A highly unusual and heart rending hyena incursion into a nearby Maasai village took place this week. It happened at the time of night when everyone was deeply asleep. The father of the family was on guard and asleep in the goat and sheep pen in the center of the village, a short distance from the houses of his two wives and their children.

The hyena entered the first house that didn’t have any kind of a door or closure. He grabbed and broke the neck of a two year old child that lay sleeping on the cow skin bed. Frightened by the mother’s screams upon having her foot grabbed by the intruder, the hyena ran out of the house and entered that of the second wife. That house also had nothing blocking the entrance. Once inside, the hyena killed a small child and was beginning to savage the woman of the house when the husband showed up. He killed the hyena with as single thrust of his spear.

By that time, two small children were dead and both of the man’s wives had been mauled. It was a horrendously sad day for all of us here at Olbalbal.

After having seen hyenas coming to drink at the tap in our front yard each of the last three evenings, we are being very careful. Usually our door is open till late at night and we sit on our front porch enjoying the cool evening breezes. The hyenas have been coming at about eleven o’clock each night and, at least for the the time being, we are inside and our door is shut well ahead of that hour