90 ANIMAL LIFE IN AFRICA 



hyaena has been kept and tested, can his capabilities in 

 this direction be properly realized. The largest bones 

 are quickly broken up ; small ones are simply chewed 

 and bolted like so much bread. Meat is eaten without 

 regard to whether it is fresh or in the last stage of decay, 

 and every portion of a carcass, including the intestines, 

 is consumed. Hyaenas will eat the flesh of any mammal 

 or bird except that of one of their own kind. It is 

 possible that cases of cannibalism occur, but I never 

 came across one, nor remember a hyaena coming to a 

 trap baited with the remains of another. His lack of 

 speed and his natural tendencies prevent him from 

 being a game killer in the same sense as the hunting 

 dog or the leopard, but he has been known to attack 

 cattle and donkeys, while infirm and crippled wild 

 animals and the unprotected young of all species fall 

 ready victims. A fox terrier was seized and carried 

 off from my camp one night by a hyaena. 



It seems highly probable that not even the young of the 

 fiercest and largest beasts of prey altogether escape the un- 

 desirable attentions of the prowling hyaena. Very young 

 lion and leopard cubs are often left alone for many hours 

 during the night while their mothers are away seeking 

 their prey, and I am personally of the opinion that at such 

 times a considerable number fall victims to this wily 

 robber. A friend of mine once shot a hyaena, which 

 proved to contain in its stomach the claws and part 

 of the skin of a very young leopard, and there seems 

 little reason to doubt the assertions of many old natives 

 who declare that lion cubs, too, sometimes meet the 

 same fate. A serval, caught in a trap, was found to have 

 been eaten out of it by a hyaena, just as a captive mouse 

 is sometimes treated by a cat. More remarkable still 

 was an incident which occurred in June 1908, when 



