The Hunt for the Hyenas
By Anwaar Hussain
With Pakistan’s Supreme Court striking down the amnesty granted to the hyenas, the hunt for this carnivore in the Indus valley begins. Tracking skills and techniques have suddenly become very important to locate the animal, identify his spoor and follow his filth trail to his hiding place. This requires skill, knowledge and a sharp eye.
As the success of the hunting techniques depends greatly on the species hunted, species’ behavior, species’ temperament and the habitat type where the animal is hunted, it is time to understand the nature of the beast.
The Hyena is from a mammalian family of order Carnivora. The Hyena family, native to both African and Asian continents, consists of four living species i.e. the Striped Hyena, the Brown Hyena, the Spotted Hyena, and the Aardwolf.
Three of the four species of hyena are restricted to sub-Saharan Africa, where they live in drier environments such as savannah, bushland and desert. The fourth species, the Striped Hyena, is found in northern and eastern Africa as well as in Asia from the Middle East to India. It is the Striped Hyena that inhabits Pakistan and on it shall we focus.
Its earliest origins are a little murky but what is commonly agreed is that with the exit of the white man from the subcontinent, the hyenas here began learning to hunt for themselves. This evolution ultimately crystallized into the current species, the modern Striped Hyena of the Indo-Pak origin.
Unlike their forebears, or their counterparts in the rest of the world, the striped hyena of the sub-continental variety is marked by its penchant for easy kill and lethargy. It is thus that the striped hyena has a distinctly gorilla-like gait, due to their arms being longer than their legs. They have striped pelts and manes lining the top of their necks, and the almost non-existent spines, which erect when excited by the scent of an easy kill. These features are only visible to other striped hyenas for quick recognition of kith and kin in the cold heat of an easy kill.
Striped hyenas have powerful premolars for crushing bone. But what is more important is that they have strong carnassial teeth adapted for cutting through flesh, stacks of gold and thick wads of cash. They are known to have a strong bite proportional to their size. Over the centuries, they have so organized their teeth that the bone-crushing premolars do not interfere with the cash slicing carnassials to the rear enabling them for simultaneous actions. Striped hyenas, therefore, can crush bone without blunting their ability for easy kills of the other kind.
Although all living hyena species are hunters and scavengers, striped hyena societies are more complex than those of other carnivorous mammals in respect to group size, structure, hunting methods, competition, and cooperation. One indication of their primal intelligence is that they will move their killed prey far away from the scene of the hunt to protect it from other scavengers—the more off-shore the location, the better. Another indication is their strategic hunting methods and eerie sense of timing. They will be found in advance in places with even the remotest chances of an easy kill, primed and ready with their long arms outstretched fully.
The striped hyenas are primarily predators. Though they can hunt alone, they are especially lethal as pack hunters. It is thus that they are the most abundant carnivores in parliaments, assemblies, ministries and any other landscapes with the chance of an easy kill.
They are known to have extremely strong jaws in relation to their body size and have a very powerful digestive system with highly acidic fluids, making them capable of eating and digesting their entire prey, including skin, teeth, horns, bones, safe deposit boxes and metallic brief cases. The very little that is indigestible to them, is usually regurgitated. Because their digestive system deals very well with bacteria, they have no aversion to and readily eat rotting flesh. It is thus that many cultures, including those in the Indus Valley, have historically viewed the hyena negatively, associating them with gluttony, uncleanliness and cowardice.
Part of their bad reputation may stem from the hyena’s tendency to scavenge graves for food. They are one of the few creatures naturally suited for this, due to their ability to devour and digest every part of a carcass, including bone. It is for this reason alone that the grave digging Mullah Fazlullah of Swat fame could not outdo the hyenas. The word hyena is derived from the Greek hyaina, meaning “pig”, and has a long association with cruelty, treachery and greed. The haunting laughter-like calls of the Spotted Hyena, therefore, inspired the idea in many cultures that they call their victims by name.
Now that the Pakistanis, for the very first time in their gloomy history, are out on the hunt for the striped hyena, they need to watch out. The hyenas have taken a shot, are bleeding a little but are not down and out as yet.
There are many hyena hunting techniques to improve one’s chances of success of which some are more ethical than others. It needs to remembered that the hunting ethics of a hunter is reflected in his encountering the animal in a manner which would reflect a fair chase, and with as little suffering as possible, to the animal. In this particular hunt for the striped hyena of the Pakistani variety especially, ethics are as important as accurate shots. Otherwise, there will be no difference left between the hunter and the hunted.
Two facts favor the Pakistani hunters. One, the striped hyenas of Pakistani variety have a particularly foul smell discernable over large distances. And two, the hunted are not used to being hunted. This is the very first time and they are likely to spook. A few well aimed shots then can bring them down and Pakistan up.
