Tribes, Predators & Me

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Factual: Science & Nature: Nature & Environment

Gordon Buchanan learns the wildlife secrets of tribes living with dangerous animals.

Gordon Buchanan travels to three remote tribes to learn the wildlife secrets of people who live alongside the iconic and dangerous animals we fear the most.

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Gordon Buchanan

Patrick Evans

Ted Oakes

Tribes, Predators & Me: Series 2: Episode 3: Hyena People of Ethiopia

Hyena People of Ethiopia

Episode 3

Episode 3: Hyena People of Ethiopia

Series 2

BBC Two - Tribes, Predators & Me, Series 2, Hyena People of Ethiopia

Gordon Buchanan finds out how some tribes in Ethiopia can live so close to hyenas.

Gordon Buchanan journeys across Ethiopia to find out how the tribes here can live so close to hyenas, a fierce predator loathed and feared by many people.

Ethiopia has more hyenas than anywhere else in the world, and Gordon  Buchanan  wants to find out why. He starts in Addis Ababa. Local hyena expert Girum Henok takes Gordon to see hyenas at night, Girum tells Gordon that hyenas are tolerated here because people believe they ward off the devil. 

Gordon travels to the remote Omo Valley to meet a cattle-herding people called the Bodi. He meets Baradi, a spiritual leader, and Bibani, a mother. They are hyena experts, disliking them because their cattle are preyed upon by hyenas. Baradi takes Gordon to a hyena den. It seems the Bodi often destroy hyena dens, but mostly in retaliation for attacks on livestock. 

In the Omo Valley, wildlife has largely been replaced by cattle so hyenas have little choice but to raid livestock. Bibani asks Gordon to sleep outside overnight to ward off hyenas. Gordon learns from elders that there was a time when hyenas and the Bodi lived in peace. He also learns that contrary to popular belief, hyenas hunt more than they scavenge. Gordon visits a neighbouring Bodi village that has had a cow injured by a hyena. Baradi shows Gordon the trap they set to kill marauding hyenas. 

Baradi also shows Gordon another reason they rely on cattle. The Bodi are famous for their Ka'el ritual. The Bodi drink blood from the necks of their cows. This doesn't harm the cows, so it is more sustainable than slaughtering them for meat.

Gordon learns that the Bodi see hyenas as a cunning and respected enemy. He arrives in Harar, a medieval city with a reputation for having hundreds of hyenas. Gordon goes at night looking for hyenas in the graveyard.

Gordon meets hyena expert Yusef Saleh, who is rehabilitating an orphaned hyena and Yusef's son Abbas, who feeds wild hyenas to show tourists. Gordon meets the 'graveyard hyenas', and sees a young hyena cub. Gordon invites Baradi and his daughter Choma to meet Harar's hyenas. Unlike the people of Harar, these Bodi cattle-herders don't like hyenas, but they seem to soften towards them once they get close. If their cattle were protected, perhaps even the Bodi could forge a more peaceful relationship with hyenas.

Tribes, Predators & Me: Series 2

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Gordon Buchanan joins three tribes to see how they live close to fierce predators.

Gordon Buchanan joins three remarkable tribal families who live alongside fierce predators, giving him a new perspective on these misunderstood animals.

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Tribes, Predators & Me

Series 2

Episode 3: Hyena People of Ethiopia

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