Safari Live - Day 257 | National Geographic

This program features live coverage of an African safari and may include animal kills and carcasses. Viewer discretion is advised.

Good afternoon and welcome to a sweltering, well, slightly warm Sabi Sands private game reserve in the beautiful South Africa. My name is Brenda Smith. I have Dangerous Dev, the dimpled dish on camera hiding under his big sun hat; why I have no idea. Remember, if you want to ask us any questions, hashtag Safari Live on Twitter or just pop your questions into your YouTube stream now.

My morning didn't go quite as I would have liked. Everything I was looking for beatled off out of our traverse area, so I don't actually have a plan for this afternoon. I'm just going to bumble about and rely on my charm and good luck. Maybe I'll have some luck with some leopards. The lions, unfortunately, are still inside Torchwood and I don't think they're going to be coming out. Rightly, they caught a young hippo yesterday or this morning; I'm not sure. I'll find out more details a little bit later, but we're gonna head to the west. No one's really been checking the western sections for a while. Maybe Dulu is around because they didn't find her in the west this morning. The hawk Maury is far away, Gianni is far away, but James is sitting with some spotted creatures far north in the Maasai Mara.

However, they're not a cat. Why does he speak with such muted tones? Well, the answer is because there is a company here at the hyena den of the north clan, and they are filming, and if I were to use my normal exuberant tones, I have no doubt I would completely ruin the documentary that they're making.

Good afternoon. My name is James Henry and on camera today, very nervous, we have got Tubungai because he is making his television debut this evening. Please do talk to us using the hashtag Safari Live on Twitter now and, of course, the YouTube chat stream if you'd like to.

Now, what we had here yesterday evening was very interesting. We were at the north clan den for a long time and we had our TV rehearsal here and that hyena there, it was either that one’s companion that you and I followed during the course of the show yesterday. Then when we went off-air, we thought we were sitting with the same hyena we had been following. We had to at the den exactly where that one is, and then one of them walked off, we assumed it was the same one that had been there the whole time that remained. Turns out it wasn't.

It turns out there is a brand new tiny little cub in the hole that that hyena is sitting above, and it was so new that it could barely walk. It was so new that it actually left quite a lot of moisture on the sand when she pulled it out, and I wondered if it wasn't actually very recently born. In other words, sort of a few hours old, maybe even perhaps even less. So that's quite interesting! We had a wonderful time here last night.

So we're gonna sit and wait and see what happens here. We have not managed to find any further hyenas here at this den as we didn't yesterday, but I am told by the inimitable hyena researchers of the University of, oh gosh, I forgot it! It's not a Minnesota, Wisconsin, is it? Wisconsin. Well, this is terrible; someone will remind me shortly.

Anyway, wonderful hyena researchers and they tell me that Waffles was here, as was Anna, earlier today. So with any luck, we will see both of those. I'm gonna stay a little bit away from that film vehicle for now because I don't want to ruin their documentary. Right, like I say, shouting and holding forth, as it were, while they are trying to get soft cooing animal sounds.

Michigan State—there he goes. Michigan State University—thank you. Thank you very much! They do an absolutely fantastic job of hyena research here, and without them, the north clan hierarchy and its machinations would have been extremely, extremely difficult for us to unpack. It's an extremely long-running program they've had here and they've got a number of dedicated researchers who've been very good to us. So we're going to stay here and see if another hyena or two doesn't pop its head out of this interesting thicket.

Now, I was thinking to myself, “Oh, hello,” I wonder if she's looking with sort of a desire toward the film vehicle. Maybe they've got something tasty in there that they've just opened up to eat or maybe there's something behind us. Apparently, there were two male lions here this morning, two young male lions, I think the same males that we had yesterday evening.

Verse nice, you hurt my heart! You say, “Is this really live?” That's nice! Yes, it is live! No one is lying to you; no one is trying to pull the proverbial wool over your eyes. I know in these times of fake facts, fake news, and all sorts of fakeness around the world, it's very difficult to find any form of authenticity but you have just stumbled upon some. You've just stumbled upon a live stream of authenticity taking place right now! Welcome to the safari; it’s lovely to have you with us!

And I'm going to dedicate the next 30 seconds of the safari purely to you—that must be about 30 seconds! Let's go back to the hyena just getting a little bit awkward, but yes, it is entirely live from the Maasai Mara in Kenya, where I'm sitting now at this beautiful hyena den, and of course, the Western Kruger National Park of sunny, magical South Africa.

Now, I think this is the mother of the little one, but I could be wrong. There were two cubs in the den—one slightly older, about eight weeks—and the other brand new. Now if a lion was to come across this den, the adult would simply abandon it. I'll come back later.

Oh, hang on a second—let's just wait and see what happens here! I know that Kirsten, who's directing, has told me to go back to the real hyena whisperer who's Jamie Patterson, but Jamie doesn't actually have anything at the moment. Kirsten, do you mind very much if we stay here just a few minutes? I know you'd rather hear Jamie's silky tones while she drives a car but there might be something quite interesting going on here.

I can't see anything behind us that looks to me like a startled hyena; like she's seen or smelt a predator coming this way, and that could only mean a lion or a vast clan of invading hyenas. Oh, that would be exceptionally unusual. This is the natal or main den of the north clan. Just watch her carefully and see where she goes.

