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The Hyaenas seem to be very relaxed and fearless in the water, I have never seen this before Nice and interesting video Jumbo

Thanks Jumbo for the lovely video

I have seen them lying down inside a water hole for more than an hour, on a hot evening. They like water!

I can tell you what happend that morning at 4am not more than 50m from the waterhole and not more than 30m from the fence??

At 4am I that morning I got woken by this distress call of a buffalo which sounded really close and I turned to my brother to ask wheter its me dreaming or is my mom snoaring again or is it really a buff being hunted so close to camp? Now I wanted to grab the tourch and head in that direction but I figured that Im going to wake up in anycae in a hour o I could leep a little more...... if I only knew!

Got at the gate just before 6 and there was a heap of cars and allot of flashes going off! And there it all happend! 3 male lions did kill a buff and were feasting and the next moment a clan of hyenas came for the kill and chased the lions way off! It was unbelievable! It looked like a story on Discovery channel!

Ill upload photos a little later....

on a morning walk from satara the guide told us that hyenas sometimes store bones in the water to let them soften there, then later return to retrieve them

Hi all

I wonder if you could help out with this one? I had been told before that besides the obvious differences between the male and female leopard, one can tell the difference by a marking/band across the chest/neck area of the leopard, is this true? Apparently the band is either soild or broken depending on the sex of the leopard

Thanks in advance!

As far as I know, there is no way to tell the difference. Rosettes are unique for each individual. Males are more heavily built than the females, but it's difficult to tell in the field. Hope this helps

I have also heard that females "sport a little string of pearls" (the rosettes or spots form a crescent shape around her throat) and often wondered if this is just mere speculation or whether there is any truth in this.

PS. I am aware that each leopard has a unique pattern of rosettes / spots, just like human finger prints.

Maybe the boff's can enlighten us!

Years ago, when I was a guest at Londolozi — where they "specialise" in leopards — I was told that the only reliable way to ID an individual leopard is by the unique pattern of whisker dots. So far as I know, there are no such ways to distinguish between males and females, only that, as WAC says, the males are usually significantly larger with a heavier build.

First time I have heard of that theory to distinguish between male and female ... Don't think so.

I've also heard a few theories of telling the differences and one day an "expert" on leopards was with my group on a game drive and on spotting one confirmed it was female. This went on for a good 20 minutes and we were convinced of it, or at least until the "she" leopard turned round to walk away and became a "he".
There is no way to tell for sure with the markings but males are bigger and have a bigger skull.

OK, thanks for all the replies guys!

Have a good day everyone!

I always have a chuckle when people discuss sexual dimorphism on game drives. My favourite is giraffes. I'm still slightly skeptical about using the horns as a differentiator.

Anyway, when the discussion starts, I always mutter to myself under my breath 'there's always one sure-fire way to tell a boy from a girl'

You must be talking about the deeper voice hey Josh.

Exactly! Or the manly bravado exhibited by the males. Or the coy eyelash batting by the females (especially Kudu cows)