Hyena Lady - Go Wild

namibia a hot dry country in southern africa [Music] on the edge of the namib the oldest desert on earth the animals eek out a harsh existence water and food are scarce [Music] just one narrow strip of the coast is brimming with life supported by the abundance of the ocean a german biologist has chosen this country of contrasts for research and with good reasons brown hyenas which live here cheek by jowl with seals have been the focus of her attention for years what ingrid wiesel would like to know is what ties the shaggy animals to the seals a puzzle which can only be answered by following the trail of the brown hyena wherever it leads [Music] the first rays of the sun transformed the sea into rippling gold but on the namib coast the hours after dawn are bitterly cold [Music] only a few early birds like flamingos are already looking for food but for the southern african fur seals the day is only just beginning they live in a densely crowded colony leaving it to go hunting underwater in the fish rich waters of the atlantic it's a barren shore just water and rock for miles on end few animals can find a living in this wilderness but brown hyenas have mastered it two females known as gypsy and her daughter emma are raising their young in the same den together living in an extended family makes sense the mothers can share the work [Music] a scientist's day starts early so at least the cold nights are short ingrid wiesel has lived in namibia for five years she has spent countless days and nights in this rather spartan hut originally from hamburg germany she could only guess at the strains of field research when she began her studies for the zoological institute of her home university she was to investigate the feeding ecology and hunting behavior of the brown hyena no easy task in this inhospitable landscape far from civilization [Music] ingrid visa's work has already attracted the attention of international scientists last year she was appointed as expert advisor to the international union for the conservation of nature her hyena project is now part of a nationwide program organized by international scientists a census of all the large predators of namibia for ingrid every day begins with the same routine a walk through the seal colony these animals play a very special part in the life of the brown hyenas southern african fur seals have lived on this beach for about 50 years they occupied the islands offshore before then but today they have spread to the coast every year in october the huge animals come ashore in large numbers to mate and to give birth there is constant warfare between the bowls for the best places only the strongest can gather a harem of females around itself today thousands upon thousands of animals live in wolf bay a crucial study area in ingrid wiesel's work anyone who wants to learn about seals must get close to them on all fours at eye level this causes the least annoyance to the powerful animals [Applause] the intruder means no harm even when she takes a youngster from the middle of the colony for her research the baby will be readily accepted again by its mother [Music] it's mid-december the height of summer in southern africa the time when most baby seals are born okay just relax ingrid wants to find out everything about the youngsters the numbers born how their weight increases their growth and much more too relax this is the only way to establish a baseline for her detailed report on the development of the population and the future chances of the colony sadly here in the media as elsewhere seals are still killed every year admittedly this happens only in fixed seasons but nevertheless it's a serious matter until now every effort to put a stop to it has failed [Music] when full-grown bulls fight for mastery it's a clash of tightness [Music] with slashing teeth each tries to wound his opponent as a result the skin of veteran fighters is covered with scars but the effort is worthwhile only the winner of many duels and passes jeans down to the next generation [Music] some duels end up literally all at sea the seals are by no means a match for the power of the waves all the same water is their element they glide playfully in the swirling waves of the cold benguela current [Music] [Applause] this water from the antarctic makes the ocean here in the tropics unusually cool but it is rich in plant and animal life it brings plenty of food for the seals and it is a foundation of every form of life here on the edge of the namib desert [Music] without the food in the cold water brought by the benguela current there would be no jackass penguins here most of their order live in the antarctic it's a surprise to find their elegant costumes so far to the north on the edge of the namib desert cape gannitz ii build their breeding colonies only where the sea provides fish in abundance daily for thousands of hungry birds the same goes for some other dedicated fishermen cape cormorants which also often gather by the tower and crowned formulas which build their nests among the seals [Music] those that can't hunt underwater find what they need at the edge of the sea every incoming wave deposits fresh food on the beach from tiny microorganisms to dead fish and nothing is wasted there are plenty of takers the most conspicuous customers at this inexhaustible store are birds but they are not the only ones crabs too take their share [Music] and from time to time a very special beachcomber turns up the strand wolf the name given here on the coast to the brown hyena [Music] brown hyenas are mainly scavengers on the edge of