Sympathy For The Devils (67/268)

Sympathy For The Devils (67/268)

They are the most important hunters in the Serengeti, and yet we regard them as cowardly, crafty carrion-eaters. Their life in the group is characterized by mutual care; the females risk their lives on hunting expeditions lasting for days to feed their young, and yet they are known as the devils of the savannah. Why these prejudices? Perhaps because for a long time so little was known about them. In the Serengeti the life of the hyenas is determined by the migration of the large gnu herds: no matter where the territory of a hyena clan is situated, only for three months a year, when the herds are in their vicinity, do they live in "the land of plenty". For the rest of the year the hunters have to roam for days through alien territory to capture gnus or gazelles or to survive from the remains left by other hyenas or lions. Often their hunting-grounds are 40 or 50 kilometres away from their lairs where the cubs remain. There they wait for days, sometimes for weeks, for their mothers to return; then they drink their fill of their mothers' milk for hours on end, only to be left alone for days without any nourishment when their mothers set off once again on their long and dangerous journey. Anyone who has accompanied the various hyena clans through the Serengeti, observed the strict hierarchy of the female hyenas and seen the struggle for survival and the dying of the animals, can feel only one thing for them: sympathy for the devils.

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