I'm still trying to figure out who this is; if anybody's got any idea, I’d love to know. Youngish female Merritt’s hyenas do live in clans, but they don't always forage together. For example, this clan is about 60 strong, and you will seldom see 60 hyenas together unless they're hunting something very big or unless they're in a clan war.

And we've certainly captured some footage. Jamie has been around them when they've had a big boxing match with the Happy Zebra clan, and there were probably 30 members of the clan facing off against 30 members of the happy zebras, but they do forage alone quite a lot. They obviously stay at the den alone from time to time.

I would expect the My Jock to come back and feed her cubs here at some stage, so we can hang around. But in South Africa, where the real hyena whispers, apparently, you will definitely find that the hyenas do a lot more solitary foraging than they do here. Even that’s because the clans are that much smaller.

You did this quite a lot yesterday, walking away from the den and then coming back. If it's the same one, she is quite young. I don't think she's more than three. I don't know where that puts her in the hierarchy of the north clan, but I'm gonna go with mid-ranked; somewhere mid-ranked, going straight back to the den.

Smelled something, I think maybe some lions way in the distance. You don't see any of the hyenas here. All right, apparently we have had enough of this actual hyena, and we're going to go now across to the hyena whisperer.

Hello, hello, in a very good afternoon! My name is Jamie, the hyena whisperer, and this morning—no, this afternoon—is Senzo on camera with me. It is my great pleasure to have his company once again. We did so much whispering to the hyenas this morning that we had the most magical sighting of the Juma plan. Here on Juma, you know, and we even had a hyena grooming himself right next to the vehicle. It was beautiful; it was truly a display of a hyena's spinal flexibility.

Remember, you can get hold of us on hashtag Safari Live on Twitter. Alternatively, you can contact us in the YouTube comments section. I have to tell you a funny story about this whole hyena thing. People in the Mara keep sending me pictures of hyenas and going, “Who is this?” Not all people—not just random people off the street, but you know, Wild Earth people. But they'll send me a picture of just perfect ears or the briefest flash of this portion, the front portion of the shoulder. “Who is this?” I don't know; I can't tell from that!

Is 80 plus members of the clan some of them have very similar spots on one portion of the shoulder. Anyway, enough about hyenas for now, because it's far too hot for me to go to the hyena den on Juma. I've got a distinctly concerned feeling that tonight for the SABC show, there are going to be no-shows, but we'll wait and see. I'm going to try and help bring Tandi in the meantime.

We tracked and Gon off of Juma this morning, so now we're looking for way tracked Andy off this morning. We're now looking for Ingena; he's going to be here somewhere, I assume. We haven't heard him calling and we haven't seen him with Husana, which makes me think he's on his own kill somewhere around here. So that's my thinking, so I'm gonna try and give brains a hand, for he's so utterly despondent about his prospects for today. I know that feeling.

That he can use his charm and exceedingly nice personality. A very good afternoon to Goo Goo! I’m sorry, I imagined something. I have imagined it. Goo would like to know if I know the long-term purpose of the Mara hyena projects. There isn't actually one! So there's no specific end goal; it's a constant learning about the hyenas over multiple generations and a malted period of time.

It's the longest predator project, I think in Africa, if not the world. It's a very, very long-running predator project. So there's no set goal. There are multiple students at any one point in time doing multiple research into multiple aspects of hyenas' lives. So whether it's their problem solving or their hormone levels or their stress levels—hormone levels, stress levels—same sort of difference. Their social dynamics, the evolution, whether or not hyenas in close proximity to humans have a different behavioral set than hyenas that are further away and have no interaction with humans apart from the odd safari vehicle. So there are lots of different projects that they carry out there, and all of them for different reasons but all equally important.

Because obviously, the more you understand about hyenas, the more we can conserve them. And at the same time, it's not just about that; it's also learning about ourselves as well. There's a lot of parallels between hyena social dynamics and primate social dynamics, so it's really accepted in the case of hyenas—the apex predator, kind of like humans, or one of the apex predators.

Though there's actually lots of different reasons why those studies are being carried out. They are truly intriguing. I think it would be a very good idea if you wanted to go and have a look at some of their blog posts. I mean, I'm not being paid to punt them; so I can say they've helped us out immensely. If you want to go look at their blog posts or if you want to go and have a look at some of the research papers, Dr. Holekamp is one of the foremost experts on hyenas. Fascinating stuff! We've learnt a vast amount just in the past few years about hyena behavior that has turned understanding of them on its head.

All righty, I'm searching for—well, I think I'm searching for Ingana Torino. Why I think that I am, let's go across to Sydney who at least knows exactly what he's searching for!

A very, very good afternoon and welcome to the beginning of the show! I am Sydney Boomerang, my cozy, and I'm traveling with Sebastian, who is my camera operator this afternoon. Our plan is quite very easy; we are looking for a spotted cat, specifically Osana. And for any case if we need our attention, you can follow us on Twitter, hashtag Safari Live. You can also follow us on YouTube chat stream. The sun is very hot at the moment, so this cat is no longer in the drainage. We left him here this morning, so I'm just now trying to check around this drainage line to see if we can find him. Here, maybe he is somewhere under these bushes here.

