Close Encounter of the Hyena Kind... plus the end of my Namibia Vacation

Before I share the hyena story let me catch up the activities up to that point.

So unfortunately, my Namibian holiday has come to an end. I haven't had internet for the last week so I've had no time to update.. but here are some pictures and short stories from the last week of my trip.

After the dunes we moved on to the Erongo Mountains. To reach our camp, we parked at the bottom of the rocks, and then a safari truck came to pick us up and drive us up to the camp. Our chalet was located up on the rocks. Around camp you could find hundreds of these critters! 

The Rock Dassie or Hyrax

 While at this camp I took a morning hike with the guide up to the top of the Baboon Mountain within the mountain range. I took some pictures of the landscape from the top as well as looking down over the camp (The large building is the dining area). 

After leaving here we moved onto Etosha National Park. We spent two days at their main camp, in an amazing chalet looking over the waterfall, and then another day in one of their smaller camps. We drove around during the days and went out on night drives 2 of the nights allowing us to see a wide assortment of wildlife! Here are some shots during the day.

Waterhole - Oryx, Kudu, and Springbok

Lone lioness walking away from the water

More zebras in one place than I've ever seen before

Now back to the night drives.. the first night was great we saw 3 male lions hanging out and better yet 2 aardwolves! (If you don't know what they look like - look them up! they are adorable)

The second night drive we took started off great. We saw a group of black rhinos (though more rare overall, they are more common than white rhinos in the park), as well as a cape fox. After this we drove along to another waterhole and as we drove up we couldn't see anything because there was so much dust everywhere and so much noise! Once the dust settled using our red spot light we saw a couple hyenas around their kill.. but as we scanned the light around the waterhole you could see the eyes of hyenas everywhere! They were coming out of the trees from all sides.. must have been close to 40 of them in total! They quickly finished off their prey (bones and all - hence their nickname "bone crushers") After the prey was gone the 40 or so hyenas were still hanging out.. and a group of them went down to the waterhole for a drink. Then one got in - and started swimming! - who knew hyenas could swim! Anyways it swam to the reeds in the center of the waterhole and disappeared inside.. a frenzy of birds flew away. The hyena then came back out with something in its mouth. The guide told us that it must have killed a small antelope - either a springbok or impala - that had been hiding in the reeds where it had run to escape the previous kill. Anyways hyena swam back out and back to shore (but with no kill!). The guide explained that the hyena would need help to carry the prey back to the land outside of the waterhole, so we sat in anticipation waiting for a group of hyenas to swim back in for their prey....

Anyways, we sat for a while and it seemed the hyenas were being lazy and lost interest in their prey so one got curious.. she came over to our safari truck and paced around in front of it. The guide looked on and kinda jokingly said its okay she won't do any harm unless she bites the tires and we end up with a flat.. so she wanders some more going over to the side of the truck where my sister was sitting probably closer than you'll ever want to be to a hyena.. 

Well this seemed like a good time to drive away. They weren't going back to the prey.. and this hyena was getting a little too close.

But overall it was fascinating. Watching the hyena kill and seeing them all appear out of the trees!


Moving on we spent the last two days at different cat conservation foundations. One night at AfriCat and one night at N/a'an ku'se. 

At AfriCat they take you out in a safari vehicle around their land to track their radiocollared animals. We tracked cheetahs, leopards, and wild dog! We found 4 cheetahs, a group of 4 wild dog, and got a glimpse of a leopard passing by. Here are the cheetahs and dogs!

And then at N/a'an ku'se we got a behind the scenes tour getting to see what goes on around their facility. We took a walk with Alex, their tame caracal.

We also visited the school to see the children, some of her animals - baboons, porcupine, warthogs, meerkats, mongooses, wild dog, and cheetahs, and then sat down and talking with someone within the research department to learn about the research they are currently working on. 

And then the trip came to the end with our last night at the Etango Farm Guesthouse. 

But now I have finally arrived in Gabon, flew in last night, and I'm ready for the adventures of living in this new country!