Happy hunting Pakistan!
X–X–X–X
Acknowledgment : Wikipedia with thanks.
Very nice, Anwaar.
A great development, finally. Now lets hope the hunters do not become the hunted, as has been their fate in the past. Wild life can be unpredictable.
Moonis
December 19th, 2009 at 4:45 pmAnwaar
You are being very optimistic. One can already see defiance amongst Hyenas and unless the armed hunters move in fast, I see a bigger disaster.
Rahim Yousefzai
December 19th, 2009 at 5:12 pmAs a young boy I hunted in East Africa. Nobody went out hunting hyenas but just about everybody killed them because they were considered a nuisance. They had a well deserved reputation as cowards because they preferred to kill the young of other animals and refused to fight unless their numbers were overpowering or the target was powerless. As their numbers grow, so does their ferocity. They are highly vocal animals that yelp and howl to intimidate pray when closing in on the kill. Don’t be fooled by their slow and reckless behavior. We shot one in the hind leg and it outran us from a jeep at close to 45kph. A most difficult quarry.
December 19th, 2009 at 5:20 pmAnwaar, you have written so well that I am at loss with words to describe. Well-done. Thank you for writing. Keep at it please.
December 19th, 2009 at 5:42 pmDear Anwaar,
As always, you are precise, incisive, and not given to wasting words. The best part, of course, is that you are so truthful.
Keep up the great work you are doing, my friend.
SHAUKAT CHANDNA
December 19th, 2009 at 6:56 pm” …almost non-existent spines…
December 19th, 2009 at 9:33 pmExcellent piece, Sir Anwaar!
Possibly the financial spoor is the easiest to track. From humble merchant class to opulent Parliamentarian life-style in a mere few years?
As always the devil is in the details. It is the primary function of government to provide a peaceful environment in which the average man may both labor under the sun and in the evening enjoy the cool of darkness free of fear. When a pack leader is taken down his scurvy clan must also suffer incapacitation. The pack must suffer disorientation and be dispersed. Dynastic and powerful political family trees which are uprooted can leave an opportunistic environment for the next societal predator. Leadership, must be groomed and waiting in the wings, so to speak.
It is good to remember that the hunter with the dry eye is the best shot. There is little room for sentiment when facing off with societal predators such as the striped hyena.
Tammy Swofford
December 19th, 2009 at 10:45 pmI like how you leave space for the individual reader’s own interpretation. I certainly would call the Americans here the hyenas, although I can see how a resident of Pakistan could also consider them Pushtun tribalists of the so-called “terrorist” variety. The most efficient hunt (if the objective is reduction of hyena population) would send the assorted group and family smells all around, so that Pushtun and Americans could hunt each other, and leave Islamic and Western civilization of the higher orders alone.
December 20th, 2009 at 3:04 amAi Tengri talks of islamic and western civilization of the higher orders – but what of eastern civilizations?
WAR religions and EAR religions
WAR = West Asiatic Revelation-based
EAR = East Asiatic (Self-)Realization-based.
The WAR religions with their monotheistic totalitarianism and arrogance and war-making imperialism too have been a nuisance.
Hyenas follow after wars and do the scavenging. The leaders send the children of the poor to kill and die for them (this is called patriotism and honor!).
How does it smell in Switzerland with so many hyenas coming and going? The ingenious Swiss have developed special de-odorants and perfumes. The weapon manufactures have nothing to lose. All in the name of patriotism.
December 20th, 2009 at 3:38 amIn America leaders do not send the children of the poor to do their global bidding. We are not a conscripted military and the oath is taken in a free will status and without mental reservation.
Tammy Swofford
December 20th, 2009 at 4:21 amMy apology to G.Vishvas. My exclusion of the EAR (as it listens to the wisdom of enlightenment) merely was reflective of the fact that the mayhem in Central Asia is purely of Abrahamic distortions within a peculiarly Western variety of amoral geo-political maneuvering. Not to say that there isn’t a goodly share of the usual genocidal garbage in Southeast Asia and India, but not on a scale that can rival our new war theater in PakiPushtunistan.
December 20th, 2009 at 5:19 amAnd for Tammy Swofford, your comment is incredibly naive. We (in America) specialize in recruiting the poorest by offers (bribes) of exciting new training, etc especially in the most afflicted places. Usually, the extremely young, and poorly educated (their information is controlled by commercial propaganda, and their ability to think is compromised by a notoriously defective public school system) wind up “volunteering”, unbeknownst to themselves, to “die for their country”. That quoted phrase is the most common piece of patriotic bombast prose the veterans’ organizations manage to stick onto the memorial messages of the freshly killed for the various hometown newspapers.
