Hyenas Kill Two, Injure Six

Tram2/Creative Commons

Two children killed in hyena attack: 


"A pack of hyenas has attacked a family in Kenya, killing two children and injuring six others.


A 10-year-old boy mauled in the attack last week has been airlifted to a hospital in Nairobi for specialised treatment"


Kenya is home to three different species of hyena. The brown hyena has been implicated in only one attack on a human that I know of. The striped hyena is an occasional predator of human children. This case, however, looks like the work of the far more dangerous spotted hyena, a significant predator of humans. There have been other, similar cases of spotted hyenas attacking entire families and even refugee encampments to take several victims at once. Sometimes this species stages a prolonged attack, even in the face of armed opposition. The injured boy sustained serious facial damage. That, too, is a trademark of the spotted hyena, which sometimes uses its powerful jaws to remove face, limbs, or genitals and eat them, not necessarily as part of further predation. 


Related Posts: 
Cannibal Attack in Perspective (including choice quotes about facial injuries caused by spotted hyenas)
Hyenas Maul 17
What Eats People, Part 15: Spotted Hyenas
Spotted Hyena Attack

Thanks to Dee for the tip.