Frenemies is a term used freely by the millennials and those familiar with urban slang. In the world of wildlife, we believe that lions and hyenas are the ultimate frenemies. So, just what is a frenemy? The Urban Dictionary provides us with a colloquial definition of the term, which is, “Someone who is both friend and enemy, a relationship that is both mutually beneficial or dependent while being competitive, fraught with risk and mistrust.”
A hyena cleans up the remnants of big cat kills and together with vultures they actually help prevent the spread of disease. They clean up a lion’s mess after they’ve devoured a bloody carcass. Despite being successful hunters in their own right, a hyena needs lion kills for easy access to food. And a lion needs hyenas to clean up after them. They’ll steal and compete, but the mutual need is there. Nadia Bester (a ranger from Umkumbe in the Sabi Sand) and her guests managed to observe the Mhangeni Pride and a clan of hyenas devouring the remnants of a buffalo kill. The entire vehicle of guests witnessed the frenemy relationship in action!
A couple of weeks ago, the Mhangeni Pride of lions were spotted on a kill, needless to say the hyenas were lurking in the shadows awaiting their take-out buffalo meal. The hyenas were actually only able to move in on the kill two days later. Clearly this pride was very protective over their hard-earned meal! But, being relentless scavengers, the hyenas never gave up on their quest for the carcass.
It’s always rewarding spotting the Mhangeni Pride. They have quite a easygoing history and are a burgeoning pride within the area. The pride was formed when sub-adult lionesses broke away from the Tsala Pride and never rejoined their original pride. They proved to have successful hunting techniques and when they reached sexual maturity, they mated with the Majingilane males. Oddly enough, these were the same males that originally tried to take them down! When the first litter of cubs were born they were stashed in the Mhangeni drainage system, hence the name of the pride.
Due to the abundance of big cats in the Sabi Sand, there is a heavy concentration of hyena in the area. These loping hybrid species are some of the most successful carnivores in the animal kingdom. They’re both ruthless hunters and prolific scavengers. The easy access to kills and carcasses lends them to scavenging on a regular basis.
Leopards stash their kills in trees for safekeeping and a hyena will normally circle the trunk of a tree in the hopes that a kill will fall. With lions, access to the kill is somewhat easier because it’s simply a case of charging in and snatching a meaty leg. Of course, it’s not easy to confront a pride of lions, so hyenas tend to wait in the wings until a window of opportunity presents itself. This could be days later, which is what happened in this sequence of events.
Yet another successful day of big cat sightings for Umkumbe Safari Lodge!
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