Revenge of the Hyena
We are currently in the grasslands of Velavadar National Park filming for Wild India. We have been getting good shots of the blackbucks lekking and an amazing array of other animals. From wolves, hyenas, jackals, jungle cats to nilgais. We have been waiting at a hyena den the last few days but have not managed to see it at all. Yesterday, while driving around, I saw one hyena in a new area in the grasslands. Allah Rakha (our amazing guide) and I decided to investigate and searched around the area in the evening. We came across a den in the middle of the grasslands. We were not really sure if this was an active one or even if it was the den of a hyena. To find out, I decided to deploy a Trailmaster Camera-trap along with my old DSLR. Since its just flat area, I did not have anything to tie the transmitter and receiver to, so in these cases, I just keep them on the ground, align them and set it up. I set it up about 8 m away from the den, not to disturb the animal if it was using it, but would get it if it decided to venture out away from the den. Setting up the trap takes some time and I was struggling to align the beam and also setting up the camera and flash. We heard something move and as both of us looked behind, the hyena came out of the den (we didnt realise it was in the den all along) and was watching us with big ears pointing towards us, wondering what we were upto. I have never seen one so close and all of us got startled. It decided to jump out of the den and walk away slowly. I did not have my big lens, else I would have got an amazing photograph. We decided to set it up anyway and left the place. This morning, I went back to pick up the camera-trap and was shocked to find my receiver was not there. I looked at the photos and voila, the hyena did come and somehow took an active interest in the receiver. It snifffed it a couple of times and decided to play with it and chew on it.
Hyena chewing the receiver
Some more playing around with the receiver
Hyena taking away the receiver
only YOU would apologize for the “poor quality” of the shots on such an occasion! These are (like the elephant ones) unique shots. I never knew you had a hyena assistant….!
awesome backstory! here’s to more such interesting ones 🙂
Nice stuff..
Can help you get a transmitter. I have some people coming back from US end of April. Let me know.
Awesome stuff!!! Here’s to getting a replacement transmitter!!!
Wow ! That’s quite a revenge. And I agree with Deepa here. 🙂
Awesome footage!!! good luck through the story…. and see you soon.
niceeeee kalyan……thanks for the background story as well…
I dont care much for the quality in this case, but the footage is fantastic dude!! Great going there, good luck!
I guess you may have gotten away with placing the equipment there if the hyena had not seen you doing it! This is such a wonderful glimpse into the animal’s curiosity. Thanks for sharing!
Nice one..good story & picture
The story was good n u really lucky to work with wildlife such close.And really the pics r good for people like us v got to c this bec of u.Even i got the doubt when the alignment was no more there how did it click, thanks for writing n clearing the doubt.Great work.cheers bro!!
Kalyan, I can help but my sister will get here only in September. If you still require that please let me know the details
Hi Kalyan ,
This is perhaps what is truly called ” WILD INDIA ” !!!
Keep going and best of Luck .
I hope the hyena does not end up swallowing pieces of the receiver. Nice pictures.
Please be careful in the future about where you place the equipment 🙂
Nice work there. Your work is overwhelming. Congratulations and All the best wishes for what you are doing.
Wow! awesome post. You made it more interesting with those pics.
Dude!
You are one awesome photographer AND a storyteller !
Keep it up!
🙂
You on facebook by any chance?
Hi Kalyan,
Is there any way in which I can contact you? I had mailed you a couple of times in the past, but I think you couldn’t reply due to back to back trips. If I can’t contact you right now, when are you back to Bangalore?
Thanks,
Sudarshan
awesome story and gr8 pictures … and u r apologizing for the quality 🙂
nice work i want to ask you is there tiger hyena interaction in wild in india
No Better way to get introduced to Wild India. Very interesting story and the photographs as well 🙂
GRT shot and even greater story around it .
thats the one of the natural behaviour shots of wildanimals
Nice work done in wildlife photography and article.
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