In an ancient walled city in eastern Ethiopia, hyenas are fed in return for cleaning up the streets and keeping spirits at bay. Tourists gather to watch and feed the hyenas, experiencing a unique interaction with these fascinating creatures.
In an ancient walled city in eastern Ethiopia , the animals are fed in return for cleaning up the streets and keeping spirits at bay
“No problem, don’t worry,” Abbas says, encouraging a tourist to place the meat-tipped stick in his mouth. “Be like a lion.”The hyenas pounce on the meat left out for them. Their teeth and jaws are specially adapted for crushing bones While brown and striped hyenas are classed as “near-threatened”, spotted hyenas are not but their numbers are in decline. As human-wildlife conflict increases and habitats shrink, the question of how communities can live in coexistence with large predators becomes increasingly pressing.
Unfortunately his efforts were in vain. “She was so special to me. I felt like I had lost a family member,” says Abbas. Adil Abubaker, who sells traditional woven baskets in his shop, says their power to keep djinn at bay “is the main reason we need hyenas in the town”. “When you observe them, it seems like they are operating in a different world, that they can see things humans can’t see,” says Baynes-Rock, who spent more than a year in Harar studying the relationship between its people and hyenas. “It is easy to extrapolate from that if you live in a world brimming with spirits.”The relationship was not always peaceful. Centuries ago, there was a famine in the region and hungry hyenas preyed on the infirm and sick, according to legend.
Ethiopia Ancient City Hyenas Street Cleaning Tourism
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