If I am on a very difficult—so now let's go to James who is already having a hyena.

Well, we're still here trying to identify this. I think I've got slightly closer to figuring it out, I think. Looking at one of a few, obviously Anatolian, quite possibly perhaps LC. Just looking at the spots there and looking at photographs now—LC. Oh! I had another theory, and my theory was that that hyena is Flawless. The picture on that side is wrong.

Oh, is it? It's so difficult to tell. Might be, might be Flawless after all. This is a male—this is definitely not Flawless. That's pathetic! I'm dreadful at this, everyone. I'll get better. I promise; I'll do my level best to get better. Jamie says Anna has a horseshoe on her bottom. That's very kind; thank you, Jamie.

Now, if the great hyena whisperer could perhaps prevail upon the hyena to show us its bottom, that would be extremely helpful. Yeah, I'm afraid my capabilities do not extend to figuring this one out. We've sent Jamie a picture; maybe she'll be able to figure it out. I don't think that hyena's older than four, which should give us an idea. I mean, I'm looking at these identicals, but my gosh, it's all just kind of blurring into one for some—did my poor recognition techniques and skills barely recognize myself in the mirror, let alone the individuals in a clan of sixty hyenas.

Hmm, yes Cassia, I think Cathy, I think you'll find that striped hyena habits are very different from the spotted hyena habits. Spotted hyenas are unique in the hyena family, which, of course, is a family on its own, and that is because they are the only ones that have this kind of matriarchal society where the females dominate the males and where they live in clans. Now, as far as I'm aware, a striped hyena, much like brown hyenas, live solitary lives.

I will just check that up for you, but I'm pretty sure they live solitary lives. Much drier areas than this. And you'll find that the drier the area, the more solitary the animals tend to be. And this of course, you happen to be a sociable weaver in which case you live in a great big friendly party group. Let me just check for you; I'm pretty sure that what I've told you is accurate. I would hate to tell you a lie, especially on Sundays. Lying on Sundays is just no good!

Striped hyena; tall and slender, yes, yes, yes! Crisp runs from tails, they scrub dry savannas, urban habitats. Rubbish common behavior depends on whether or not spotted hyenas are present where the two species coexist. Striped is quieter, more retiring, perhaps more solitary and cryptic. Yes, they are solitary. I'm just doing me a big striped hyena can weigh pretty much the same as a smallish spotted hyena. Be cool! I'm just reading that a spotted hyena—and you knew about that, so all the others are almost entirely solitary.

Fiume, you've made a very hilarious joke that goes as follows: this hyena's name is Xena. When you see her, you must say, "Hi, Ena!" Very good! That's not a hyena in the background; that is a Tipple. Sketchy means returned! My identity now that she stood up—Tipple, good!

I wish that Tipple Scourge would try and find us some further hyenas because I need some further hyenas for the television show this evening. One hyena’s not forget to do! Mystery brings out her baby; then she'll do just nicely. I'm hoping quite desperately that the film crew in front of us is not in enabled with night vision like we are, and they'll therefore have to vacate the area relatively soon!

I've lost my identity—where was it? Come on now—characters hyenas; yes, no? North clan? Yeah, well all right. So let's just look on the side. There she's got a bit of a stripe going down; sort of obvious dotting, if you like, down the side. One big blob above it; I'm sure none of you know what on earth I'm talking about.

Could that be an—it's not an Italian; it's not an AX. I don't think! Of course, this thing has arranged such that you have to scroll through everything. You can't scroll through just the adults and just the females. It still looks most like Flawless, but if Flawless is a male, then ain’t no male. One's got baby! I suppose there's two very pronounced dots there on the shoulder that are quite distinctive.

Let's try and see if I can find those. Yeah, there we go! It is an AX! It's definitely an Italian; she's the only one with those two very pronounced dots. Hooray! We've got it! Okay, so she's older than three years. She's actually six—I'm pretty sure that's who we're looking at. Those two distinct dots there are pretty obvious. Good! Okay, we've got Anatolian; she's got a new youngster. Don't know where she fits in the hierarchy. We'll figure it out.

Now let's get Leo Smith; he was looking, I think, for something using his charm and good looks.

Oh, James, James, James! Yes, sir! We are looking, I think. We're going to do is Sydney's going to check the last position of Osana. If he has no luck, then I'll go try give him a hand in that area, maybe go for a walkie. I think the Sun is gonna be quite fast somewhere, and the other problem is that he's not likely to go towards Galago Pan or the Via Telepan because after that little rain and special Azure drainage systems, there are a few secret spots with some rocks that might still be holding a bit of water, so he doesn't have to move too far.

Now, speaking of the sauna, I noticed on, might have been total Facebook, one of those thing in my bobs that there was a lot of discussion that Husana might be ill from eating these Enyala. He is not ill; he is just very fat and very lazy. The tannins in them in the stomach of the animals he's eating are not going to affect him; he's got a completely different digestive system, so please don't worry. Husana is not sick; he is fine!