the namib desert they couldn't survive unless they made use of anything and everything edible [Music] [Applause] ingrid wiesel knows about the habits of brown hyenas she has tried to follow them many times mostly without success but one day her stamina paid off and gypsy led ingrid to her den in a dry rocky landscape two kilometers from the sea for some time gypsy has shared this den with her daughter emma hyena with a conspicuous ear notch ingrid wiesel and emma go back a long way she was the first brown hyena she met nearly five years ago [Music] she can follow emma's routine almost continuously with the help of a radio caller no other hyena is so close to her heart whenever ingrid hears the signal that emma transmits she tries to find her but the signals indicate only the direction not the distance it always takes a certain amount of luck to actually find a brown hyena in his endless brown scenery but like all brown hyenas emma has some habits which make her easier to find she has favorite roots which he uses all the time while looking for food for ingrid weasel checking these paths has been routine for a long time she keeps a lookout for emma from certain observation points and from time to time she gets lucky a jackal on the horizon is a good sign [Music] and then close by she finds emma emma has found something to eat the remains of an old bone but she has to fight even for that [Music] jackals are cunning they seem to know when and where there is something to steal and they have little respect for hyenas they are also very nimble and agile the little thief can always dodge emma's attacks [Music] turingrid wiesel today's search for emma has been well worthwhile encounters between jacqueline hyena are by no means an everyday sight in the namib [Music] at first glance a lizard doesn't look like a predator but like hyenas and jackals the biggest part of its diet consists of animal protein [Music] an abrupt end for the grasshopper larva which stood no chance of escaping the clutches of what is literally a cold flooded killer [Music] the following days see the usual routine gypsy appears regularly at the den brown hyenas are by no means active only at night if they feel safe they also go out in broad daylight [Music] this is the fourth day when ingrid wiesel sees only gypsy with the young it often happens that one of the mothers is away for a while but this time ingrid feels uneasy could emma be in some kind of trouble not just two but three pups jostle round gypsy they all want to drink at the same time whether she is their own mother or not [Music] who belongs to whom is no secret to ingrid gypsy discourages the larger pups with her teeth the smallest is her own [Music] generally brown hyenas are good foster mothers rearing their offspring and common hazard advantages freedom of movement for the mothers for one gypsy also provides reliably for her daughter's pups but the young hooligans are not allowed to drive her own baby away it takes time until it becomes clear who has precedence [Music] at last after all the squabbling the little one has its mother to itself and it can now drink in peace as much as it likes its older companions meanwhile engage in some combat training of their own at their present age the larger cubs do not depend solely on milk perhaps this is why emma their mother doesn't visit the den so often now gypsy on the other hand still shows a great deal of motherly concern for her baby just a few weeks old but this affection can be irksome to the little one especially when the older members of its clan turn the entrance to the den into a playground [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] like human children playing in the young hyenas games the smallest is often allowed to win gypsy has been watching over the cubs from the den now in the last of the evening light she goes off herself to look for food [Music] the young spend the next hours alone in the safety of the burrow gypsy will cover 20 or 30 kilometers effortlessly with the typical hyena lope until she has found something to satisfy her hunger meanwhile the seala colony in wolf bay is full to overflowing like most of their relations southern african fur seals feel at ease only in dense crowds they lie packed together all over the rocky shore harem bulls have gathered their females and are flirting with them in their own way in these cramped conditions to go to the water means running the gardens as each seal defends its own resting place now is the time when most of the females give birth almost simultaneously as with all colonial animals they have no privacy at all wherever the contractions start the mother squeezes her pitch black baby into the daylight which looks as if it had been wrapped in cellophane [Music] the kelp gulls are not after the babies but the afterbirths [Music] they fight fiercely for them often right next to the mothers busy with their newborn babies [Music] for the gulls it is a time of plenty for them wolf bay is a land of milk and honey albeit for only a few weeks but the birds must look out for the mother seal's sharp teeth no one is allowed to come too close to their babies tender loving care stops when the mothers become rivals probably one of the two has lost her pup she now brutally demands the neighbor's baby in its place the quarrel ends only when the enormous harem bull appears and gradually comes down to combatants [Music] miraculously the baby has survived the wicked stepmother's violent tug of war unharmed but now it needs a break and refreshment during their short time on shore the seals not only give birth