Darting!

What do all of these names have in common?

Rigor, Gelato, Alfredo, Kalamazoo, Legolas, Mork, Tope, Siren, Centaur, Djibouti, Loki, Iwo Jima, Koko, Samburu, and Acorn.

These are all of the spotted hyenas that I’ve darted in my past 12 days here on the other side of the Masai Mara Game Reserve in Kenya. The MSU hyena project, of which I am a Research Assistant for, darts hyenas to gain more information about the demography, health, morphology, and genetics of the free living hyenas that we follow.


To dart a hyena, you drive around the park looking for one that is by themselves, away from standing water, and most importantly lions (some of you may know this, but lions will kill spotted hyenas on sight, just to reduce competition for prey in the ecosystem). You then position yourself to have the best possible shot, free from grass and other things to get in the way, wait for the hyena to look the other way, and pull the trigger.

The drug that we use when darting our hyenas is Telazol. This drug causes them to fall asleep and actually has an amnesic quality to help them forget us and dissipate any grudges that are formed by our vehicles or people in general. Once they are asleep, we measure many parts of their bodies from the size of their feet to the amount of wear on their teeth, and we even take multiple blood samples (which are then processed in the middle of the bush under a tarp; some sterile environment we’ve got?).

From these data, we can gain amazing insight into the populations that we follow. This includes what the paternity is for every cub (how that is, or is not, affected by male dominance/rank), the pervasiveness of rank relations within the clan on body size and condition, understanding into how they are able to be resistant to such hazardous pathogens such as anthrax, and the evolution and development of their skull and bone crushing capabilities.

Needless to say, it’s pretty helpful in our scientific research.


For me one of the most interesting things about darting is that we get to be up close and personal with the animals that we usually only watch at a distance. It creates a completely different connection to our study species.

Pretty neat huh?