (I had reserved it long in advance). There was the initial awkwardness of getting settled in the narrowly confined camp -- but we were beginning to vaguely understand the local preference or need (really) for "laagering up" at night due the presence of large game. Once we had finished setting up, our neighbors invited us over to their site to look at "something". Standing with its nose next to the chain link fence was a fully grown hyena. It was joined by two others but the new arrivals didn't approach as close to us. The hyena must have stood 40 or more inches high and was much more massively built than a dog. Their great size was a revelation. Eying our neighbors' little daughter it was clearly entertaining thoughts of a meal of some sort. While the Park is constantly warning visitors not to feed the animals -- particularly the hyenas -- people do so anyway. While it is easy to understand why this policy is very wise it nevertheless provided us with quite an experience. Our neighbors were not feeding them, in fact the father was explaining to his daughter how he dealt with them safely in the wild as a soldier. But the bad behavior of previous guests had made the hyenas bold and thus willing to stand just inches away from us so we could get a really close up look at them.
I didn't want to scare the hyenas off with flash photography (it was nearly nightfall) and therefore ruin the show for everyone so you must just imagine looking into their faces and at their rough, spotted fur at a very short distance.
(A grey heron in the Letaba River near the the bridge on the H1-6, Kruger National Park)
Labels: Balule Camp, Kruger National Park
¶ 12:20 PM