the females are ready to mate soon after their young are born the males four times the weight of their mates look as if they'll crush them in the process like the gulls jackals also benefit from the colony for them too there is always something worth having even if the watchful mothers will not let them come near like emma the hyena this jackal is in the service of science although its collar does not send out signals the red color identifies it clearly the jackal doesn't mind the collar he has set his sights on other things along with the larger predators in the media jackals are included in an international project to investigate their distribution in population it is the only way to measure the threats to these animals now in the seals breeding season jackals like gulls live a life of plenty [Applause] and some others also benefit [Music] baby seals that wander away from the center of the colony are in great danger they know no enemies and in their innocence when they are not being looked after by their mothers they often walk straight into them [Applause] [Music] observations like this are great moments for every field researcher who would have thought that brown hyenas would not only collect carrion but also actively hunt like their relatives the spotted hyenas considering that the seal colony has only been in wolf bay for 50 years this behavioral adaptation of the hyenas has in evolutionary terms happened amazingly fast ingrid wiesel is increasingly worried emma has still not shown up at the clan's den ingrid decides to travel to luderitz to make enquiries for a couple of days she will leave wolf bay her workplace lies in the so-called forbidden zone a closely protected area where no one may go without a permit not even the hyena lady she's not even allowed to drive her own car through the check of age very nice that's up to the ward meanwhile ingrid must submit to a body search the forbidden zone is a diamond mining area and these strict protection measures are necessary to forestall the greed aroused by the shiny pebbles it is amazing what people will come up with to smuggle diamonds out of the protected area stones have been stuck to carrier pigeons hidden in the soles of shoes even fired over the boundary with a bow and arrow ingrid wiesel takes the security procedures in good stride diamonds have no part in her life her only concern now is the missing emma as part of her research program she has left questionnaires in literature for tourists mine workers and townspeople to write down their observations of hyenas it is an important basis for population studies the reports are collected in the office of the mining company it's a faint hope but perhaps someone has seen emma everyone knows the hyena lady everybody knows about the project and happily passes on their observations to her ingrid visa owes much important information to this active cooperation by the public brown hyenas are easy to identify and can hardly be confused with any other animal we'll see you later oh great thank you very much so ingrid can trust the reports that she receives a little office in town is where she does her desk work here all the data can be processed with modern technology today's questionnaire comes from a mine worker who has seen a hyena with a collar feeding on carrion in elizabeth bay perhaps this was emma the information is only a day old ingrid weasel will go to elizabeth bay first thing in the morning to try to find the hyena [Music] not everyone is in for a good night's sleep at the hyena den there is a lot going on [Music] instead of human footprints these days hyena tracks are leading into the ghost town of elizabeth bay unlike a hundred years ago when the diamond rush was on and the town throbbing with life [Music] ruins are all that remain of the splendor that once was for ingrid wiesel today's program is set she will search from house to house looking carefully for the fresh remains of ahina's meal and perhaps to find a clue to emma's presence in the ghost town brown hyenas love the rocky maze left behind by people they leave their traces everywhere including bits of bone the skin of a seal and footprints [Music] on a hot summer's day like today the animals prefer to creep into the underground passages of an abandoned factory in the gloom of this cool underworld they have resting places where they spend the heat of the day even though ingrid visel knows every nook and cranny here from countless visits the passages are still somewhat eerie it's only with great caution that she ventures into these tumble down buildings in the dark cellars her every step is apprehensive but there is no movement not even a fleeting shadow wherever she looks there is no sign of the missing hyena only the usual stale food scraps everywhere showing clearly how often hyenas come and go but there's no sign that emma was among them gypsy's den meanwhile is the scene of a rare encounter an unknown visitor suddenly appears on the rocky ridge gypsy is not there and her pup immediately practices twig marking leaving a scent mark as hyenas do this is not at all easy but practice makes perfect for all its excitement the pup has not noticed the large stranger as soon as it has finished its task it hurries back into the safety of the den one thing is immediately clear this hyena does not belong to the gypsy clan the stranger is seeing the den in its surroundings for the first time he places scent marks on stones and twigs to let every other hyena know he was here but who can he be possibly a nomadic male with no strong attachment to any clan a jackal eagerly follows