#hyaeninae

Striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena)

‘I wanted to depict the darker reality of the well-known wildebeest migration,’ says Simon. Returning after a stampede at first light he saw this pack of spotted hyenas gorging on the lifeless trampled bodies of those that didn’t survive. As one hyena momentarily broke from the feast, it gazed across in Simon’s direction. In the surge to cross the Mara River the blue wildebeest struggle to climb the deep gullies they carve – many slip and perish under the hooves of those behind them. Spotted hyenas, with jaws powerful enough to crunch bones, will devour everything except the horns of their prey.