A Hyena’s fall from grace has everyone cackling; the poor thing learned precisely what gravity is and why he should leave tree climbing to the Leopards.
Kruger National Park, South Africa – Hyena are not known for their ability to climb trees; that skill is left to Leopards. A cackled of Hyena found a deserted Leopard kill dangling from a tree and decided to try their paws at climbing.
The entire sighting was filmed by 44-year-old Chef, Steven Hayley from the United Kingdom. Steven shared his spectacular sighting with LatestSightings.com and told them all about the once in a lifetime sighting.
“It was a late September afternoon on the H7 near Satara where I watched a leopard feeding on an impala carcass in a tree. Knowing that leopards usually revisit their kills, I returned at first light in hope to find the leopard in its same spot still feeding. I did not see the leopard but noticed two hyenas below the tree trying to figure out a way to get to what was left of the carcass.”
“A few more cars joined me at the sighting spot, hoping to get a glimpse of the leopard, but the leopard was not around, so some of the cars continued on their way and I remained stationary with another lovely South African couple who ended up sharing some food with me. After about 20 minutes spent waiting, we were finally rewarded when one of the hyenas started climbing up the tree to get the carcass. You very rarely see hyenas climb anything at all so this was extremely exciting! The hyena got to the carcass and started feeding while also simultaneously trying to keep the second hyena from getting his share of the meal.”
“I was shocked at this sighting and I don’t believe almost anyone has ever seen this before, and that includes guides and rangers that I spoke to after this event! I was so intrigued. I watched the amazing thought process of this brave hyena as it contemplated its strategy of how to dislodge the carcass from the tree. It kept at its attempts and even after it fell from the tree it got straight back up to try again and I found this unbelievable especially after such a heavy fall from quite a fair height!”
“Eventually the hyena came back down the tree to assess the situation from below of how best to get the meal on the ground, but he wasn’t sure. The two hyenas ended up fighting for the scraps that had fallen to the ground and finally gave up and left. I believe that this is the rarest sighting I’ve ever had in the Kruger and I think the footage can speak for itself! This was simply incredible.”
Watching the cunning Hyena try to dislodge the carcass was fascinating but watching it topple out the tree gave us a good chuckle. He refused to give up though and eventually got what he wanted. Take a look at the funny clip below.
Just be aware, you will be able to see the Leopard’s catch throughout the video so if you are sensitive to blood, you might not love this one!
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