

They really clean the environment by scavenging on the leftover food from the big cats or by feeding on the other dead animals. Hyenas are ecologically very important component of the ecosystem, as they are scavengers as well as opportunistic predators. Their tall forelimbs and short hind limbs with the thick neck give them a unique appearance. Therefore, there is a considerable slope along the dorsal line of the backbone from front to back. They are wolf-like in physique with lower hindquarters and high forequarters. Despite their phylogenetic relationships are close towards cats, their behavioural and morphological characteristics are more like canids than not. Spotted hyena, Brown hyena, Striped hyena, and Aardwolf are the four species of hyenas in the world. They are naturally distributed throughout the African continent and in some tropical parts of Asia. There are four different species of hyenas described under three genera. Hyenas are mammal of the Suborder: Hyaenidae of the Order: Carnivora. This article discusses the most important information about both hyenas and jackals and provides a comparison about the two animals in order to make it an account that is more sensible.

Although many people would have understood that there is only one hyena species and one jackal species, there are couple more species should be added to each animal for that to be a correct statement. However, these are two different types of animals with some interesting and considerable differences between them. The hyenas were far away by this time – his chance, however slim, was gone.Hyena and jackal are often confusingly understood animals due to the similarities in their ecological aspects. I knew he had to come down some time, so my camera remained trained on him, and of course, come down he did. Grasping at every flash of a photographic opportunity, I recorded him watching the hyenas take the kill that was perhaps rightfully his further and further away. The third hyena reappeared suddenly, forcing the leopard up another tree. Still, they picked up the carcass and moved to a spot further away, while we watched the empty belly of this desperately hungry leopard heaving with each breath. He moved ever so slowly and carefully, and though we could see him clear as day, the hyenas hadn’t a clue he was around. Once a certain calm prevailed, he slowly made his way down, and began creeping towards where the hyenas were devouring the carcass, their paws, chests and muzzles spattered with blood. In the meantime, the wild dog pack had disappeared but the leopard was still up the tree in front of us. The clan of hyenas prepare to feed on the deceased wild dog pup by Sanjana Manaktala The safety of the four remaining pups was paramount. The pack worried the hyenas for a few seconds, snapping at their haunches, but soon realizing there was no hope for the pup, they cut their losses and ran. With the pack focused on the leopard, hyenas had appeared within 20 seconds, sunk their teeth into the injured pup, killed it and begun to make off with it. My heart was in my mouth and I almost didn’t know where to look, till a sudden high-pitched scream filled the air and someone yelled “Hyenas!” My camera moved almost before my eyes, and my finger was pressed down hard on the button, trying to capture digitally events that were moving too fast perhaps for my memory. He writhed and wriggled somehow out of their grasp and bounded up a tree out of reach within seconds. They got him down on the ground, as I watched in horror, trying through the tears that filled my eyes to bring my camera around to capture the tangle of bodies. It was an attack born of desperation and was not to go unavenged – the entire pack turned and pounced on the leopard, refusing to let him finish the job. Wild dogs chase the Maxabene 3:2 Young Male Leopard towards a tree by Sanjana Manaktala
