Hyenas: lack a certain appeal

How cute am I eh?

All the various Hyena species are hunters and scavenger that are known for their fossicking and foraging on the African plains, preying on the sick, dying and the leftovers of lions. One species of hyena, the aardwolf, however, eats termites!

Hyena are known as the dirty dogs of the animal kingdom. They have extremely strong jaws in relation to their body size and have a very powerful digestive system with highly acidic fluids, making them capable of eating and digesting their entire prey, including skin, teeth, horns and bones. 

Hyena have a poor reputation. Let's just say the bad light that hyena were portrayed in The Lion King was nothing to their real world savagery.

Here's some pictures of a hyena feasting on a ill wildebeast. Look at the below picture, the poor beast is still alive as the hyena feed upon it. Look at that face, those dark eyes.... they remind me of a blind date I went on once. I had nightmares for months after that. The horror, the horror...

Because the hyena's digestive system deals very well with bacteria, they have no aversion to and readily eat carrion which may have been left cooking under the African sun for some time. Like this zebra:

Shenzi and Banzai enjoy a zebra sandwhich

You can almost guarantee this zebra was not taken down the the hyena pack, note the pecking order - lions first, hyena next and then the Carrion Cleaners of Africa, the ever hovering vultures.

3 comments hyena, zebra