the stranger's every movement maybe he's hidden some food his shadower might nick on the slide obviously the hyena is only interested in the scent coming from inside the clan den suddenly sand and stones are flying everywhere perhaps he wants to widen the entrance to get at the pups although infanticide which is quite normal among lions has never been observed among brown hyenas but the young don't know this they keep out of sight and the stranger unearths something else with only a few meagre scraps he finally slinks away the jackal takes nothing the stranger won't share [Applause] there's no fresh water here where desert rock and sea meet only the gathering mist supplies the precious moisture that finds its way into the interior day for day [Music] the benguela current with its mass of cold water not only provides a wealth of food along the coast but also a daily bank of fog the drift of moist air allows for a frugal life in the world of sand dunes that stretches a hundred kilometers inland [Music] here there are accessible water holes the key to life for a fascinating array of large african mammals [Music] most of them simply could not subsist around wolf bay elephants for example must find a water hole regularly to fill up with around 200 liters [Music] [Applause] [Music] lions too can only survive if they can drink regularly and many of their prey animals like these crew would have no chance by the sea without fresh water [Music] they have learned to live alongside the deadly hunters they know exactly when their predators are coming to the waterhole just to drink [Music] if they were hunting they wouldn't approach so openly what brings them here now is thirst plain and simple when it comes to slurping up water a lion's tongue is nothing like an elephant's trunk it takes a long time for the big cat to slay its thirst in late afternoon a hyena troop appears at the waterhole as a clan they feel confident even with lions around but they would rather move on to enjoy a drink in peace conflict can be dangerous as well as a waste of energy unlike their relations on the coast spotted hyenas depend completely on fresh water they couldn't survive in the brown hyena's arid home gradually the whole plan arrives in the heat of late afternoon they need the water not only for drinking but for keeping cool though there is not much water here behind the hills it makes a big difference a huge number of animals can live here the bat-eared fox has found its niche digging in the sand for ants and termites with its enormous ears it can easily hear the sounds the insects make as they move about underground surrogates too are at home in this landscape little predators with needle-like teeth [Music] for them fighting is the order of the day but they must take care and the excitement not to overlook their large spotted neighbor but the leopard has already found its prey a steinbach was not careful enough and has paid with its life for what might have been only a small error to avoid possible competitors the hunter quickly brings its prey to safety [Music] the three large predators of this area lions spotted hyenas and leopards have one thing in common they all need water holes to survive all three would dire first in a few days in the wolf bay area on the coast [Music] their range stops abruptly at the eastern edge of the dunes for them the namib sand barrier is an insurmountable obstacle only brown hyenas can live beyond the dunes for them the mountains of sand are no barrier but how do they solve the water problem after all they can't drink from the sea [Applause] what ingrid observes here and can prove for the first time with solid evidence is a specialized piece of predatory behavior it represents another step in the development of the brown hyena from being a scavenger to becoming an active hunter when they kill a seal pup brown hyenas feed selectively on its brain which contains a lot of liquid often this is the only part of their prey that they take leaving all the rest uneaten to our eyes this might seem gruesome for the brown hyenas it is a successful strategy which saves them from dying of thirst thus at least during the summer it is the young seals that guarantee the survival of brown hyenas on the coast of the namib desert [Applause] thirst is not a problem for seer babies they are supplied with milk by their mothers the kelp gulls on the other hand must take care how they quench their thirst they get liquid from their food often picking it directly from the sea they even have the cheek to snatch a seal's food from under its nose when it services to chop up a fish at his car [Music] [Applause] [Music] everything is proceeding as usual most of the young are growing quickly on their mother's nourishing milk and they are very active but they can also become victims ingrid finds many dead baby seals which are outwardly completely undamaged but proved to have had their skulls crushed she suddenly realizes what is happening some other predators behave like this too scientists call it surplus killing day by day ingrid collects the dead animals and as usual notes all the relevant scientific data as if in a frenzy brown hyenas kill far more baby seals than they need for predators this is not unfamiliar behavior for ingrid's research the discovery of surplus killing is another important observation that proves conclusively that the behavior of brown hyenas is changing from scavenging to predation finally ingrid attaches a small plastic marker which if it turns up again later will tell where the carcass has ended up on her way back from the colony ingrid