BellaOnline Forums News and Politics Animal Life Hyenas - Creepy or Really Cool?

I vote for the really cool too. They never used to be one of my favourite animals, but since watching them and hearing them through the cameras set up in Africa, I have come to love them. I have watched a family of hyenas playing in a waterhole or just hanging around and I have heard their call at night. That call just sends shivers up & down the spine. One day I will get to Africa to see them and hear them in person.

okay, but this is kind of cute:

It's a Brown Hyena in a threat display. (I guess the threat must not be working very well, since Brown Hyenas are endangered...)

They are amazing when you see and hear them in the wild. I only saw them a few times, mostly from a distance, except for this once when we were driving down the road (in an open-air vehicle) at night and I looked over my shoulder and saw this walking up behind us:


I only avoided screaming like a little girl by clamping my hands over my mouth, so what came out was this little squeaky muffled voice saying "hyena." It was just strolling along the edge of the road, then turned and vanished off into the dark. A few minutes later we heard them calling and howling all around us, and then the lions started roaring back at them. It was amazing.

I think in those two pictures the animals look beautiful. Why are the brown Hyenas endangered?

oh, the usual... killing by humans, habitat destruction and fragmentation, loss of prey species. Like most of the endangered animals in Africa (well, many places, really), they simply don't have anywhere to live.

Hyenas are like any other animal. Their goal is to survive and ensure the survival of their young. Who can blame them for that? And nature made them the way they are, including that spine-tingling bark.

I liked your close-up pics of them. Really, humans can't appreciate and understand wild animals until they see them up-close and learn more about them.

Both - at times they can be funny little awkward things, but more often than not - they give me a little bit of the creeps.