Red carpet for spotted hyenas

Last night at the hyena feeding was pretty amazing. There were five hyenas and forty-five people, including a busload of dutch tourists heavily armed with cameras and camcorders. The constant camera flashes and the crowd of people prompted one local to comment to me, 'Paparazzi'. And that's exactly what it was like. But the hyenas took it all in their stride and were in amongst the crowd, taking their strips of meat from the hyena man.
This is confusing, because the following night there were only 5 people at the shrine, yet the hyenas were skittish as anything and Bebe was the only one brave enough to feed. I can't quite work out the reason but i think it has something to do with the hyena man changing the seat that he usually sits on, and possibly the changes being made to the drive as part of the new roadworks. It's hard to determine what they see as threatening, though.