The animal was spotted by locals in Wadi Yahmib, around 19 miles from the Egypt-Sudan border [Getty]
Scientists are in disbelief following the reported sighting of a spotted hyena in southeastern Egypt, which is said to be the first encounter of the animal in the country in around 5,000 years.
The hyena was seen by locals in Wadi Yahmib, around 19 miles from the Egypt-Sudan border, who then caught and killed the animal.
According to the Mammalia journal, which carries out inventory, analysis, and interpretation of mammalian diversity, the hyena was spotted in February 2024, but the report is now being investigated further.
Egyptian ecologist Abdullah Nagy, who works for the country’s prestigious Al-Azhar University, told reporters this week his “first reaction was disbelief until I checked the photos and videos of the remains”.
“I was completely taken aback. It was beyond anything we had expected to find in Egypt,” he continued.
The animal is native to sub-Saharan Africa and is known to be able to travel up to 17 miles a day.
According to Mammalia, spotted hyenas are “remarkably adaptable, living in a wide range of habitats.
Their natural habitat is mixed forest-savanna, but can also be found in deserts and forests.
The discovery has prompted researchers to speculate if the sighting is due to a rare weather phenomenon that have opened up a migration corridor, allowing the spotted hyena to travel beyond its typical hunting areas.
The natural weather cycle is part of the Active Red Sea Trough, a low-pressure area that faces extreme rainfall and flash floods, as well as strong winds.
The weather cycle occurs around once a decade but has recently caused more rain in the Egypt-Sudan border region.
Researchers believe the weather conditions may have increased plant growth and led the hyenas to pave a migration corridor while on their search for animals to prey on.
Various reports state that satellite images revealed increased levels of plant growth in the last five years in this area, supporting such theories.
“The fact that the corridor area has become less environmentally harsh, offering easier passage along ‘the highway’, may explain how the hyena reached this far north,” he said.
The animals usually follow human-managed livestock migrations, but Nagy says more research is still needed to investigate the finding.
“But why this particular hyena made such a long journey into Egypt remains a mystery,” he said.
