Watch the Sighting:
Danie Bester ventured on a game drive one early October morning after spending the night in Pretoriuskop camp. While on his way to Malelane, he drove by a waterhole, and to his delight, spotted a clan of hyenas and three rhinos!
Initially, everything appeared normal, but at a second glance, he noticed something unusual about the hyenas’ behaviour…
Hyenas Try Their Luck
One after the other, the hyenas were jumping up and biting at the hindquarters of one of the rhinos! Danie immediately stopped his vehicle and pulled out his camera — even for hyenas, this was pretty bold behaviour.
When the rhino started to move, Danie noticed it had a bad limp. Finally the situation began to make a little more sense: the hyena clan was trying to take advantage of the rhino’s weakness — but with its massive size, would they stand a chance?
After some time, the hyenas managed to rip open a wound on the rhino’s tail and then continued to savagely bite and tear at the open flesh. Sensing their companion’s distress, the other two rhinos stood guard behind the injured rhino trying to protect it.
Despite the size of the three rhinos, the hyenas were not intimidated, and continued on with their relentless attack.
A Desperate Escape
Finally, after about seven minutes, the rhino had enough. It used a brief window of opportunity to flee the scene towards the riverbed.
The hyenas were close behind, not wanting to give up their hunt. When both the rhino and the hyena clan eventually reached the riverbed, they disappeared into the thickets.
Unfortunately for Danie, he could no longer locate the animals once they disappeared and had to stop filming. Although he was unable to see how the encounter ended, Danie reflected that this was one of the most incredible sightings he had ever seen.
“This was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime sighting! I am not sure how the scenario ended but I really hope the Rhino got away and lived to see another day, tailless and all… I was surprised at the courage the Hyenas had for taking on the second-biggest member of the big 5 and seemingly succeeding.”
Opportunistic and Predatory
Hyenas are opportunistic eaters that often find their meals through scavenging and stealing the kills of other predators. While they sometimes search for a meal alone, they are also extremely intelligent team hunters that have a sharp ability to seek out the most vulnerable animals in a herd and isolate them using clan tactics.
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Kruger mammal expert Heike Schutze explains that hyenas are biologically designed for long chases. They have great stamina and are rigorous in their pursuit of prey once they have had a taste of blood.
This is evident in Danie’s encounter as the hyenas seemed incredibly driven to take down the rhino, not tiring or giving up despite its size.
An Ethical Ending
One of the guides from Jock Safari Lodge was also at this sighting and reported the injured rhino to the SANParks section ranger. Eventually, some Kruger veterinarians found the rhino and darted it to investigate its injured leg.
They concluded that the rhino’s leg was broken, likely from a fight with another bull rhino. In the end, they decided to do the ethical thing and euthanize the rhino to end its suffering.
This sighting is a powerful reminder that in the wild, having a weakness puts a target on your back. Even though it is difficult to watch an animal suffer, life in the animal kingdom is a delicate balance between life and death, where only the strongest survive.