Khayeni, the ultimate killing machine!
Khayeni was resting up near her kill in the tree at dusk. When it got dark she moved west without feeding. Were the hyaenas at the base of the tree a hassle for her?
She moved to Khayeni pan but more there were more hyaenas there. She detoured again but now she was on the trail of impala and in the thickest of thickets she killed a young male. As usual she fed from the backside first, then the stomach and went and lay up close by.
As usual the hyaenas arrived a short while later and that was the end of that impala.
Back at Khayeni pan we found a zebra stallion with a broken back foot just above the hoof. He also had scars all over his body. This was probably the result of fighting with another stallion.
He was still in good shape, but probably as it was a new injury. Being a survivor he kept feeding as he hobbled from grass tuft to grass tuft.
When we arrived, hyaenas were already on the scene just lying about waiting. A couple of times one would go up the zebra but back off pretty quickly whenever the stallion made the slightest advance. They know to keep clear of that jaw and those lethal back hooves.
It was only several hours later that the hyaenas got together as a team and advanced on the zebra. He lunged and kicked at them from all sides but it was too much and he hobbled off.
The hyaenas kept up their advance and being run down the zebra was soon exhausted. As a team they bit into his flank and he sank to the ground. But he wasn’t out.
The hyaenas fed from his flank and rump and then from somewhere the stallion gathered all his energy and fought back, biting and kicking and running off.
Again they pulled him down and again he got up. He managed this several times until the loss of blood and trauma were too much.
13 hyaenas feasted on his body for the rest of the night leaving little more than a bloodstain on the grass.
As brutal as it may look the hyaenas still killed quicker than lions strangling a zebra.
It’s hard to imagine the zebra would have survived with his injury and one can only think the hyaenas put him out of a long suffering.
At the kill was this hyaena with a really bad snare wound. Hyaenas are one of the only animals that can survive being caught in a poacher’s wire snare ‘cos they have such strong necks. The snare on this one has cut in deep and we hope to remove it soon. With the Chiredzi river being one of our boundaries, hyaenas can freely cross to the other side and this is where they are picking up these snares. The good news is that more control is currently being administered in that area.
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