Beekse Bergen ... Part II

Where I took you to the leopards in my first part of the Beekse Bergen blog, that was of course not the only animal we saw.

The next animal I would like to tell you more about is ...

THE HYENA.

And maybe you didn't know it yet, but nowadays there are 4 types of Hyenas, namely

• Spotted Hyena
• Striped Hyena
• Brown hyena
• Aardwolf

We saw the Spotted Hyena in the Beekse Bergen. And of all four species, this is the largest, but also the most aggressive and noisy Hyena species. In the wild this animal lives most in large parts of Africa and Asia. It is strongly built with a medium long, bushy tail, a broad head and short ears.

They are very very fast runners. Hyenas can reach a speed of up to 60 km per hour.

The spotted Hyena lives in groups. In dogs, such a group is called a pack, while in Hyena's, such a group is called a clan. Some clans consist of 80 animals.

Canine or Feline?

What is special to know is that the appearance of a Hyena is similar to that of a dog. Their body is adapted to the same hunting techniques as a dog, but ... The DNA of a Hyena is much more similar to that of the feline.

Puppy power!

A Hyena is born dark and becomes lighter as it gets older. The average age is around 20/25 years.

The puppies are born in an abandoned burrow, usually the burrow of a warthog or aardvark. After about two to six weeks the mother takes her puppies back to the lair of the clan. Hyena puppies have been quite aggressive since birth and sometimes the newborn puppies also literally fight each other until death follows. In this way there is more milk for the remaining puppies. They can then literally grow tall and strong.

What do Hyenas eat?

People often think that Hyenas only eat bait, but certainly the Spotted Hyena is a very good hunter. They usually hunt the hoofed animals, and if one has a hold, it is also eaten entirely on the hooves and the horns after a Hyena eats everything. Even the bones are consumed by a Hyena, their stomach is specially adapted to that. Just like dogs and wolves, because they too can digest bones. However, the fact that the Hyena is a good hunter does not mean that he does not have to worry about anything. Because a Hyena has natural enemies again.

Lions!

And the greatest natural enemy of the Hyena is ... the Lion. That is not surprising, a lion is of course a lot bigger, stronger and heavier than a Hyena. This allows the Lion to easily
take the prey from a Hyena, but can also easily kill the Hyena.

In the Beekse Bergen they each live in their own residences ... opposite each other!

In the next blog, we'll go to the Lions. Will you join us again?