Tracking the movement of spotted hyenas

WINDHOEK :: NAMIBIA

SH2 is “the gold medalist of all hyenas,” says Lise Hanssen, director of Namibia’s Kwando Carnivore Project. In 2021, SH2’s satellite tag revealed he had traveled over 4,000 miles in nine months, criss-crossing Namibia. His journey, described in a paper co-authored by Hanssen and WWF’s Robin Naidoo in the scientific journal Ecology and Evolution, is one of the longest documented movements of any carnivore on Earth.

Male spotted hyenas typically join neighboring clans, yet SH2 likely spent months on his own unsuccessfully searching for mates, suggesting that the central part of the country has massive areas where spotted hyenas—threatened by snares and poison—may be absent. And other than a three-day visit to Etosha National Park, his entire journey occurred in unprotected lands.

“One of the biggest conservation challenges for spotted hyenas like SH2 is that there is very little data,” Hanssen says. Projects like this help experts understand how spotted hyenas move through Namibia and the Kavango–Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area. The hope is to identify and secure connected habitats where human-wildlife conflict can be reduced and animals like SH2 can find their mates.