Skukuza Golf Club in South Africa has shared footage showing a hyena following closely behind a golfer walking nervously down a fairway.
Skukuza Golf Club in South Africa is billed as “the wildest course in the world” because there are no fences keeping predatory animals off the grounds.
While most critters are nocturnal and do not interact with golfers, that’s not always the case.
The accompanying footage shows Neil Whyte documenting a hyena following closely behind as he walked from tee to green.
Whyte joked in the footage, “Got a new caddie on the golf course” and stopped walking while the hyena approached to within yards before veering to Whyte’s right.
It remains unclear if the hyena was hoping for a handout or if other hyenas were near.
Skukuza Golf Club, located in Kruger National Park, described on Facebook: “For those who have wondered if people actually play golf on our course… YES they do and they tend to make new friends along the way.”
Reads one of the top comments: “That hyena would be chewing on my dead body because I would have a heart attack right there.”
In June the club shared footage showing lions roaming a tee box in the predawn darkness, before the nine-hole course opened for play.
The course states on its website: “Since the course is not fenced-in, uninvited spectators are a common sight, hippo, impala, warthog and baboons to mention but a few.”
A safari guide in Sabi Sands of Kruger National Park captured remarkable footage of a hyena that somehow managed to escape a lion’s grip.
A safari guide in Sabi Sands of Kruger National Park in South Africa captured remarkable footage of a hyena that somehow managed to escape the grip of a lion.
“I was responding to a leopard on a kill sighting when the scene unfolded,” Dean Robinson, 42, told Latest Sightings. “Whilst watching two hyenas steal a leopard kill, a male lion snuck up on the hyenas and managed to get hold of one. The leopard watched from the highest branches of a nearby tree as the lion tried to kill the hyena.”
The video begins with the lion firming grasping the hyena, which cries for help that wasn’t forthcoming.
To be clear, the video has a happy and surprise ending, though heartbreaking to watch at first.
“Fortunately for the hyena, the lion loosened its grip for a split second and the hyena took its chance, and made a getaway,” Robinson said. “The leopard was safe in the tree, the hyena ran away and the lion left the scene.”
Latest Sightings wrote that the hyena defied the odds.
“Lions are often referred to as the ‘royals’ of the jungle – and with good reason,” Latest Sightings wrote. “As they are very dominant by nature and will take down any competition if need be. They don’t even necessarily have to eat the competitive predator – it really is just a display of dominance, to eliminate anyone in the wild they’d have to potentially fight with over food.”
A safari guide waiting years for such an encounter captured video of a lion stalking a hyena, along with the unexpected result.
A safari guide at Sanbona Wildlife Reserve in South Africa took a chance by leaving a hippo he had found for his clients to potentially view a lion stalking a hyena, an encounter he had been waiting years to witness—and it was unfolding minutes away.
“One of the guides called in a brown hyena sighting, but with a youngish lioness stalking it,” Jordan Davidson, 36, explained to LatestSightings.com. “We were a few minutes’ drive away, and my initial thought was that we’re going to miss the action. I took the chance, and spoke to my guests and told them the situation. We decided to leave the hippo in a little pan and find the lioness.”
Fortunately, they arrived just in time to view the lion in the distance as it crept up on the hyena, which was busying foraging for food.
“As we approached the area, we spotted the lioness stalking through the khanna bushes on a deeply eroded channel,” Davidson explained. “Further south along the opposite channel, we saw the hyena sniffing, walking, and foraging. It had no idea that the lioness was nearby!
“The lioness isn’t part of a pride and lives on her own for the time being. Brown hyenas live in clans but forage and scavenge on their own. They are a very cryptic animal, hardly ever seeing them out and about during the daylight hours. Luckily for us, it was a very cold morning with cloud cover, which allowed for this hyena to stay out longer. I was extremely interested in seeing how the hyena was going to defend itself against a lion whose strength is incredible.
“I quickly managed to pull up alongside to where the hyena was situated and waited. It didn’t take long for the action to unfold. She launched her attack we were surprised to see that she didn’t finish the kill. She was possibly in a playful mood, or the hyenas’ strange noises put her off, or it could even have been that the long fur allowed the hyena to slip through her claws and confuse her.
“Nonetheless it was a fantastic sighting! I have personally been waiting years for this specific encounter to happen.”
In a rare sighting captured in video, an aardvark trying to escape a hungry hyena giving chase pulled off an incredible disappearing act that would make illusionist David Copperfield proud.
In a rare sighting captured in video, an aardvark trying to escape a hungry hyena giving chase pulled off an incredible disappearing act that would make illusionist David Copperfield proud.
The sighting of a nocturnal aardvark during daylight hours is rare enough, as is seeing a brown hyena, but to see this predator hunt its prey and then get bamboozled by it is “extra spectacular,” as LatestSightings.com reported.
Etienne of the Greater Mabula Private Game Reserve in South Africa shot the extraordinary video with his tour group while sidetracked from a scheduled champagne breakfast under a 100-year-old Wild Fig Tree. He had been called to the scene by another safari guide.
“It was already a magical sighting to witness a relaxed aardvark bumbling about the plain in the daytime,” Etienne told LatestSightings.com. “As we were admiring the aardvark, our guide—Andrew—noticed a brown hyena approaching the plains. To have a sighting of just witnessing these two incredibly rare and usually nocturnal animals during the day was an unforgettable moment.
“We had never imagined that the sighting would get even more unbelievable with the interaction of the brown hyena trying to hunt the aardvark. At first, we thought that the brown hyena had spotted something else that it had begun to chase—perhaps an antelope or smaller animal like a scrub hare that we couldn’t see—it was only once the aardvark began running that we realized that the brown hyena was actually targeting the aardvark…We had never imagined that an aardvark was able to run so quickly.”
But the hyena caught up, and just as it was about to go in for the kill—poof!—the aardvark disappeared. At first glance, you wonder, where did the aardvark go? On second glance, with the help a of slow-motion replay, you realize the aardvark had reached the hole of its burrow, and as the hyena flipped it, the aardvark managed to make its great escape to safety, leaving a bewildered and frustrated hyena.
Etienne called it “a moment of absolute awe.”
“As if things could not get worse for the brown hyena, it was then chased by the herd of wildebeest that was watching it nearby,” Etienne said. “The sighting ended with the brown hyena dashing its way off of the plains, most likely in search of another meal.”
Tourists on safari in South Africa were treated to a comical sighting when encountering a leopard getting startled by an approaching hyena.. It was all captured on video.
Tourists on safari in South Africa were treated to a comical sighting when encountering a leopard awakening from a nap alongside a road. It was obviously unaware of the hyena sneaking up on it.
The incident, which occurred at Sabi Sands Game Reserve bordering Kruger National Park, was captured in video by safari guide Jason Joubert, 33, who shared his story with LatestSightings.com.
“As we watched the leopard wake up and groom, we noticed a male hyena walking down the road in our direction,” Joubert told LatestSightings. “I assume he was following the leopards’ scent.
“We watched and waited as the hyena carefully approached the leopard, taking a step closer and closer each time and the leopard seemingly oblivious of its sniffing visitor while it groomed its paws. We did not expect the hyena to walk straight up to the leopard and we thought that the leopard would have sensed the hyena right away, but this was not the case.
“The leopard slowly got up, almost still in a sleepy daze, and realized with a jolt that the hyena was now almost face to face! It jolted up in defense and jumped back, snarling and growling, warning the hyena to keep a distance.”
The tourists in the vehicle all laughed at the encounter.
The hyena, realizing there were no leftovers to scavenge on, continued on its way. The leopard growled some more and then went back to grooming, Joubert said.
