In a rare sighting captured in video, an aardvark trying to escape a hungry hyena giving chase pulled off an incredible disappearing act that would make illusionist David Copperfield proud.
The sighting of a nocturnal aardvark during daylight hours is rare enough, as is seeing a brown hyena, but to see this predator hunt its prey and then get bamboozled by it is “extra spectacular,” as LatestSightings.com reported.
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Etienne of the Greater Mabula Private Game Reserve in South Africa shot the extraordinary video with his tour group while sidetracked from a scheduled champagne breakfast under a 100-year-old Wild Fig Tree. He had been called to the scene by another safari guide.
“It was already a magical sighting to witness a relaxed aardvark bumbling about the plain in the daytime,” Etienne told LatestSightings.com. “As we were admiring the aardvark, our guide—Andrew—noticed a brown hyena approaching the plains. To have a sighting of just witnessing these two incredibly rare and usually nocturnal animals during the day was an unforgettable moment.
“We had never imagined that the sighting would get even more unbelievable with the interaction of the brown hyena trying to hunt the aardvark. At first, we thought that the brown hyena had spotted something else that it had begun to chase—perhaps an antelope or smaller animal like a scrub hare that we couldn’t see—it was only once the aardvark began running that we realized that the brown hyena was actually targeting the aardvark…We had never imagined that an aardvark was able to run so quickly.”
But the hyena caught up, and just as it was about to go in for the kill—poof!—the aardvark disappeared. At first glance, you wonder, where did the aardvark go? On second glance, with the help a of slow-motion replay, you realize the aardvark had reached the hole of its burrow, and as the hyena flipped it, the aardvark managed to make its great escape to safety, leaving a bewildered and frustrated hyena.
Etienne called it “a moment of absolute awe.”
“As if things could not get worse for the brown hyena, it was then chased by the herd of wildebeest that was watching it nearby,” Etienne said. “The sighting ended with the brown hyena dashing its way off of the plains, most likely in search of another meal.”
Photos courtesy of LatestSightings.com.
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