Feeding the Hyenas

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Kovas writing…
No, I didn’t feed a sibling to the hyenas at the city of Harar, but I did hand feed the wild hyenas meat. It was crazy!
There is actually a man whose job it is to feed hyenas in the walled city of Harar in eastern Ethiopia. Every night he goes to a certain place and shouts a continuous call to attract the hyenas. He throws meat to them. Courageously, he also hangs the strips of meat on a stick and lets the wild hyena come very close to him gobble up the meat.
Because we heard from friends and guide books that the activity of feeding hyenas was a cool experience that was an option in Harar, we went to the Hyena Man’s location. After much negotiation over payment, it was decided that the family would watch while I got to feed the hyenas.
Bewildered, I watched the Hyena Man lay out a mat and place the basket of meat on it along with several sticks. A 3 wheeled tuk-tuk, was brought to shine its headlights at the feeding. We kneeled on the mat, and the Ethiopian started to shout his call. He gave me a stick and told me to hold it with my left hand. He put a strip of meat on it and moved his hand away. A large hyena came right up to me and snatched it from my hand. Then, the Hyena Man told me to hold the stick in my mouth. He put on a stick of meat and reached for more meat to throw to the other hyenas that were around. The dominant hyena was the biggest and ate all the meat that I offered. When this hyena was right in my face I was happy it was eating meat and not me. I did this between five and ten times, and then, it was over.
I was happy for the experience and fascinated with the large and broad body of these timid, ferocious beasts. Feeding goats at a petting zoo will never be the same.

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