Feeding Hyenas

One of the first things you read about when you go to visit Harar is the
30-odd year tradition of feeding the hyenas that dwell outside the walls
of the old city. On my first day in the city I was meeting with some
colleagues for dinner and drinks so was unable to go see the hyenas
myself, but we ran into a group of our trainees who were passing by the
restaurant we were at and who were on their way to one of the feeding
spots. Later that evening I met a tourist from the UK that told me about
the event a little more. Apparently there are two spots and guides will
coordinate the tourists depending on how many there are as well as, of
course, where the hyenas have congregated themselves that evening. The
cars and buses will form a circle and shine their headlights onto where
the hyenas are and a man will walk out among them with a basket of raw
meat (apparently, they like raw donkey meat), put down a blanket and sit
down with them. He then proceeds to throw strips of the meat to them,
and sometimes dangles it in their air for them to come and grab. They
also offer the tourists a chance to join the man and feed the hyenas
themselves. The tourist I spoke to from the UK said she'd done it
herself, holding a stick between her teeth with raw donkey meat dangling
on the other end so the hyenas could step up and grab it. This
apparently gives you a face-to-face meeting with a hyena and an
adrenaline rush like no other.
Although it sounds crazy, the next evening I hired a guide and we drove
out to the hyena feed ourselves. We pulled up and could see in the car's
headlights a pack of about 6 or 7 hyenas, their eyes glowing red
reflecting the bright lights. Some were lounging on the ground and
others were walking around, their short hind legs and long front legs
giving them the appearance of a cross between a wolf and a small bear.
The guide said we could get out of the car, and seeing that they did not
immediately maul him, I hesitantly got out as well. A few moments later,
a bus pulled up adding it's headlights to the night and about 30 French
tourists came out with their cameras in hand. People snapped pictures as
the man fed the hyenas, yelling their names, calling some kind of
instructions to them. At one point we heard the hyena's laugh, an eerie
yet exhilarating sound to hear such an animal produce.
Then my guide said to go ahead, join the man in the center and feed the
hyenas, and he would take my picture. Since I'd spoken to a tourist that
had done this the night before, and could see that the man seemed to
have trained the animals somehow, I handed over my camera and stepped
toward the wild beasts. As if in a dream, I sat down on the blanket next
to the man and he picked up a stick for me to hold, then put a strip of
meat at the end of it. As I held the stick, one of the animals stepped
forward and ate the meat off, chewing and happy as he stepped back to
the end of the line. The animals were keeping their distance and seemed
to be waiting instructions from the man. Next he told me to try and hold
the stick in my teeth, which by that point I'd seen in guide books and
the UK tourist's own camera shots. I looked over and the guide had my
camera at the ready, so I put the stick in my mouth and another hyena
came up and ate it off; the face-to-face, the adrenaline rush. Next, the
hyena man seemed to put his arm around me and I saw camera flashes go
off as a hyena ate the meat the man was holding in his hand. I felt the
hyena brush up against me and then step back. At that, I thanked the
hyena man, and in my heart thanked the hyenas for not eating me, and
excused myself from the spotlight.
Next, a middle-aged woman fed them. Then an older French man named
Michael with a white beard fed them, but his nerves got to him after the
first piece of meat and he exited early. Finally, the hyena man's 5 year
old daughter stepped out and held the basket as the hyenas gathered
around and reached their heads in to finish off the remaining scraps.
She was so small but unafraid; then joined by her father for a few more
pictures to end the night. Everyone who fed the hyenas paid 50 birr
(about $5) and I got back into the car with our guide and Dereje and
drove back into town to have a much needed and deserved drink or two.