I understand you guys worry, but in this circumstance, there is no need. Okay, hmm, Chingada though! Jamie's gonna have a look for it; we also give it a go. He's been away for a while and I think Singhania is probably sitting on a dead Enyala somewhere as well.

And then also just on that whole night about the dead Enyala, I noticed cemented all but even the hyenas aren't eating them. That's why the sauna might be second; it is not the hyenas that didn't go there is because that I found four separate hyena drag marks of dead Enyala today alone on Bushwick, and I only covered the area around the Morty River.

And that means there's probably a whole bunch more up on these little river systems—the Gary Cutler and the one of Puffles a dam, the one of Quarry Pan. So the hyenas are just full; that's why they didn't eat all of that Enyala where Husana was.

Okay, have a look! Oh, hello, Coral! Jumping Coral. I'm gonna pop his head around the corner. Oh! Is he dashed up and up and away? Is dashed up, up and away!? Now, I've actually found in Ghana in this tree before on a hot day in the summer months just lazing on the branch of this giant Jackal.

But he is not there today. Let's carry on. Hello, Dee! Use a new viewer! Welcome! Dee would like to know where in Africa are we. Well, we are in the southernmost country in Africa, South Africa. We are in the easternmost province of the said country, in the northeastern province, which is called the Impala Langa, which means Puma means to come out. Ranga means Sun, so east where the Sun rises. We are then inside the Greater Kruger National Park, which is 2.7 million hectares of an immense wilderness wonderland!

And then we go smaller; within the 60 thousand hectares of the Sabi Sands private game reserve, which is open to Kruger; there's no fences. And here we go, smaller. We are currently on Juma Private Game Reserve in the northwestern corner of the said Sabi Sand reserve; that is exactly where we are in Africa. And if one were to go even more minuscule, I am on a road called Gauri Cut Line, which runs north from Central Road, and I am looking for leopards!

And Davis is giggling behind me! It doesn't take much to amuse Esther. I'm not sure what Jamie's found; I think—did you hear that? But anyway, let's go find the heart, which is a really nice surprise. And when I say, I found hyenas, I actually had absolutely nothing to do with it. This one is entirely on eagle-eyed Senzo, who has really got his spotting eyes on this afternoon!

What is wrong with me? It's this afternoon! Oh, we got here at the back! I think it might just be—no, no, it is pretty by the looks of things. So what are we doing here, my girls? Now, we often get asked where hyenas go during the day, and the answer is two places just like this: a nice big shady area, especially around drainage lines which are dried up riverbeds. They'll go and they'll spend the day here and then at night return to the den site.

That looks like a sucker. There it is! Sucker and pretty, spending their afternoon curled up in the shade! How very interesting! Well, that's good news for us if perchance the Hyenas decide not to go to the den site before the end of the TV show tonight. At least we've got some hyenas! Well done, Senzo; you would not believe the spot he pulled off!

There is another possible reason for them to be curled up here underneath a quarry bush, and that is that there could potentially be a leopard with a kill somewhere here. Now, for two hyenas against in Ghana, they probably would have taken his kill from him if it were on the ground. So either they're not here because of the kill, or if they are here because of a kill that's in a tree—I've been checking out the big trees around the area. I probably won't stay with these two for that long because they're gonna be flat, flat for now, but we can always come back here a little bit later.

But there's nothing in this tree, sadly. Most done for, but it does remind me, because of where we are, at the time that little Huskana had such a bad limp and it was when young Gillian knocked him off the tree. He was trying to climb and he was having such a bad day! And then he got caught unawares by a hyena and had to go running up the closest tree, which happened to be a thorn tree, and when he tried to get down off of the hyena was gone, it was just pulling out Tufts of his fur left, right, and center.

That was when he was about a year old. Also, I found him sleeping in a rhino midden. Then obviously, like this patch, this was where I suspected Corky was hiding, Akashi's cooling herself down. That's so cool, spraying dirt over her belly!

Rosalind, you want to know if hyenas are smart—smarter than chimps? Hmm, it's difficult to really have my fine thanks—but, sorry, I just choked over my own saliva! It's difficult to really compare intelligence! They're certainly smarter than someone who chokes on her own spit, but to compare them to chimps would be—it’s a difficult one!

They have done cognition studies and they are very, very close to chimps in terms of the way that we define intelligence. Where they actually beat chimps is in a study that was done with a puzzle. So two chimpanzees were given a test; there was a piece of meat on a ledge that they couldn't reach and to get it, or to get it out of a box or whatever the test happened to be, it doesn't really matter.

They had to pull two ropes in opposite directions. So the chimps figured it out marginally faster than the hyenas and the hyenas got it pretty quickly and grabbed the meat. Then what they did was they took one individual that knew the puzzle out and put an individual in who didn't know the puzzle—who'd never seen the puzzle before.

And within split seconds, the hyenas had communicated to each other what needed to be done, and the box or the puzzle was opened, and they had the food; they actually did that faster than chimpanzees! So in terms of their social relationship with each other, they are actually slightly more intelligent in that sort of puzzle scenario.

So they've been given all sorts of puzzles to figure out, boxes that only unlock a certain way. I watched a documentary on a very low-ranked male who was given a puzzle, and he knew how to figure it out, and he worked it out, and he was given plenty of time to do so.

