Dead Gemsboks for Dinner!

[Bob Molloy]

Poison bait needs to be handled carefully using rubber gloves. It should preferably be fed directly to the target animal, in the case of a hyena perhaps toss it out of a car window. A hyena will eat almost anything. One sniff of the meat and it will bolt it down immediately.
Cyanide is an instantaneous poison and undetectable when inserted into a piece of offal. Death occurs within seconds. Then the body should be disposed of immediately either by cremation or burial.
I'm sure the local butcher will happily supply the offal, the pharmacist can source the cyanide. An adult hyena weighs about 70 kilos. The pharmacist can calculate the amount of cyanide required for that body size and perhaps even load the bait for safety sake. Any responsible person can do the rest.
Parents of small children in Oranjemund should be demanding this action immediately. Hyenas and residential areas are not a healthy mix. A single hyena in a township is a disaster waiting to happen.
Don't get squeamish, get moving. Most of all, don't just talk this subject to death. If you do, that's precisely what will happen - sooner or later.

[Bertie Horak]

I still dont think it's necessary to kill these animals. They are unique to the area and poses no threat to humans. The only time they would be dangerous:
- If there's rabies in the area, which according to the experts there isn't any cases at the moment. And also in such a case it would be clear that the animal is sick.
- If you corner the animal or try and attack it with a stick when cornered (wouldn't you also fight back then?)
This animal photographed has been studied by people who know the animals and said it looks like an older female, probably just looking for a free meal left by human trash.
There has been ZERO accounts of any attacks by Brown Hyenas (Strandwolwe) on humans, in other words, NO accounts ever.
I think before any drastic actions are taken, the people in the know should first be consulted, before we wipe out yet another unique species which makes our special town and its surrounds so special.
For more information, why not check out the "Brown Hyena Research Project" website at www.strandwolf.org.za.   Or speak to Dr. Ingrid Wiesel who is stationed in Luderitz - I dont think we'll get any more knowledgeable person regarding the strandwolwe. Her tel no: ++264(0)63202114.

[Paul (Pepe) Freemantle]

Well said Bertie, I am in full agreement with you in all you have mentioned here. I remember when we were erecting the plant out at Bakers Bay, there were plenty of strandwolwe there due to all the seals in the area. We used to feed them eventually by hand as they got so tame. I had a photo of Tobi (Groenewalds Construction contractor) feeding them. If I find the photo I will post it. They are harmless animals and also have a right to live. All animals have a reason to be on this earth and if man stops interfering with nature, we will have a better world to live in.

[RIP]

Absolute nonsense that brown hyenas are in any way dangerous to people, anybody who even calls him or herself an Oranjemunder should know that.  Like with any animal, if cornered it could potentially pose a threat, but as a scavenger it is a shy animal who avoids human contact, hence around here it is considered a privilege to catch a glimpse of it.  It is a species that is actually on the red data list and should be fairly high on our agenda to protect and conserve.  Thanks for the info Bertie.

[Bob Molloy]

Thanks to Bertie for the references. They provided some very useful quotes as follows:
from the website of the Predator Conservation Trust:
"Although Brown Hyena are no longer listed on CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species), they are a protected species in Namibia and not trophy hunted, although they are shot when they come in to conflict with people."
And the following from the Brown Hyena Research Project based at Luderitz:
"Brown hyenas foraged opportunistically by scavenging, killing and catching seal pups in proportion to their occurrence at the colony, and hence caused an additional impact on seal pup mortality by not only choosing the doomed surplus. Brown hyenas preferred to consume larger and heavier prey"
"They cover vast areas and it is not uncommon for them to travel as far as 40 km in a single night. They eat nearly everything they can find, from fruit and insects to mammals.  They have very powerful jaws and large strong teeth for crunching through bone." 
"No other large predators occur in our coastal study areas and therefore brown hyenas are the apex predators."

So, from the above I deduce that we have a bone-crunching predator with a penchant for killing seal pups up to the size of a large dog, that can travel up to 40km a night in search of food and is now so desperate it appears in Oranjemund in daylight.
I rang Dr Wiesel but she wasn't available. I will try again though I very much doubt she would willingly mix hyenas and children as a few committed hyena huggers seem happy to do. Can we have some sensible input from mothers of children here?
Meantime, I repeat, get that animal the hell out of the township by whatever means at hand

[Bertie Horak]

Thanks RIP, nice to hear from somebody in the know.
I spoke to Dr Wiesel yesterday, and I'm happy to say she also agrees that if left alone, they offer no threat.  If I'm a hyena-hugger, so be it... I'll wear that label with pride....
As far as I'm concerned, I made my point and will stick to science rather than speculation. Over and out (probably).

[Carl Zeelie]

Hi Bertie....this is not a for or against vote.....you know we got bored on shift sometimes and then you play silly buggers......one of the mining guys chased a strandwolf once through the desert in his landrover....after a while the thing got upset, turned and attacked the landrover...bit holes right through the aliminium mudguard and attacked the tyre then....needless to say the guy turned to the offices in big haste to tell of his adventure...white as a sheet!

[Bertie Horak]

Serves him right, Carl! 

