Brown hyena visits Lüderitz

A BROWN hyena was spotted at the town of Lüderitz in the //­Kharas region over the weekend.

Brown hyenas are one of Africa’s large carnivores, and are found in Angola, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa and Namibia.

Parks warden from the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism Martha Kambinda said they were alerted about the hyena by the police on Saturday.

“The hyena was in the town area close to the train station, however, it was not a threat to human life. They normally come here during the night as it is their territory,” said Kambinda.

The hyena is said to have been safely removed from the town area.

Brown hyenas are said to usually move around on their own while searching for food. They can cover vast areas and it’s not uncommon for them to travel as far as 40 km in a single night.

“We believe the hyena was here to feed because they feed on all the dead animals that get washed out from the sea, and currently we have a lot of dead sea animals along the coastline. But we understand that the hyena was safely removed from the town area and removed from people though he was not a threat to human life,” said Kambinda.

Initiator of the Brown Hyena Research Project Ingrid Wiesel says there are only six conservation areas with governmental or private protection status, where viable brown hyena populations occur.

One of them is the coastal region of the southern Namib Desert, within the Tsau Khaeb National Park.

Wiesel says brown hyenas are the only large predators along the Namib Desert coast, with their only competitors being black-backed jackals, which makes prey density generally low. Therefore, the hyenas cannot rely on regular meals found as carcasses and are dependent on seabirds or Cape fur seals which wash up along the entire Namibian coastline.

“Brown hyenas visit these colonies on their foraging trips to feed on fresh carcasses or to kill seal pups. This food source is available during the entire year since seal pups are only weaned shortly before the next pups are born,” said Wiesel.

The research project was started in 1997 to study the population of brown hyena breeding in the Namib Desert coastline. Researcher Marie Lamerle issued a reminder to residents that brown hyenas regularly visit Lüderitz town at night.

Lamerle said they seldom hunt small or medium-sized mammals and usually rely on carcasses of animals which died naturally or were killed by other predators.

“We wanted to remind everyone at the coast, they mostly feed on the Cape fur seals and they can travel long distances to find food. They are also very curious animals that like to explore new places. They will always find their way back to the national park, just be careful while driving at night,” said Lamerle.

She added that the biggest threat hyenas face are from farmers who blame them for predation on their livestock, while hyenas do not hunt like the black-backed jackal.

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