Watch Now:
This sighting was sent in by Matthew Roach, manager and guide at Royal Safaris, who took his group of six out on a sunset drive at the Kruger National Park.
At the beginning of the drive, they didn’t even know about the action taking place, Matthew said they “had spent the slowly making [their] way to a leopard that had been hanging around for the past few days”. None of them expected to see such a gruesome display of nature’s violence.
A Very Bad Day
Following a tip from another vehicle, Matthew and his group “spotted five hyenas cornering a zebra in the road – they were not allowing it to leave”. The fight had clearly been going for some time before they arrived, as the hyenas had already badly damaged the zebra’s back legs.
Already, this sighting was proving to be a distressing one, as the hyenas completely encircled the panicked zebra, using their agility to keep out of the way of its bites and working together to bring it down.
Zebras are known to kick and bite with the strength to cause significant damage to predators much larger than hyenas, even wounding lions badly enough to kill them in rare instances. How this clan managed to get this zebra in such a state is unknown.
Determined Hyenas
How this fight started might be unknown, but the hyenas were going to finish it. They continued darting in and out with their bites, slowly overwhelming the wounded and distressed zebra.
Without its full mobility there wasn’t much the zebra could do to escape. The hyenas had used their teamwork to trap it completely, and it was only a matter of time before they brought it down fully
A Gruesome Sighting
While hunting alone, a hyena might have success in less than a quarter of its hunts, and in a one on one, a zebra has size and strength on its side, making it a near impossible target for a single hyena.
When the clan hunts together, the hunting success rate of hyenas goes up dramatically, more than tripling, as they bring their prey down with an efficiency that’s cruel to witness.
The hyenas whittle this zebra down slowly, but down it goes, unable to stand against the weight of hyena bodies in its weakened state.
The True Face Of Nature
As cute, regal or impressive as sightings on safari might often be, this is the other side of that coin. Brutal violence born of need.
Hyenas lack the strength to quickly and efficiently kill large animals in the way that big cats can, meaning they have to eat it while it’s still alive, like this zebra.
They also lack the ferocity to guard their kills from larger predators, meaning at any moment a lion might prevent them from eating enough. To make sure they get their meal, they have to start eating it as soon as possible.
Matthew said that “this sighting could be a once in a lifetime sighting although it was tough to watch”, showing how you never know exactly what you’re going to come across on safari.