Hyena Spotting

Hyena Spotting is probably my favorite things since being in Ethiopia for just over 3 months. One night we rented a van and headed out to a lake called Babagyu. We were going slow down this road when a hyena ran out in front of us, so we stopped the van and all of us and our friends got the see the hyena. After that first hyena I thought for sure we were going to find more, but we drove for like 5 minutes and saw nothing, then we drove for like another 20 minutes as still nothing so we turned around and were going to head home. I was sad and bored so I stuck my head out the window praying that I would see a hyena but that it would not grab my arm. We all wanted to see a hyena so bad, then I looked and said ‘Look a hyena’, there was one on the side of the road up ahead, the driver drove so fast and crazy chasing after the hyena. Everyone was laughing so hard and I thought the driver was going to run over the hyena. We kept driving looking for more hyenas, finally I saw something lying down by a bush so the driver turned around and it was a hyena, when we looked closer out the window we saw lots of eyes looking back at us. Mom gave Tenesae the camera and she started flashing the light which made them come closer, but she couldn’t get the camera working. We saw them so close right outside out window, I think there were 10 of them. On the way home we saw another one on the road that our driver tried to chase down. Hyena’s actually run quite fast and we learned in science that the spotted hyena actually has a really strong jaw that can crush bones, it is the only animal that can attack a lion. I think hyenas are pretty cool and would love to go hyena spotting and chasing again.

By Ayrian Bennik