Notes From Kenya: MSU Hyena Research: South Clan Den: Beautiful and Secluded

Hello again from Serena camp! 

As you may have seen from our last two posts on North and Happy Zebra clan, we are updating everyone on the current den situations in each territory. Read on below for the news of South clan’s communal den! 

In our South territory, we were lucky enough to dart and
collar SNUG (the matriarch of South clan). It quickly became apparent that the
primary culprit behind South clan’s hard-to-find communal den was the distance
that it was located from any pre-determined tracks. Indeed, this communal den
was found only after about 1km of off-roading! Additionally, it is located next
to two intersecting luggas, which means that the land slopes down on all sides
to obscure the space from binocular scans on all fronts. That being said, the
space itself is quite beautiful, and we can regularly see Serena lodge balloons
flying overhead during observation sessions.

See
above for a collection of GPS points on SNUG’s collar. We circled the communal
den in green.

When we
first began spending time at this den, our team noticed a lack of activity here
in comparison to our North and Happy Zebra dens (which were teeming with plenty
of new cubs). However, after taking some time to warm up, we now have four new
cubs, and suspect that there are younger cubs still waiting to emerge. In fact,
we have noticed that one of our moms who regularly spends time laying in the
den hole (HONR), has had some small black cubs peeking out from behind her.
Unfortunately, we can’t assign these cubs official names yet until we see them
nursing from their mother.

Interestingly
enough, another unlikely set of residents in South clan’s den hole (other than
the hyenas of course) are the flourishing population of bats that frantically
exit whenever we arrive in the evening hours.

See
below for some of the exciting outcomes of our observations of South clan’s
communal dens over the past few months.

Above
you can see NORB (left) and JOSI (right). NORB is ISSA’s cub, and their full
name is Norbert. ISSA’s lineage is “Animals that Hagrid takes care of (Harry
Potter)”, so NORB is affectionately named after Hagrid’s pet dragon in Book 1 of
the series! JOSI’s full name is “JosiDog”, as their mother is KNIN and her
lineage is “brands of dogfood”.

Above
you can see FLGO (cub of SNUG) whose full name is Fulgoromorpha. SNUG’s lineage
is Hemipterans, which refers to an order of insects, and Fulgoromorpha is the
scientific name for a type of bug called planthoppers.

Here we
have Surprise, our fourth and final larger cub at South’s communal den.
Unfortunately, we don’t have an official name for Surprise yet as we have not
witnessed them nursing from their mother yet. Until that time, they will keep
their cub name, which we initially use to nickname cubs before their lineage is
identified.

THANK YOU FOR READING!

If you’re new to the blog, check out our last two posts which contain updates on North clan and Happy Zebra clan. 

Warmly,

Taylor and Brianna