Arafa

Arafa in Harar must be the hyenas’ favourite time of year. From the great number of sheep that are sacrificed and eaten, come so many skins and bits of entrails that the hyenas can’t consume all of it and much still lies on the streets nearly a week after the celebration. And just to compound things, this year a camel died near the Erer hyenas’ feeding place and the hyena man procured it for the clan. So in one night the hyenas consumed an entire camel as well as several cow’s heads and some sheep and goat remains. They gorged themselves silly and are now visibly fatter and noticeably more placid.

It was also interesting to watch one hyena that was trying to eat the camel’s head. It really seemed to be scared of the head and would tentatively move in, quickly nip at the head and then dash off with its tail between its legs. After doing this several times, it must have been satisfied that the head wouldn’t bite back so it picked it up and ran off with it. You get a pretty good idea of just how strong hyenas are, when you see one running at speed with a camel’s head held high in its mouth. I didn’t have the means to weigh it but it must have been 10kg to 15kg.