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Hyenas seen sharing their dens with porcupines and warthogs

Camera traps at two dens in Kenya have captured evidence of porcupines and warthogs occupying dens at the same time as their predators, spotted hyenas

By Ryan Truscott

27 April 2023

Spotted hyenas have been seen with unlikely bedfellows

Marie Lemerle / Alamy Stock Photo

Porcupines and warthogs are often prey for spotted hyenas, but the three species have now been observed bedding down together in the same dens in northern Kenya.

Marc Dupuis-Désormeaux at York University in Toronto and his colleagues were monitoring spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) dens as part of a wider carnivore study in the Lewa wildlife conservancy when they stumbled upon evidence of den sharing between predator and prey, the first time such a phenomenon has been noted in Africa.

Camera trap footage …

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