[SandyB]

Hyena huggers ??   I recall  as a  youngster  hyenas  jakkals  and Gemsbuck would come into  town at night  , the town was in  its infancy , what has happened over the years  is they all have got used to  the town and the people and are in essence not  shy anymore , not desperate ,  if there were never attacks  in the town over the years  at night , then if left alone  and not bothered  will not  turn on one and  defend itself  and  chew tyres etc ..  my  2 $ worth ..

[Cherry (Alcock)]

I have had a few experiences with the strandwolf; when Richard ? (can't remember his surname), was doing his documentary on the strandwolf in Luderitz, he invited Roger and I to come up and see his work with one (bred in captivity) that he had brought in from Onderstepoort to film certain sequences.  We arrived and his assistant Kim formed a trail of dead chicks to entice her out of her shelter.  She started off munching the chicks until she saw my son Rafe who was about 4 at the time and she suddenly took off and leaped at him before anyone could move.  She knocked him flat on his back and proceeded to lick him from head to toe!  It was astounding and I recall Richard saying that he'd never seen anything like it.  He did say though that they can be very dangerous particularly when cornered in an unfamiliar setting such as a town.  He also said that being naturally shy, they would normally run away before attacking unless they were starving, injured or rabid.

Ar Meob we saw them often in and around the camp but the only thing I recall them dragging off to eat was someones flip fops; otherwise they were after baby seals.

And then of course, there was the time we accidentally left Rafe on a salt pan for a minute with him trying to call the strandwolf like a cat!  Don't ask people .... it's a long story!  Suffice to say we grabbed him before he got to the "big kitty"!

So, on the one hand I agree with Bob that they should not be encouraged to hang about town - they can be a danger - I would hate to see drastic action like killing them as a solution.  We have already decimated so many species; let's not add any more to our human shame list!

[Skinny]

  Bob Malloy, maybe we should throw some poison out the window at you! The strandwolfe were there long before you came and left Oranjemund. They do no harm and are an important part of the dessert, they leave us alone and don't have the ability to reason like a human being but do a extremely good job at what they are meant to do, clean up carcasses, hunt for prey, and lead solitary lives. LEAVE THEM ALONE! MAybe we should start eradicating human beings that only do or want to do harm? I can think of who would be first on my list..

[Bob Molloy]

I spoke to Dr Wiesel yesterday. We had a fruitful and very pleasant conversation. She told me she'd had several sightings of this hyena reported to her since last October, all of them in or around Oranjemund.

She felt its behaviour was unusual, certainly its appearance in the residential area during daylight hours was cause for some concern. She warned that a hyena would normally avoid people but if cornered or threatened would attack and added that possibly it might have to be darted and removed.

On that basis my view bears repeating: the brown hyena in this part of Namibia is an apex predator. In other words it is the top killing machine in the Sperrgebiet and should be regarded as such. If that point is adequately publicised around town, particularly to families of small children, it should be sufficient to alert most people to a potential danger that can be avoided.

Prior to the opening of the town, early 70s I think, it was fenced off and closely gated at night. No wild animals entered though at one stage a jackal was spotted. Security put it down to a more enterprising animal that had snuck in during daylight.

Skinny's ad hominem attack adds more heat than light to this discussion. It says much more about Skinny than it does about his target. Perhaps he should take more water with it.

[Michael Alexander]

When I saw the beast towards the end of last year, it was walking down the road between the cricket club and the mule derby at about 07h30...... when all the people started to point it out and watch from a distance (120m), the animal started to run away, across the hockey (old Soccer ) field and out past the MOTHS......

[Skinny]

"Skinny's ad hominem attack adds more heat than light to this discussion. It says much more about Skinny than it does about his target. Perhaps he should take more water with it."
Me thinks that the gentleman doth protest to much.
A) skinny is a woman me, B) you cannot just descriminate against an animal that has been on this earth alot longer than any human, C) Bob you know sod all about me and apart from your very barbed comments against Jews and the Holocaust etc it seems to me that you would like to exterminate any thing and every thing you do not agree with, I am a proud Jewess and an animal lover of all creatues great and small. The attack on you is playing the ball and not the man, however you don't seem to see it that way.
I have seen strandwolfe in town, on the beach, on the road to Daberas on many occasions, seen them in Luderitz and Bogenvelles, and there has not been one accasion that they have even looked like attacking anything or any human being. Have respect for them, leave them alone and they will leave you alone. At least here we didn't indiscriminatly go and hunt local inhabitents like they did in Australia! Or take children away from their parents and give them to families to use and abuse, like in Australia (the movie The Rabbit Fence comes to mind) so protest I do most strongly. There is nothing stopping you going and poisoning a few koala bears or wallabies etc. I am sure the Australians would love you to poison the bears, after all they are shy,climb trees, eat leaves and there have been some documented attackes on humans when cornered! Unlike the strandwolfe where there is not one documented attack. So Bob, I do enjoy a little water with my whiskey and the topic deserves all the debate that it can muster after all if it wasn't for alot of people there would be alot more animals extinct out there.

[Skinny]

Ok my Geography is still not up to scratch, my apologies, I mixed up Australia and New Zealand so amend my latest "attack" to poison a few kiwi birds, and shoot a few Moaries, after all one for all and all for one. Please note I DO NOT condone that any anaimal gets poisoned, killed or exterminated (Dodo bird comes to mind) or shoot or kill any human being, just trying to make a point. Every one is entitled to one and after all what is the forum without a few good bites every now and again. My sincere apologies to all the geography pundits out there.