Snapshot Serengeti Talk

Interested in your input.

  • ahorner58 by ahorner58

    What might this be? Bat-ear fox?

    Posted

  • wilderzone by wilderzone moderator

    This one's got me stumped! Aardwolf ears are longer and pointier. From frame 1 it does look to have a black mask around the eyes, which would indicate Civet or Bat-eared fox, and the fur looks more like the fox. Quite likely to be the fox, but certainly a lot of ambiguity.

    Posted

  • kenya74 by kenya74

    I would have guessed aarwolf. Would have expected to see black edges on the ears of a bat-eared fox, that is how we used to spot them in the grass. Also fox ears are incredibly large relative to the head. In frame 1 there may be some black body striping visible. Also the neck is long like an aarwolf and the black mask is consistent with some aardwolves.

    Posted

  • dms246 by dms246 moderator

    I wonder.... might this... perhaps... just possibly... be a striped hyena? Aardwolves are mostly nocturnal, so rarely seen out during daylight...

    Posted

  • okopho by okopho

    Is it too big to be a Bat-eared Fox? My best guess would be an Aardwolf, or (mirabile dictu) a Striped Hyena.

    For comparison, here's the best Aardwolf capture I could find:

    aardwolf

    ASG000d9lj

    Unfortunately, there are no tagged captures of Striped Hyenas, so I can't show one of those.

    I have noticed in a few threads (e.g. the 5000 Club thread), that quite a few people have said (or implied) that they've classified a Striped Hyena. It would be very useful if some of those people could tag their examples (or provide links), so that rest of us could share in their good fortune.

    At the moment, when it comes to Striped Hyenas, it's tempting to say: pix, or it didn't happen 😉

    Posted

  • ahorner58 by ahorner58 in response to okopho's comment.

    I'm leaning toward striped hyena. I googled a picture and there was a strong resemblance. Having never seen one in person google was all I had to go on.

    Posted

  • okopho by okopho in response to ahorner58's comment.

    I hope you're right 😃

    Unfortunately, we can't see the feature that would most help to decide the matter: the stripes!

    Posted

  • computerji by computerji

    I went with striped hyena based on the ear shape and the fluffiness. These striped hyenas are more conventionally "pretty" than the spotted variety.

    Posted