MY SOMALI BOOK 35 



Camera Adventures in the African Wilds is a 

 fascinating and remarkable book, but its author's 

 remarks that the hyaena " probably never attacks any 

 wild creature unless it be wounded," and again, that 

 it " will almost starve rather than attack a living 

 creature," are based on insufficient knowledge of the 

 animal in question. 



It is certainly probable that the hysena is rarety 

 successful in an attack on any of the wary and agile 

 antelope tribe, not because he is afraid to attack a 

 gazelle, but because he can't catch it — lacking as he 

 does either the stalking abilities of the big cats or the 

 running powers of the hunting dog. But there can 

 be no doubt that he occasionally surprises young- 

 animals of various species ; and I once found the 

 remains of a fox which the signs clearly showed had 

 been ambushed and killed by a ivaraba. 



But with domestic animals, which it is not beyond 

 his power to seize, it is quite another matter. The 

 Somali's herd of goats and sheep are continually being 

 attacked by hyaenas in the daytime, and if the prey 

 is comparatively seldom carried away it is because 

 the hyaena's methods are clumsy and slow compared 

 with the leopard's, so that he is often driven off before 

 the robbery can be made good. The number of sheep 

 and goats killed by hyaenas, though not comparable 

 with the slaughter by leopards, is still far from in- 

 considerable. 



Nor do cattle escape ; the loaraba not infrequently 

 attacks and kills the small Somali cows, his method 

 usually being to tear out their udders in the most cruel 

 fashion. Similar and successful attacks even on straying 