And then he was taken away and then he was put back into that situation but with the rest of the clan, and he completely feigned ignorance while they all sort of looked around at this box, and then eventually lost interest and ignored it. He pretended he didn't know what was going on, and then as soon as the high-ranked individuals lost interest and moved away, then he went and unlocked the box and got his piece of meat. No, he's not stupid; he knows if he'd unlocked it before that, he never would have got the prize.

Like kindness or smart creatures, there's a vast amount going on behind those eyes; one of the reasons why I enjoy them as much as I do. That and they’re hilarious! You think it's a mating pair? If it's a mating pair, then we would have big trouble, then we would have big trouble, because it would mean that Pretty's Cubs were not terribly well.

So no, I think we're okay there, but I think they're friends. And actually, Senzo is not far off; he said, "Do you know, this could be a mating pair?" And I said no, but actually, he is not far off because males will befriend females with cubs and be very nice to the cubs, be very gentle in the hope that the female actually befriends him and remembers that when it comes time to mate.

Now Caroline's wondering about whether or not hyenas will mate like lions and leopards and whether it goes on for days. The heat cycle does last for a few days, but it's not nearly as frequent as the matings of lions and leopards. It's also a very different situation, so as you know, the male lion or the male leopard has a barbed penis, and it causes a lot of pain to the female; she gets very aggressive, and it happens every couple of minutes, even though it's...

Shh, you're talking! It’s scandalized! Scandalized at the talk of all of this mating of new baby animals! Right, are you done now? Can I finish speaking? Yes? No? Thank you!

So the mating doesn't go on for days—or at least it doesn't go on as regularly for days as it does with the lions or the leopards. It's a blast for a lot longer, so the mating sessions of a matter of leopards or lions go on for 30 seconds, give or take. I mean, it never really extends much beyond that, for which I imagine the female is exceedingly thankful, because I don't think there's any kind of—it’s a 30 unenjoyable experience for her.

But for hyenas, it actually goes on for quite a long time and they end up similar to mating dogs; with a sort of tie together. So even when they finished the actual population process, the male then dismounts and they remain joined together for a period of time. So no, not quite like lions and leopards. And also, of course, the male also has to do some romancing; it's not like a female leopard that goes and throws herself bottom first at the male.

In the case of hyenas, the male really has to, he has to put in some serious time and effort. He’s got to dance around the female; he does a lot of bowing, a lot of playing, a lot of running around and making a fool of himself, acting a clown, and the female eventually decides whether or not she can actually be bothered with him. And that's why friendships work; they work so, so well in hyena society.

It's something similar to baboons; male baboons will have partners that they make friends with. Well, as thoroughly entertaining as our two hyenas are being right here and right now, it's a go see what James is up to in the Masai Mara, where apparently one has found something to snack on.

Well, this hyena is also being very entertaining! This is Anna Anatolian, as we've recently discovered. She's just left the den and she's eating a lobster. Oh no, it's not a lobster! It looks like a stick! No, it's definitely not a stick! I think it is a piece of wildebeest, but I cannot tell which piece it is.

I don't know; it does look like a mane, but it doesn't look like the neck, so difficult to say which bit! But I'm serving also the approach of the Michigan State University hyena researchers, so any luck, we'll have a bit more information for you at some stage. So she's what? All around about a quarter of a mile from the den! She was obviously feeling that peckish, needed some Sunday tea, and she's found herself a long rotten piece of wildebeest to eat!

I would like to be having scones and strawberry jam and tea right now, but I'm not; I am going to watch the hyena have a rotting piece of wildebeest for its tea! Then I suspect you will return to the den. It must be a bit of nick, surely! That definitely does look like a bit of a bit of mane!

Now I don't know where any of the others are but what I will tell you is that this is very interesting because, as I have banged on for ages, I've said to you that there is a huge amount of dead stuff out here that just rots into the ground that nothing that doesn't get eaten, it is scavenged from time to time. And that is quite possibly what you're seeing here.

There's all amongst this grassland, there are bits of dead flesh that are either gonna rot into the ground or be picked up by scavengers; most of it will rot, and that is one of the key things that our ancient hominid ancestors found. It's one of the key things that brought them onto these plains in the first place was this underutilized sort of resource of food that they could go and scavenge.

So far from being hunters, I say we—but I mean, of course, wasn't living the same species back then—our ancestors were scavengers and they were scavenging much like this hyena but probably using tools rather than teeth. And Safari Hearty, you asked a question that has entirely slipped my mind and I'm going to ask for it again.

Whoever again is that possible? Oh, have we ever seen a hyena eating grass? I was actually thinking about that yesterday after watching Husana spend most of his day behaving like a wildebeest! I don't think I have seen a hyena eating grass! I suspect in this area, you know, you'd have to be with them quite a lot to see it because it would happen so quickly.

You know, they live in green grass, and so they'd probably just have a few chomps almost without your noticing it. But they do! Man, it could be much like watching the leopards, you know, that come across a nice long tough with leaves that were sort of green and of their choosing—those kinds of things that dogs and cats, when they chew grass, and I can't—I can't call ever seeing a hyena making such a selection and then having a bite to eat of that grass.

