Crocuta crocuta
Drawn from open occurrence records inside Etosha National Park, aggregated onto a 10 km grid.
Occurrence records measure where people looked and found something, which is not the same as where the animal is. This is a relative likelihood, not a probability.
Records exist for January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November and December. A quiet month can mean the animal was absent, or that nobody was looking.
Forget the folklore. The spotted hyena is one of Africa's most capable predators and its most complicated society: clans of up to 80, ruled entirely by females, who are larger and more aggressive than the males and inherit rank like aristocracy. Perhaps 30,000 to 45,000 remain across Africa. They kill most of what they eat, running down wildebeest and gemsbok in relay over kilometers, and then process the entire animal with bone-cracking jaws that measure among the strongest of any land mammal. The whoop, that rising oo-OOP carrying through the dark, is a clan keeping track of itself. Watch one lope past your vehicle at dusk and the cringing scavenger of cartoons dissolves for good.
Matriarchal clans with dens as social hubs. Greetings, rank ceremonies and the famous giggle, which signals excitement or submission rather than humor.
Den sites at dawn are gold: cubs are curious and the light is soft. Meter for the eyes; that flat dark face swallows exposure.
Keep well back from dens. Disturbed clans move cubs to poorer sites, and small cubs pay for it.