After several reports of snared hyenas on a game reserve on the southern border of the Kruger National Park in South Africa, the veterinary team from Wildscapes headed out to bait and call up (click here to see what that looks like) to hopefully attract the snared hyena to a central location, so that the vets could immobilize them and remove the snares. After 2 consecutive nights at opposite ends of the reserve of unsuccessful call ups, the team received another report of another hyena with a snare, and this time the animal also had a GPS tracking collar. This would make it a lot easier for them to locate it - one would think... Unfortunately, by the time the team headed out, the hyena had moved into the Kruger Park for the first time in weeks... This made it impossible for them to reach her. 

Instead, they attempted another call up for the previously sighted hyenas with snares. As that proved unsuccessful again and after losing the bait to some opportunistic lions, the team decided to go home. Before leaving, they checked the GPS data one last time and found that the collared hyena had just walked into the reserve again. After tracking her down, the vets finally managed to dart her. Because the bait had been lost to lions, the hyena ran far anyway but they were able track her down using the VHF collar. This shows the importance of collaring some of these animals! Once they got to her, the wire had luckily not yet cut into the skin and she recovered nicely after anaesthetic reversal.

This rollercoaster of a multi-day operation shows how tricky it can be to relocated snared animals after they have been found. Especially with species like hyena that move long distances, it can be particularly tricky to identify home ranges and pinpoint locations where they are most likely to spend their time. This is why we support game reserves with GPS collaring of species like hyena, to help identify movement patterns and habitat use. Read more about this frontier project here.

You can support tracking research by donating here.