So I'm gonna say no, Safari Hot; I don't think they do eat as much as the leopards or the lions do. I wonder if it isn't because they have fewer parasites, possibly because their digestive systems are that much more acidic, that much more powerful. But I'm really not sure!

Interesting that Husana is spending quite so much time eating grass—he’s obviously not feeling very comfy in the belly. No, very few animals can get ill from eating rotten meat out here, Paula. And it's, you know, they've all evolved to utilize this resource, and so no, I don't think so.

I don't know what would happen if a wild dog ate rotten meat too; they don't eat rotten meat normally. In fact, I've never seen one eating rotten meat. I've only ever seen them eating fresh kills. Likewise, cheetah—I'm not just told the cheetah wouldn't scavenge if it could, but 99% of the time I've ever seen—In fact, 100% of the time I've seen them eating, they've been eating fresh meat.

I'm sure there are records of them scavenging, and I'm sure there are records of wild dog scavenging, but I've never seen it. And I wonder if, because their strategy of feeding is that they eat fresh meat, they may not be adapted to eating rotten stuff like this. And I think that if you look at our examples of ourselves as human beings, we have a fairly limited—or the food that we eat has to be in a certain condition before we can consume it; what will make us ill? And that's because, you know, with our lives as they are, we've adapted to eating cooked food most of the time.

We've adapted to eating food that is not rotten because of weed rotting meat, we can get very ill to a certain extent—having this, what a lazy aged steak is about 40 days, is that old? Can't be 40 days old? Sure, let's give it some flavor, for sure!

No, this is the only hyena that I can see for miles, and I can see for miles! Shandra, are you asking a question for your six-year-old? Your six-year-old is obviously interested if hyenas can be pets? Chandra, how do we answer that?

So basically, can they be domesticated? Can they be if you raise them from little, will they tame? And the answer is, to a certain extent, there are parts of the world in Ethiopia and Nigeria—two examples where hyenas have become completely habituated with human beings on foot. I'm not sure that they would ever tame like a dog.

If you tried to tame them over generations like we did with wolves at one stage, maybe they might, but not an adult like this—no. And a love like this would remain very afraid of human beings and, if cornered, very dangerous to human beings.

A hyena is a ferocious predator—they are phenomenal creatures, and they don’t have quite the fashion sense of the lions or leopards or cheetahs or wild dogs, and they really are like the—I suppose they're a little bit like a mafia organization that runs a city and kind of beneath the radar. They shape this environment hugely with their activities!

I think that we have spotted a water pig. Well spotted, Bungay! Water pig and a baby water pig, and the hyena, of course, has not seen the water pig! Now, I've always been amazed at how animals live in this grass, and I'm not sure if I said this on air or off air yesterday, but I think the length of the grass in this area profoundly alters the behavior of the animals here.

And I think if you were to take these animals and stick them in a place out Juma, they would almost be confused about what to do because of the difference in the grass. None of them, even the lions in the high season, can see over the top of the grass! Now, you can imagine how impossibly frightening that must be for a water pig while you think of walking through the grass, unable to see, unable to know if you're going to stumble upon a lion or not!

Go across to Sydney, who's got a leopard, a tortoise instead of finding—? Oh, I found another leopard! Look at that! This is a leopard tortoise! So you can see that the leopard tortoise is very much—what? Is trying to go underneath the branch? I just saw the movement of the branch coming up, so this turtle must be feeling some heat at the moment. The grass I can see—they're not that very green, but probably you might have been grazing somewhere here because the green is starting to come out!

You can see they are coming from—you can see it's starting to forage! He was eating the grass somewhere there, so now he's just looking for some shade to hide a little bit. So this is the leopard tortoise! And leopard tortoises are very much proactive like any other tortoise during the dry season before the dry season—they go and collect quite a lot of water in order to supply themselves when it’s too dry!

And you will see if you pick the turtle up during the dry season; he's just going to urinate very slimy water. That water is there in order to save him during that season. You are not allowed to pick them up. If you pick them up, you will be jeopardizing their life. Just leave them if it's too slow to close the tickler time; wait for him to pass! Don't try and help him because you will then be causing him a lot of harm.

He won't feel anything, but if he's to dry for a long period, they won't have water to survive. So you can see now he is hiding under the dry branch and it's very much camouflaged; it's not very easy for predators to see him hiding like that.

Northern Land, the rains, they're supposed to begin already by now, because we are talking—we're heading towards mid-October and mid-October normally is when the animals are starting to give birth, but now it means the rain is late to come! Which might cause quite a lot of mortalities on animals as well as their young.

Because now I can promise you, it's very hot! But I'm very excited because the areas that have been now—they rained a little bit last week, but grasses are starting to get excited, and some green grass is coming out. The problem is, one, when the green grass is starting to come back after being stimulated by the rains or the fires, you will see animals concentrating by the small patch and that gives grasses quite a lot of pressure to recover.

Becky, I haven't seen a huge tortoise at the moment, but by the tenth day, I was doing some presentation from the tent; I saw that there's an old tortoise shell from a hinge tortoise, showing that there is a hinge tortoise in the area. For now, I am only knowing the leopard tortoise as well as the hinge tortoise.