December 20th, 2009 at 5:24 amai tengri
You stole my thunder. You, being American, can say with more authority what I thought.
This brainwashing indoctrination, in the U S, starts at the cradle with both religious and nationalistic patriotism drilled, daily, both subliminally and blatantly, into immature receptive minds. No need for compulsory recruitment.
It has been inculcated into the psyche. Not much different to Hitler’s Third Reich “Hitler Youth.”
Anwaar, as usual worth the long wait. Creative and destructive together.
December 20th, 2009 at 7:15 amThe trouble with Hyenas is that they are often overlooked for the more “photogenic carnivores”, but seem to be there still when the other carnivores have been killed off. I fear the hyenas will change their stripes and spots until all the other carnivores and hunters have been killed or left, thinking the mayhem over, only to return for the left overs, forgotten about by the last predators and hunters to have left their home range, and that without other carnivores and hunters in place to then fight them, they will be ever more dangerous.
I pray I’m wrong!
December 20th, 2009 at 7:50 amHello,
A very interesting article indeed. I enjoyed reading it. Your style reminds me of Art Buchwald. Then there is a tinge of the famous humor of Punch magazine.
Well done.
Moin
December 20th, 2009 at 8:43 amWOW! Not just your write-up which as usual is brilliant, precise and incisive but the debate has stirred up. A well placed apology by Ai Tengri to Vishvas followed up with an apt analysis of the not so great past, present and I dare say future of the South Asian inhabitants, for despite the show of progress the genocide in India continues. I have always felt that arrogance and patriotism have been totally sullied by religious and political self styled leaders no matter where they reside or what faith they profess. When the true spirit of “love thy neighbor” will dawn, if it ever dawns then the domino effect will engulf the whole world in the peace that our leader continue to mouth without trying to do so at terms that are alien to the target audience. Well done Anwaar…and this is an understatement.
December 20th, 2009 at 12:11 pmSorry that I forgot to mention that the Americans are no less than the striped Hyena specie. And they come in with the stars.
December 20th, 2009 at 12:13 pmI have great admiration for Anwaar Hussian for his writings on current issues in Pakistan as he has great skills in doing research and reveal what is unknown or least known to Pakistanis. I fully agree with him that With Pakistan’s Supreme Court striking down the amnesty granted to the hyenas, the hunt for this carnivore in the Indus valley begins. The hyenas are the political leaders and people in authority who have plundered Pakistan for many years. However, with due respect to Anwaar Hussain, I strongly feel, this is not the right time for a Supreme Court decision to hunt hyenas.
At this moment Pakistan is in the state of war against militants and terrorists who are blowing up worshippers in mosques, men, women and children in schools, market places, blowing up Pakistani soldiers and security people who are there to protect Pakistanis from attacks. This is a time to be united and fight the militants and terrorists to eliminate them from every inch of land in Pakistan. I strongly feel, once the threat from militants and terrorists are gone and life in Pakistan returns to normality, then the hyenas should be hunted and appropriate actions taken against them.
Thanks to Anwaar for bringing up the idea that there are many politicians and people in authority in Pakistan who are hyenas and they must be dealt with appropriately.
December 21st, 2009 at 4:48 amDear Scribe,
Despite your lucid elaboration upon this vile species, I would like to point out an aspect with a little difference of opinion. I figure that Striped hyena, the way it is known to us, is not an indigenous beast anymore; not a pure breed by any means. Over decades, it has mutated, evolved and bettered itself in the art of merciless hunting through a regular collaboration and ideological intercourse with aliens. Foreign soils, water ( or whatever they drink there ), climate, moral support and Dineros has improved its health, appetite for cash and general disdain for the plebs. What I fear is, that the scenario is far more dangerous than we perceive. Please tell me I’m wrong and being unnecessarily apprehensive.
December 22nd, 2009 at 12:38 pmAnwaar, An excellent simile. It reminds me of Ghalib thus:
‘Dekhna taqreer ki lazzat kay jo usnay kaha,
MaiN ne ye jana kay goya ye bhi meray dil maiN tha’
But I wish I were as optimistic. I doubt the hunters have enough or effective weaponry to eliminate these hyenas. Above all, these hunters rose to power as a result of fight between the two tribes of hyenas; hence they are, wittingly or otherwise, part of the same rotten power struggle.When one tribe is eliminated, whichever, the other will take over. The world moves on.
December 23rd, 2009 at 12:55 pmThank you all for commenting. Here is an excerpt from today’s editorial from ‘The News’;
Click here to read in full.
December 24th, 2009 at 5:21 amWell done my dear friend. This is really what the people of Pakistan wanted. Yet this needs patience as the hunted ones are very experienced in such games.
December 24th, 2009 at 1:44 pm