The animals
Two species, hunted quite differently.
Spotted hyena are the common one on our Zimbabwe ground. They are not scavengers in the way the old books have it — they hunt in packs and kill a great deal of what they eat. Females are larger than males and dominate the clan, and both sexes are taken. A big one will go eighty kilograms and has a bite that crushes buffalo femur.
Brown hyena are the Kalahari and Limpopo animal: solitary, shaggy, far scarcer, and almost entirely nocturnal. They are protected in much of their range and quota is small. A brown hyena with a full winter cape is one of the genuinely rare trophies left in southern Africa.
Where we hunt them
Spotted hyena come off the same ground as our elephant and leopard hunting in Zimbabwe, usually as a second animal while a cat hunt is running. Brown hyena are a Limpopo animal and need to be arranged before you travel, because quota is allocated and limited.
How the hunt runs
Over bait, in the dark.
Hyena find bait faster than anything else in Africa — often the same night it goes up. That is the easy part. The difficulty is that they almost never feed in daylight, they come in silent, and they circle the blind for twenty minutes before committing.
Where night hunting under artificial light is legal and the concession permits it, that is how it is done: a blind, a red-filtered lamp, and a long sit. On leopard hunts the hyena usually presents itself while you are waiting for the cat, which is exactly when you must not move.
The other method, which takes longer and works less often, is a bait placed where a clan is already denning and hunted at first light before they move off.
Rifle and optics
The cat rifle is right — .30-06 through .375 with a premium expanding bullet. Shots are between twenty and sixty metres.
A bright, low-magnification scope is worth more than calibre, exactly as with leopard. If the hunt is run under lamp, practise mounting the rifle and finding the reticle in poor light before you sit; it is not the same as a daylight shot and the opportunity is often three or four seconds long.
Practicalities
Spotted hyena are on quota in Zimbabwe and not guaranteed. Brown hyena require a permit arranged in advance and we will tell you honestly whether one is available before you book.
Both skin well and make striking full mounts, but the hide needs to get to salt quickly — hyena spoil faster than any other animal we handle.
Import rules differ by country. Check your own position before booking. See our firearms and CITES notice.