So the hing tortoise is that one; the body is flat and it's not big as the leopard tortoise, which is more round and grows big! Turtles one of those animals which can be able to survive for quite a long period—them and the crocodiles can survive 150 years and more! So once they've got the shell, they can survive much longer although they do have some of the predators such as the ground hunters.

But for now, let's cross over to my other colleague who is also having something very interesting for you by the Kenya in the Masai Mara at the moment! Yes, we have got a bird! We haven't moved; a hyena is still eating its disgusting meal.

And so we're looking at a female black-bellied bustard as far as I can work out. I think that's what it is! The females are a little bit difficult to distinguish. Excuse me; I had a small yawn there. The reason I told you it was the Dino—the Kirsten was going to mention it tonight and now she can't! Haha! Right, so black-bellied bustard!

I'm just quickly interjecting. Did you get the white-billed bustards here as well? Black-billied bustard? Yes, that is a female black-bellied bustard! Just looking at the females; they look very similar. No, let's go with black-bellied. I have seen a male around here—Sharon, I don't think the females make the call! I think only the males make that champagne cork popping call!

Who's gonna be quiet for 20 seconds? It's quite a nice tone of sound of crickets all around us now! For me, this is the weeping, no grunting, ultimately cliche cry of the fish eagle or the sound of Africa! But for me, it's that; it's lying in my bed at night in the bush and listening to the crickets and the smell of dew on the grass! It makes me think, “Y'all, I'm in the wild!”

Now, we will pop back to the den at some stage; the hyena researchers have just told me that there are two other cubs there now, so we will pop back, but they're not that many. We did—we did; we have the double. Did we do a double and mistake them?

Okay, there we go! Now you don't have to look all the way into my brain through my eyes. Good! Okay, let's have one last look here at our hyena friend—!

And then maybe we'll go—you know what? I don't think we are gonna get back. I think I'm going to wait here with her, and I believe that Cinder has now dispensed with the tortoise part of his sighting. So the turtle was just bringing us a lot of luck! As now, I managed to get hold of the little chief; Husana, I can see that he is somewhere high up today!

I'm just gonna drive up a little bit so that you can have a better sighting! At the moment, so Husana is just right here with me after a very long search. He was going in the middle of the drainage because it's too hot at the moment here where we are!

So I can see that he is now on his way, probably to the Galago PAN, as he is not very far considering the distance! You can see it's just a less than 500 meters to the Galago PAN, so I'm just going to make a turn here so that we can have a good sighting!

And Gaea a to check lever is not easy because these animals—they can be able to conceal very easily and use the thick bushes! So here now he has been walking by the inaccessible areas. It was never easy to do. Shaking now, we saw that sex at the beginning heading towards this direction but we just lost where he was going!

Then we judged that he's heading to the waterhole. We were just checking everywhere! Now this area where we are, we are trying this area for the second time because we were worried that the tracks got disappeared in the same area!

So we do check where he has gone past, but it's not easy because these animals typically walk and hunt at the same time; tracks just got disappeared in any way! So he will be coming out here in a few minutes. So it's just that at the moment he's taking his time!

So you can see there he is, not what he's trying to listen because the birds are making some noise and they are not picking up, making noise because of his presence; that one I can guarantee you, none of this bird spotted him yet. Maybe the some other animals, because most of the birds I'm hearing are ground grellus who are nesting on the ground; maybe other prey animals are walking towards the nest and they are being focused because of that!

So I can see that this cat is just going underneath the shade at the moment, so he might have some water and rest somewhere by the Galago PAN! And thank you very, very much for all the comments about finding the little chief!

So he's trying to sniff and investigate things there, and now he is going to defecate! So a few months ago, I was lucky to see the hyenas eating the droppings of Tigger when it was still very warm, a few seconds after he defecated. The hyenas started eating and finished everything even it.

So that is just a big sign that in the bush, nothing is wasted; everything is recycled! Where the droppings, wood, grass, everything is just recycled! So you can see that the stomach is not looking big anymore. So he lost weight a little bit from the stomach compared to last night!

Now, if anything comes forward, I can promise you he is going to be able to dive, pounce, and catch something! So before we get disappeared, I am going to keep following and see if we can improve this sighting!

So now while I'm following the little chief, let's cross over to Jamie and see what is following at the moment. You can see that this dawn has subsided! So well done to Sydney for finding the little chief! That is a very good start! I'm going towards Buffle Sagar dam in the hope that this nice warm weather—30—what was it again? 30-something degrees!

87? 89? 87 degrees Fahrenheit; that was marvelous! Well done! We got there eventually! I have not found any sign of a kill around those hyenas! So I don't—I think they were just there sleeping. They couldn't sleep somewhere during the day!

So we're just gonna do a quick search of Buffle Sagar dam; I don't know where Tinga has gone. I mean, he really was just a—he was just a shot in the dark, so to speak. Fortunately, not in the dark, because it's a lot more difficult to find things in the dark!

We're gonna do one check of Buffle Sagar dam. Hopefully, the elephants are coming to have a drink there! It's nice and hot; they might even want a bit of a swim! And then we'll make our way back towards the hyena den for the drawing in of the evening!

