On a hot day, there’s nothing better than a cooling dip. In this video, a pair of rare brown hyenas mix play with leisure in the arid desert.
Regular contributor Andrew Aveley submitted this footage to Latest Sightings. He filmed it in South Africa’s Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park.
Watch the video here:
Rare predators at the pool
On a hot Kgalagadi afternoon, Andrew pulled up to a small, artificial waterhole. Through the shimmering heat, he saw two seldom seen desert predators enjoying a refreshing dip.
The animals in question are one of three hyena species, and the rarest of them all. Brown hyenas are found in isolated populations across southern Africa, with most living in the arid Kalahari and Kgalagadi.
Playful pair
The two animals were in a playful mood. As they splashed around in the water, they teased each other with snapping jaws and high-pitched squeals.
Brown hyenas have a similar social behaviour to wolves, in that a dominant male and female lead a small clan of 4 to 6 individuals. In this instance, it looks like the pair is either siblings or a mother with a sub-adult cub.
Subsequently, as we watch, it seems one of them just wants to cool off, while the other antagonises it. Perhaps it wants the small pool all to itself.
Play with a purpose
Playful interactions like this serve a variety of purposes. In young animals, it helps them hone their fighting and hunting skills.
Furthermore, play-fighting can escalate into sparring, in which animals test their strength against one another. In this case, the bouts are useful for determining dominance without having to resort to full-blown violence.
According to Andrew, he was lucky enough to witness the pair’s performance for about twenty minutes. Considering their scarcity and typically nocturnal behaviour, he and his companions are very fortunate.
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Diverse diets
Brown hyenas are smaller than their spotted cousins. Although they tend to scavenge most of their food, they will occasionally hunt baby antelopes, zebra foals, hare, and ground-nesting birds.
They are aggressive scavengers, quite capable of chasing jackals, cheetahs, and leopards from their kills. However, in areas where they overlap with spotted hyenas and lions, they, in turn, are forced to surrender their meals or face death.
Their diet is very diverse, and they feed on various melons and even fungus, in addition to meat sources.
A brief respite
After several minutes of sparring, the aggressor finally stopped harassing its compatriot and took a long drink. Relieved of its torment, the other animal lay down in the water, saturating its long, shaggy fur in the process.
While not dependent on surface water, these two have certainly made the most of their visit to the waterhole. When water is scarce, they supplement their needs by eating melons and meat.
Eventually, the pair decided it was time to move on. They are known to cover up to 40 kilometres per night when searching for food.
As Andrew’s video draws to an end, he zooms out, showing us the sparse vegetation of their dry habitat. Considering the vastness of the Kgalagadi park that they are about to wander into, he is truly fortunate to have witnessed this interaction between these iconic desert specialists.