“The hunter-scavenger was seen 500km north of its known range – scientists are trying to figure out what it was doing there.
“A spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) has been recorded in south-eastern Egypt, marking the first documented sighting of the species in the region for thousands of years.
“The discovery is remarkable because it occurred around 500km north of the hyena’s known range in neighbouring Sudan.
“The lone hyena was tracked and killed in late February 2024, roughly 30km from the Sudanese border, after it had predated two goats belonging to local herders in Wadi Yahmib in the Elba Protected Area, according to a new study published in the journal Mammalia.
“My first reaction was disbelief until I checked the photos and videos of the remains,” says the study’s lead author Dr. Adbullah Nagy from Al-Azhar University in Egypt. “Seeing the evidence, I was completely taken aback. It was beyond anything we had expected to find in Egypt.”