And we'll just have to keep our fingers crossed! I hope everyone out there is doing all their good luck superstitions! Collins, you would like to know why the wheel is on the right side of the car?

Because we are on—in the Southern Hemisphere, everything gets switched upside down! So it’s, we're basically a mirror image of the Northern Hemisphere! You know we do something mirrored—the rights and the live for the lips on the right, no we drive on the left in South Africa!

That is why the steering wheel is on the right! So we drive on the left-hand side of the road, whereas most other countries drive on the right-hand side of the road! Now we're on the left as is, of course, the UK.

Fortunately, because otherwise, I would have had a terrible time driving there! I would have gotten very confused about which way and who had the right of way and passing on the left. That's an surrenders; not that we don't do that in South Africa.

Anyway, we shouldn't; it doesn't mean we don't. Yes, that's the reason that the steering wheel is on the right! And of course, they don't have to relearn everything—the gear stick would be over here, and I would be all confused—it just would be a disaster. One thing I've noticed with people who come out here, note, or learn to drive these vehicles is they tend to drive with their left wheel just off the road!

And they get exponentially more flat tires than we do! There's an Impala for everybody! Fortunately, perfectly centered, neither left nor right-handed! Decided something!

I'm just thinking about my conversation about flipped hemispheres and thinking about Kenya—that’s why the stereo would have to be in the middle of the car otherwise it’d be terribly confusing! Being that close to the equator, we are now starting to look very carefully for any signs of females who are straining!

That is not of course a female; that is a male Impala! The difference being for our new viewers; it has horns! So that's not an automatic giveaway with male and female antelope; there are some species where the females do have horns.

Thomson's gazelle, for example, in the Mara, although the female’s horns are truly pathetic, but they do have horns. But the Impala, only the males have horns! Well, as intriguing as that conversation was, let's go across the little chief as Sydney predicted!

He's quenching his thirst! We have got Husana, who has just arrived now by the Galago Pan, and I'm sure he's going to have a very long drink, considering the fact that Husana has not been to any of the waterholes yesterday and the day before!

I've been following his sign off a couple of days now! The last time he had some water, it was by this small pot report—what? Potholes where the water was just stuck there after the rains! So now at least he's having some fresh water!

So you can hear that the territorial squirrel is now starting to be vocal because him and these spotted cats don't get along! So that one I can promise you is about the leopard! Yes, I understand this kind of animal; they do make calls against the other small predators!

But they do make quite a lot of warning calls when it comes to these leopards! You will hear the other birds joining and other bugs as well joining the chorus, so the mobbing behavior is normal in this area! He is quite very much tasty indeed! As I indicated, I was very much surprised as well seeing that he is not visiting any of the waterhole since he got those two dead Nala's by the drainage line!

So he didn't want to move there! Maybe why he did not move there is because he did not manage to take any of those carcasses up into the nearest tree which made him to be protective and stay on the ground! So normally these cats come here by the Galago Pan during the sunset, so you can see that indeed he has been very much testy!

And as he was eating the grass this morning, maybe that also made him very thirsty! So it is good sometimes to be a leopard because coming to the waterhole, the competition is minimal! You don't have to worry about any other species!

So he's just by yourself, so he's enjoying his status of becoming the little chief here in Juma! James, and this is not a natural water! Indeed, it's a man-made dam! So every time the water is pumped—whom I can see that the water is coming in from the side—you can see, so this is quite very much fresh water for these animals! So something people must have to realize is that when managing a natural system and putting a fence around an area, we got to take full accountability!

When it's dry season because it's not fair for the animals to stay in, and when there's a drought, we don't provide water! Because under normal circumstances, animals when it’s a shortage of water—show us your food—they will be doing what is called a migration!

What we have been seeing by the Maasai Mara happening? Because that is much more natural and they are not like fenced in, so whereby they cannot make it in terms of migration, I think it's fair enough to provide them with water!

So now let's go to the Maasai Mara where James is having one of those animals who are sometimes giving Hassan a tough time. And I know that's a very dark picture of the hyena; she suddenly ran off. So we tried to go back towards waffles then didn't see anything, then she came back here; we're in pretty much the same position we were when you last saw us.

Now I know that's not great! Fungi sorry about that; she's gonna scan the spotlight if there's anything else. There's nothing further—I know it's a very dark image; don’t worry about it, there's not much we can do! We'll improve it, I hope, by the time our TV show comes about, top four seven! At least you can see the reflection of the eyes!

She's so up and down. So kind of just uncomfortable, you know. Gina, these infrared eyes make a beautiful kind of cartoon terror eyes, if you like, in furry. That's great like that! You can see those eyes shining!

Now I really hope that the other adults are going to pop back here at some stage this evening! Now remember, we do have our TV show, so we are going to shut down in half an hour! You can actually catch it on YouTube if you want!

Tomorrow, of course, returns know pretty much to normal, but tomorrow night is Safari Live's episode two; must be 25 or 24. All right, we're gonna watch and see what happens here! I have something exciting happens in the next little while!

In the meantime, I'm going to say goodbye to you! I'm going to thank you very much for contributing to the show with your questions and your comments, and I will see you tomorrow morning! If not, on the TV.