NOKI, TICKLE AND TOM

Dark thunder clouds were lining the horizon as Gerhard Prinsloo opened the farm gate. Massive electrical storms were visible throughout the night and he was hopeful that much needed rain would soon fall.  Suddenly Gerhard stopped; about 30m from him further up the road lay a dark shape next to the road. As he approached Gerhard’s heart stared racing; he immediately recognised the lifeless body. It was a brown hyena he had come to know well.   

For months he had observed her; arriving around the shed at dusk from where she stood a short distance away watching the activities around the shed and cattle kraals. Her presence did not bother Gerhard at all, he knew she was not a hunter and presented no danger to his cattle. After a couple of minutes she would disappear but her tracks became a welcome sight and Gerhard was happy to know that brown hyenas had appeared on his farm. He was only a child when he last saw a brown hyena when visiting the Skeleton Coast in Namibia with his parents. 

Gerhard felt an icy hand grip his heart as he turned over her lifeless body. Nothing could tell him why she had died, but for the past two weeks now, his cattle herder reported that he had seen the hyena the past week heavy with cubs and that it was only a matter of time before her cubs would be born. The lifeless carcass did not show any signs of her pregnancy but the swollen teats still dripping milk proved beyond doubt that somewhere there were little cubs. 

Gerhard’s plans for the day had changed. Within 30 minutes he had picked up Albert and Phinias and the three of them set off following the hyena tracks as best they could with the help of his Jack Russell terrier, Solly. Earlier Gerhard had hoped for rain, but now he prayed that it would hold back and not wipe out the faint tracks in the dust.   

For four hours the men searched in vain. Solly however remained enthusiastic; he enjoyed the bush outings and searching for lost calves had become a speciality of his. Phinias suddenly called out to the dog and pointed down an open termite mound. Solly crawled down the hole; suddenly something moved upfront. The Jack Russell immediately pulled back out of the hole and started barking. His excitement could hardly be contained when his master and the others guys started digging away with spades to open up the entrance wide enough for a man’s body. Albert went down on his knees and forced his body down the hole. Soon his legs and feet moved in an awkward way as he slithered backwards out of the hole. His sweaty face covered in dust grinning proudly as he held up a small scruffy teddy bear. He handed the first one to Gerhard and disappeared back into the hole; within seconds he crawled out backwards again with yet another; and then another. Three scruffy brown little teddy bears! 

Gerhard stroked them lovingly and could hardly keep back a tear of joy and sorrow. Sorrow because he knew their mother was no longer there to care for them, but a tear of joy for finding them and sparing them a death from predation and starvation. The young cubs were moved to a rehabilitation centre to be stabilized and from there they were moved to SanWild.   

Almost 24 months later Gerhard Prinsloo stood proudly next to the release camp when at dusk the gates were opened and he once again had the privileged of seeing the familiar slanted bodies of 3 fully grown brown hyenas disappear into the bush at the SanWild Wildlife Sanctuary. He knew that here they will be safe. Finally Noki, Tickle and Tom were old enough to be set free to follow the instinct of their wild mother. The trio have now been living at SanWild as wild brown hyenas for the last two years and are doing extremely well.