receives a call [Applause] hello yes someone has found a dead hyena run over by a car it is still on the side of the road with two boys waiting beside it there's no hesitating now she must go to the scene immediately such quick action is part of her everyday a nagging question preys on her mind could the dead animal be one that she knows perhaps even the missing emma the two boys were on their way into town when they found the hyena no they didn't see the car that caused the accident with great relief ingrid recognizes at once that this is not emma the dead animal is not wearing a radio collar it has no notch in its ear and it is a male what follows is established routine she makes a quick note of all the important details where found time of day cause of death sex any further investigation can be done later in the laboratory an exact comparison with all the data stored in the computer might perhaps provide information about the animal's origins she also photographs the teeth this will provide useful information about the animal's age and state of health the boys helping her lift the heavy animal into the car it must be taken as quickly as possible to luderitz as the midday heat accelerates decomposure traffic accidents actually aren't common causes for the deaths of hyenas but once in a while they do happen there is no reward for the boys and they don't expect one either they have met the hyena lady many times and know about a research program even though they don't really understand what brings the young woman here let alone her boundless enthusiasm for the shaggy hyenas they respect england weasel and will help her in any way they can while inward weasel works far into the night in a laboratory in little bits a strange thing is happening in front of the hyena clan's den out among the rocks [Music] in the last light of the day a hyena slings secretively back to the den the collar and the notched ear are plain to see it is the long-lost emma she has come home [Applause] at first the two large pups engrossed in their play have no eyes for the homecomer then they suddenly notice that this time it is their very own mother they give her a warm welcome this time it's gypsy's pup that doesn't get a look in or even looked at emma takes her two youngsters with her and leads them away from what was the clan's shared den gypsy's baby stays behind its playmates gone following their mother no one knows where into the deepening night [Music] on her daily visits to the hyena den ingrid wiesel notices that the two large pups have disappeared this is a really good sign ingrid hopes that emma has taken them away and is now looking after them but she cannot be sure until she has actually seen mother and pups together even with radio telemetry in the unending vastness of the namib finding one specific hyena is like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack but her efforts and her patience pay off in the end suddenly emma's distinctive signal can be heard loud and clear on a hilltop silhouetted against the sky ingrid discovers her very own emma together with her young in a great wave of relief all the worries and tension of the previous weeks immediately fall away for hyenas moving to a new home is not unusual after two or three months a clan den is usually uninhabitable it becomes infested with parasites which attach themselves to the pup's fur making their life a misery then moving on is the only thing to do but there was certainly no agreement between gypsy and emma about the exact time to move family bonds and hyena clans hardly go that far but it's not impossible that the two of them will ever find themselves together again it is the end of february down on the beach indako mukapuli has taken up his daily observation post like ingrid wiesel he has been working for some time in the forbidden zone the main focus of his research are the seals ingrid keeps in good contact with the scientific neighbor because his results complement her own research in the seal colony her work on the behavior of the brown hyenas is not yet finished in particular their relations with and possible influence on the seal population the southern african summer is drawn to a close the young seals have grown bigger too big for predators which still raid the colony as before but now seldom find anything the baby phases have become adult and like adults they stand for no nonsense more and more often the raiders in the colony now leave as they arrived with empty bellies [Music] for ingrid weasel 2 the end of summer brings changes her daily work in the seal colony is largely finished from now on the hyenas will live through harder times they must revert to beachcombing gathering whatever the sea provides living mostly on carrion they will become active hunters again only when the next breeding season brings the seals ashore [Music] how the family groups will develop in future remains the main question on ingrid wiesel's mind her fascination with these extraordinary animals just keeps on growing [Music] gypsy is alone with her pup she is now its only playmate perhaps the future will bring new partnerships or perhaps she will go back to the familiar dependable life with her daughter emma and her grandchildren [Music] you

Channel: Go Wild

Views: 190,476

Keywords: orf universum, documentary, blue chip, natural history, secrets of nature, planet earth, wildlife, free documentary, watch full documentary, nature films, wildlife films, go wild, nature, natura, hyena, africa

Id: d49ePCUSKkg

Length: 48min 21sec (2901 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 08 2022