While You Were Sleeping
July 2026
Brown Hyena Banquet
If evolution handed out awards for making the most of every meal, the brown hyena would be among the top contenders.
Returning readers of While You Were Sleeping may remember previous appearances from these shaggy scavengers. We have watched one scramble improbably high into a tree for a bait and another balance on its tippy toes, stretching every last centimetre to snatch a well-earned mouthful. If there is food involved, brown hyenas are nothing if not resourceful.
That ingenuity is exactly why AfriCat has been studying these remarkable carnivores since 2018. Shaggy, slope-backed and often dismissed as little more than a scavenger, this remarkable carnivore is, in reality, one of nature’s greatest recyclers. AfriCat’s Brown Hyena Research Project has been uncovering the hidden lives of these elusive animals, revealing a species that is intelligent, adaptable and perfectly equipped for a life where almost nothing goes to waste. Okonjima Nature Reserve is home to one of Namibia’s highest inland densities of brown hyena, offering researchers an exceptional opportunity to study a species more commonly associated with the country’s coastline.
Brown hyena are built for the job. Their oversized skulls house some of the most powerful jaws of any African carnivore, capable of crushing bones that many predators simply leave behind. Highly acidic stomachs dissolve everything from meat and skin to tendons and bone, extracting every possible nutrient from a meal. Their distinctive sloping backs are no accident either. Powerful forequarters allow them to carry surprisingly large carcass pieces across the landscape, often without leaving the obvious drag marks that betray a leopard’s hidden cache.
They may not whoop and cackle like their spotted cousins, but brown hyena have little need for theatrics. They let their noses do the talking, travelling vast distances each night in search of food before quietly disappearing back to communal dens.
This month, camera traps captured seven moments that prove there is far more to scavenging than simply turning up late for dinner.
Takeaway, the Brown Hyena Way
The Original Grab-and-Go Expert
If this impala leg looks surprisingly tidy, that is because brown hyena have perfected the art of portable dining.Equipped with one of the largest skulls of any hyena and immensely powerful jaws, brown hyena are remarkably efficient at dismembering carcasses. Rather than tearing indiscriminately, they often separate limbs at natural joints, creating surprisingly clean breaks before carrying manageable pieces away. Those same powerful neck muscles allow them to transport hefty portions with ease.
Unlike leopards, which usually drag an entire carcass to cover and leave an obvious trail for every scavenger to follow, brown hyena simply pick up their prize and leave. No drag marks. No disturbed vegetation. Just a remarkably tidy exit.
For an animal that survives by finding opportunities before someone else does, leaving almost no trace behind is one of the cleverest tricks in the scavenger’s handbook.
Excuse me…I Live Here Too
The World’s Most Awkward Neighbour
A brown hyena peers cautiously near its den while a porcupine strolls past with remarkable confidence, seemingly oblivious to the glowing eyes watching from the shadows. It might look like an unexpected encounter, but these neighbours are more familiar with each other than they appear. Porcupines frequently use and modify burrows, and communal brown hyena dens are often visited by a surprising variety of species. Rather than confronting every passer-by, den residents usually tolerate these brief encounters unless resources or cubs are at risk.
The hyena’s expression says it all. Whether puzzled, mildly offended, or simply wondering who forgot to knock, it seems this evening’s peace and quiet has officially been interrupted.
Scavenger Eats Scavenger
Plot Twist on the Menu
Brown hyena are famous for cleaning up after other carnivores, but occasionally the menu takes an unexpected turn.
Here, a brown hyena carries the carcass of a black-backed jackal, another member of Africa’s scavenging guild. Whether this was the result of active predation or an exceptionally fortunate discovery remains impossible to know from a single image. Adult jackals are rarely hunted by brown hyena, although jackal pups may occasionally fall victim near dens.
Whatever the story behind this meal, it serves as a reminder that nature rarely follows neat categories. Hunter, scavenger, competitor? Sometimes a single animal is all three before breakfast.
Carrion Has No Categories
Chef’s Recommendation Changes Daily
In these unusual images, a brown hyena carries what appears to be an African wild cat in one frame and a caracal in another. Much like the previous images of the jackal, it might seem surprising to see a brown hyena carrying fellow carnivores, but survival is rarely sentimental. Brown hyenas are supreme opportunists, taking advantage of any nutritious food they encounter. This process, known as ‘intraguild scavenging’, is an important but often overlooked part of ecosystem functioning. It ensures that even members of the carnivore community continue to contribute energy back into the food web.
Finders Keepers
Every Great Feast Needs a Secret Pantry
Some meals are simply too good to finish in one sitting. This brown hyena carefully carries an Impala carcass into a den, turning the underground chamber into a temporary pantry. Like leopard hoisting kills into trees, brown hyena sometimes cache particularly valuable food so they can return later. Their hiding places may not be quite as secure as a leopard’s aerial larder because the scent can still attract curious visitors, but every extra hour the bounty remains undiscovered is another meal secured.
Brown hyenas usually forage alone and prefer to feed in solitude, returning repeatedly to valuable food sources until they have extracted every possible nutrient. Unless there are hungry cubs waiting back at the den, this is likely a meal enjoyed one mouthful at a time. For a species built around opportunity, knowing how to find a meal is only half the skill. Knowing how to keep one is where the real survival strategy begins.
Head of the Table
A Delicacy Worth Waiting For
A zebra’s head is not everyone’s idea of a shared meal, and most predators would have walked away hours ago. But for these two brown hyena, it is cause for quiet celebration.
While a zebra head may look like little more than leftovers, it is packed with valuable nutrients hidden beneath layers of dense bone. Brown hyena possess some of the most powerful jaws of any African carnivore, allowing them to crush skulls, access nutrient-rich marrow and consume parts of a carcass that many other predators simply cannot.
The two individuals photographed here are likely related females, reunited over an impressive prize. The expression on one hyena almost resembles a grin, a subtle reminder that despite their quieter personalities, brown hyena remain close relatives of the famously expressive spotted hyena.
The Bone Nursery
Home Is Where the Bones Are
Every parent brings something home after work. This brown hyena mother just happens to bring remains that make this den look more like a prehistoric museum than a nursery. For these two brown hyena cubs, though, it is simply home.
The cubs wait patiently at the communal den where they will spend their first months of life. Brown hyenas may be solitary diners, but they are deeply committed parents. Brown hyena mothers travel remarkable distances each night in search of food before returning to nurse and provision for their young. Other clan members may also contribute food, making the den the social heart of the clan. To us, the scattered bones tell the story of countless meals already finished. To these cubs, they are simply proof that mum came home again.
The cameras may have captured bones, carcasses and curious feeding behaviours, but the real story was not about what brown hyenas eat but how they survive. Every image revealed a different part of their strategy: powerful anatomy for processing food, intelligence for securing it, and dedication to ensuring the next generation thrives. Brown hyena are the ultimate opportunists, not because they take what is left behind, but because they know exactly how to make the most of what the landscape provides. In the world of the brown hyena, nothing is wasted.
Join us next month for another glimpse into the hidden lives unfolding across Okonjima, while everyone else is asleep.
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