Hyena or not?
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Is this a striped hyena? Or is it too fluffy? I thought it was too fluffy and sloping to be a warthog. But striped hyenas are rare and not see much in daylight. The other fluffy one is a waterbuck, but this looks too small and the wrong shape.
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davidbygott
moderator
Definitely a spotted hyena - scruffy more than fluffy. The apparent stripes are shadows of tree branches overhead. I tried to find you a comparable striped hyena on this site, but after going thru 15 pages of wildebeest, aardwolves, spotted hyenas, jackals and servals which people had tagged as striped h., I can tell you that google images is an easier way to get an idea of what they look like! 😃
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Thank you for helping me. I got the shape right at least. I have not seen any striped hyenas so far (but I have seen all the other animals you listed above) so I guess they are quite rare in the Serengetti.
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davidbygott
moderator
in response to Babyballerina's comment.
Yes, striped are rarer than spotted and we have very few genuine sightings in the archive. They are a bit like an aardwolf but bigger, hairier and stripier - quite handsome beasts.
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Jinx
I have a couple of striped hyena captures in my favorites. I don't know how to embed the images but click on the links below to see them. They are amazing looking animals. Too bad we don't see them more often.
https://talk.snapshotserengeti.org/#/subjects/ASG001782g
https://talk.snapshotserengeti.org/#/subjects/ASG0017qfi
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davidbygott
moderator
in response to Jinx's comment.
They are nice pics, and the comments indicate how unusual the sightings are. I lived in the study area for 4 years and might have seen them 5 times or less, but saw or heard spotted hyenas every day.
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Wow, great pictures. Thank you.
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