The discovery of ABC documentaries.

When I was a tot, I used to love watching the ABC, because it had all the cool documentaries. Yep, thats the kind of kid I was. Screw the saddle club, lets watch shows about animals and ancient history. When I grew up, I learnt the art of downloading, I stopped watching TV because it involved leaving my bedroom. When I moved out, I didn't have a TV to watch. So this summer, I decided to reconnect with myself, and spend a little time each day staring at that million dollar plasma set up my dad insisted on buying.

The other night, I went back to the good old days and watched a program called "Hyena Queen" set on the Mala Mala reserve in South africa, and let me tell you, it was about the most interesting thing I have done all year, so I thought I would do the only thing possible, and take a few wee notes. Yes. Im missing uni. So here is what I learned.

* Females dominate the Hyena clan. They have a queen and she decides what they do, what they eat and who they mate with.
*Hyenas only have one or two cubs at any one time, their litters are very small
*They must compete for food with lions, leopards and other much larger, and stronger creatures, and yet they have a very good system for doing so, which involves stealing food, ganging up on larger animals and living partially off scraps.
* It is possible for a queen to annoy and bully the rest of the clan so much, that they will banish her.
*They can be very accepting. In the film I saw, they accepted a human being as one of them, and let him inside their dens, and let him come on hunting trips with them. This is unusual as they are often perceived as vicious and unapproachable, the bane of many african animals existence.
* They hunt together, but do not necessarily share the food. It's everyone for themselves.

So these are just the cool bits, but seriously, if you get a chance to ever watch it, do. They are very intelligent and complicated animals. Kim Wolhuter manages to get a complete insight into their lives and it really made me appreciate all the living things that are fighting to survive everyday, because let me assure you, we are not the only ones.