One of the more rare animals you\u2019ll have the opportunity of coming across during a Kruger Park safari<\/a> is the hyena. These fascinating animals are found all over the park and in this blog we\u2019re going to share some of the must know information.<\/p>\n The Spotted Hyena is the hyena that can be seen that can be seen in the Kruger National Park<\/a>.\u00a0 These untidy looking animals are neither a member of the dog or cat family, they are a member of their own family known as, hyaenidae<\/em>.\u00a0 They stand about 80cm at the shoulder and weigh up to 60 kg. Their backs are sloping and they have a shaggy unkept look. \u00a0Hyena can crush a thigh bone of a buffalo in one movement with their powerful jaws.\u00a0 A hungry hyena can eat up to a third of its own body weight.<\/p>\n The Spotted Hyena usually has two cubs, which are born aggressive.\u00a0 They are born dark brown with their teeth and their eyes open. Cubs are born in a den which the mother digs out and kept there till they are at least three weeks old. After this their fur becomes lighter and they start getting spots.<\/p>\n Hyenas hunt and scavenge at night. \u00a0\u00a0Hyena are carnivores, of the opportunistic kind for the best part.\u00a0 If hyena are the dominant predator in an area, they will hunt their own prey, but if there are other predators in an area they tend to scavenge.\u00a0 Fearlessly they will take a chance to grab food away from other predators, often paying with their lives.\u00a0 \u00a0When hyena hunt, it is generally in packs, cunningly seeking out the weakest in the herd and then isolating it before relentlessly pursuing it over several kilometres, until the prey is totally exhausted.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 At this stage the pack of hyena pull the animal down and disembowel it.\u00a0 As a pack, hyena will go for the big game, zebra or kudu, but if they hunting alone, they hunt smaller animals such as baboon or guinea fowl.\u00a0 Lions and Hyena detest each other, and will often kill each other\u2019s cubs or weak.\u00a0 As weary as hyena are of lions, they are unafraid of lionesses, and will easily take a kill from a lioness when there are no lions around. \u00a0Watching the sky for vultures circling a kill, these cunning animals then take off to find the kill.\u00a0 In times of drought, hyena have been seen eating the fish that are dying in the drying up water holes.<\/p>\n Hyena \u201claugh\u201d hysterically, eerily giggling in an almost human like tone, quite unlike the mighty roar of the lion.\u00a0 In the middle ages it was believed that the hyena would dig up corpses and eat them.\u00a0 In some cultures they are believed to have magical power and belong to witches.\u00a0 It is believed that they are the witch\u2019s cattle and come out at night with the witches.\u00a0 In some folklore, should a child be born at night while a hyena is crying, that child will grow up to be a thief.\u00a0 Another tribe in Africa believes that if you want your child to walk at an early age you need to ensure that the child has hyena dung kept somewhere on their person.<\/p>\n Spotted Hyena One of the more rare animals you\u2019ll have the opportunity of coming across during a Kruger Park safari is the hyena. These fascinating animals are found all over the park and in this blog we\u2019re going to share some of the must know information. The Spotted Hyena is the hyena that can be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kruger-animal-tour-guide"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9480\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Although they are not always an everyday sighting, the more time you spend in the Kruger, the more opportunities you will have to see them. Book your Kruger National Park safari<\/a> today. <\/strong><\/h3>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"