Hwange National Park at 5:30 am on September 20, 1999. Nine adult spotted hyenas followed a female and two baby elephants – one was about 5 years old, and the other was newborn.
The day before, my mother and I were still leisurely grazing among the elephants, but now the situation is not very good. Nine spotted hyenas surrounded the elephant mother and son and ran forward, trying to bite the baby elephant’s leg.
The mother elephant ran up to one of the spotted hyenas and tried to drive it away from her cub, but this action didn’t seem to scare the hyenas. The baby elephant is as close to its mother as possible, but it is still too young to know what to do with the ferocious hyenas, and does not know how to protect itself as well as protect its younger brother.
Five minutes later, a spotted hyena bit the newborn elephant’s tail and pulled it aside. The mother immediately chased away the spotted hyena and followed it into a bush nearly 10 meters away.
Apparently this was an inexperienced mother, and within seconds of her absence, the remaining spotted hyenas continued to attack the baby. One spotted hyena even bit off the trunk of the poor baby elephant.
The baby elephant also separated from its mother and ran for 20m, the mother elephant this time learned her lesson and ran in time.
9 spotted hyenas continue to hunt and kill newborn baby elephants. In less than 10 minutes, at 5:45, they had bitten off the calf’s thigh and started eating it! While the mother and baby elephants are still standing 20 meters away and they can’t do anything.
