Hyena Diaries: part one continued

"I would sort out the details with my employer later, I just wanted to get this animal offloaded and out of the trap as soon as possible." I told my friend yes! I urged him to get to the farm as soon as possible and we sorted out the arrangements. I would wait for him at the main entrance gate to our Trekpad property and lead him in as fast as possible to the drop off zone I had identified.

In previous months I had walked extensively through the range doing road mapping and marking. In this time I was able to keep an eye on the leopard and hyena activity in the area. From this I had identified at least one resident male brown hyena and knew exactly where his regular feeding areas and den were located, giving me somewhat of an idea as to where his territory is. A brown hyena does well in sub Saharan, dessert like areas so the foot of the hill, with a good amount of brush looked like the ideal drop off zone.

I drove ahead on the ATV leading the capture team into the bush. With the road recently opened I was happy to see they had come with 4x4 vehicles, as they may need them over the rocky and through the deep sand terrain. On the way to the drop off point, through the meandering shrub and trees I noticed our resident hyenas' tracks in the road; he has been expanding his territory.

We reach the drop off point and I motion for the truck to be parked with the rear end towards the foot of the hill, the others vehicles to pull of and park in-front of it. We begin to remove the sheets of canvas used to cover the cage and keep the animal calm during transit and are able to get a glimpse of her. A young brown hyena female, which we have decided to name Roxy, sulking in the front corner of the cage.

We all move to the front of the vehicle and the capture team ready themselves on top of the cage. The sliding door is lifted, she bolts out of the cage and runs directly for the cover of the shrub at the foot of the hill. She runs, winding through trees and bush searching for cover where she believes we would not be able to capture her again. She had been in the cage for almost 20 hours where she had been captured on a neighbouring farm in one of the breeding camps. About 5min and 100m from us, she crosses the previous nights path of the resident male, picking up his scent from the pastings he had left. She was not distressed. The scent trail had distracted her from us and we watched as she followed his trail down the open road. This was a good sign.

As we left we took a route to the opposite direction, not wanting to disturb her in her efforts to locate the male or possibly find a den of her own. We discussed with hopeful spirits that she and the male may cross paths one night and mate. It would be a wonderful, however small, success in the attempt at saving the critically endangered Brown hyena.

For more information on the well being of and future of this hyena, please read future entries of Hyena Diaries on my blog, where I will be posting about the tracking and research we will be doing.

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