I've hunted them and not been successful yet but do have these photos from a giraffe kill at Umfolozi.





This one looks like it is smiling but it really isn't. It is wounded from fighting over the carcass. There were lions laying in the bushes and it may have tangled with them.



Let's see your photos and stories.

You always have some great photo's Ann. Thanks for sharing!
David

While walking along a dry river bed in Makuti and taking a short water break, I spotted a hyena on a hill overlooking us. Buzz and Justin shouted for me to shoot it. I shouldered the gun and fired a round at it and it disappeared. We walked up to where it was standing and could not find any blood. Buzz then spotted another hyena running up a hill across from us about 125 meters away. Since we were elephant hunting all I had was my .458 Win Mag with open sights. My first round went over the hyena, the second round miraculously connected and the hyena proceeded to do a series of cartwheels all the way down the hill until it hit a tree near the bottom. This whole time the trackers, game scout, Buzz and Justin were laughing hysterically and going on and on about what a magnificent shot it was at 150 meters with open sights in a .458 Win Mag. Truth was, it was pure luck. When we recovered the hyena it was an extremely old and large hyena that had a club foot from an old snare or fight. The video clip of this is a hoot.

Ann, very good photos. Guess the lions killed the giraffe and the hyenas drove them off their kill?
MJines, that is a whopper.

Steve,

No, the lions were very full and sleeping belly up not far away. The hyenas were all very wary and the vultures were even warier!

You can see how big the belly is on one of the larger hyenas, all were pigging out as fast as possible.

The lions were too far for my camera lens.

It's din-din time at Darwin's Diner!

Great photo essay, Ann!

Old Fisi is definitely on my list. . .

Love hunting the Hyena.

1st one that i shot was in matetsi. A real strenuous hunt. We hung a skunky old leopard bait in a tree about 100 yards from the camp kitchen. We were hunting from a blind, well actually it was sitting on bar stools in the kitchen looking out the window. Jut after dark the hyena came in, but was just like a ghost. It would come close to the bait and then drift back into the shadows. Never really standing still. Took about 3-4 hours before it finally came under the bait and stood still long enough to get a shot off. Never did get onto the bait.
2nd one was near ghonarezhou, we had taken a pac lion that killed a farmers donkeys. The donkey carcasses were still laying around. We parted the cruiser about 60 yards away from one carcass and crawled in back with a call. 2 or 3 hyenas answered the call, but from way way far away. We quit calling and were just sitting quietly in the back of the truck when we heard a sound. Turned on a light and the hyenas were just about at the tailgate. They had to have come to the call at a gallop, because they probably covered 2-3 miles in 10-15 minutes. Kinda wakes you right up when you have hyenas 3 feet away and don't realize they are there

A hyena shot in 2007 on one of my North Western areas in Namibia, between Etosha nd the Kunene river (Uukwaluudi conservancy.)

Have any of you lucky hunters had mounts done of your hyena trophies? Post the pics....

Not me. My hide is waiting to be shipped back from Zim. It was interesting though, when I took pictures of my trophies to Rocky Carroll my taxidermist at Brush Country Taxidermy, he seemed to be far more excited by the hyena than even the leopard. My sense is that they are a much under-appreciated trophy than they deserve to be.

Ann;

Hopefully I managed to get the right potos up here. But here is my Spotted Hyena taken in Botswana in 1996. Twelve years ago...I was so young!!!!! He was feeding on a giraffe carcass, so I had him mounted with a giraffe leg bone.

Best regards, Darin

Ann,

Fisi is a target of opportunity.

I have had occasions where I have shot 6 on one hunt. And on others never managed to even see one.

I have had my chances at them, but we have always seen them around baits and been reluctant to shoot them for fear of spooking lion.

I would have killed a couple of them by now were it not for that.

Some day . . .

It was a great night hunt over a freshly killed warthog for bait. We weighed him in camp - 198.6 lbs. He is now a rug with open-mouth.