Destined To Be Wild: First Indian Striped Hyena raised, rehabilitated and reintroduced into the wild

On 12th April 2022, the RESQ Charitable Trust, Pune team along with the Satara Forest Department collared and reintroduced an Indian Striped Hyena into its natural habitat. She was rescued as a cub, over a year ago, very close to human settlements by the Eco Echo Foundation, Nashik. After their attempts to reunite her with her mother had failed, she was moved to the RESQ Wildlife TTC, Bavdhan, Pune by the Nashik Forest Department for further rehabilitation. She weighed merely 400gms at the time of arrival in Pune.
Bearing a ‘Near Threatened’ status by the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature), the Indian Striped Hyena and Hyenas, in general, are solitary, and elusive in nature. Many say their population has taken a severe beating due to habitat destruction and retaliatory killings owed to popular beliefs, and it is not uncommon to hear them being poisoned. A highly misunderstood species - they are perceived to be threatening and menacing due to old myths and folklore, making them unwanted amongst human settlements.
This female Indian Striped Hyena was not destined to just be another wild orphan spending her lifetime in the captivity of a zoo. We knew our goal from day one, we had to keep her wild in order for her to have any chance of future survival in a natural habitat.
For this cub, an exhaustive list of rehabilitation milestones was formulated, which she had to complete over the next year. As she grew bigger, she moved through enclosures of different sizes, with varied enrichment which encouraged igniting her wild instincts of den-making, digging, marking her territory, and hiding food. She was exposed to varying qualities of feed and water, subjected to scarcities and weathered different climate conditions over the last year. Right from when she started self-feeding we began the process of desensitising her to human approach or contact because her distrust towards humans is imperative for her survival in the wild. The plan was to GPS collar her so that her movements can be monitored post-release.
Amit Sayyed, Wildlife Researcher and Founder of WLPRS (Wild Life Protection and Research Society) directed us to an area near Satara that was rich in wildlife and sufficiently distant from human settlements. The Range Forest Officer of that range Nivrutti Chavhan and Madhav Mohite (IFS), Deputy Conservator of Forests, Satara visited the RESQ Centre and observed the Hyena’s wild behaviour.
After one year of intensive rehabilitation, she had gone from weighing 400 grams when she arrived to 20 kgs at the time of release. She had met her rehabilitation milestones and was mature enough to be reintroduced into the wild. Dr. José Vicente López-Bao, CSIC Senior Research Scientist from Biodiversity Research Institute (IMIB) Spain assisted the RESQ team with providing the GPS collar.
Her survival holding testimony, she could become the torchbearer for the future of hundreds of relatively non-conflict wild orphans - maybe they can be successfully reintroduced to the wild instead of spending their lifetimes in captivity. The fate of wildlife is already threatened due to ever-increasing urban development, climate change and shifts in agricultural patterns in human-dominated landscapes. In addition to that, institutions are struggling due to a lack of space to intake animals in lifetime care. If we don’t push boundaries now, we will never know if these orphan animals that are generally sent into lifetime captivity, ever stood a chance back in the wild.
Image credits:
Mahdikarimi70, CC BY-SA 4.0 creativecommon... via Wikimedia Commons
Mahdikarimi70, CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommon...) via Wikimedia Commons
צילום:ד"ר אבישי טייכר, CC BY 2.5 (creativecommon...) via Wikimedia Commons

[@pratik.shinde]

India has such rich flora and fauna. We need to preserve this asset.

[@jasonharper1826]

SHE'S ADORABLE AND HER KIND...THEY NEED TO BE SAVED

[@Kalyan458]

Great job done by the rescue team. In my child hood striped hyenas frequently used to appear in fields and open lands in my village. Now you will never find them. These small predators of wild are slowly getting extinct, while focus is always on Big cats like Tigers, Lions, leopards etc. these small creatures are often ignored. Special efforts are needed for conservation of these animals.

[@PatrickCole-md9bu]

You guy's are awesome. Keep up the good work and hopefully you keep the program running and introduce more in the same fashion.

[@ameyjoshi903]

तूमचे कार्य खूप जबरदस्त आहे तुमच्या या प्रकल्पामुळे या वन्यप्राण्यांच्या सभवांची राहणीमान आणि व्यवहार खूप छान माहिती मिळते आहे 😊👍

[@j2v7i0k4]

अतिशय छान कार्य केले आहे तुम्ही व तुमच्या टीम ने ,लुप्त होत चाललेल्या तरस ह्या प्रजातीच्या मादीचे तुम्ही संवर्धन हे नैसर्गिक अधिवासात केले व तिच्या जगण्याला दुसऱ्यांदा संधी दिली त्याबद्दल तुमचे अभिनंदन... तुमच्या पुढील कार्यास शुभेच्छा...

[@shamimalamhaque1594]

Great initiative. Just tears came out when she was about to leave human settlement.

[@yp601]

Thank you for saving the world 🌍❤️😊

[@roopakpandey3824]

Thanks a ton Team ResQT for this wonderful video. You people are just so very amazing and doing an excellent job. Stripped Hyena is a rare species which may become history if not given due care. Thanks and hopefully, we have amazing people like you to keep our wildlife safe. Salute to the entire team.❤

[@reneelash1091]

Thank you. Thank you for caring for her and loving her and releasing her. Good job team

[@naturalistamk335]

Great initiative to make it happen..... Great work👍🏻

[@Hrishi1970]

Absolutely amazing work form the team!

[@rahuldeshpande4449]

This is a brilliant and compassion filled act indeed!

[@kaletushar1748]

Great Job .... "Everyone Deserve the second chance". Is the inspiration for everyone.❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@RedDeadSakharine]

Striped Hyenas are my favourite animals. Thank you for giving this one a chance!

[@SantoshJadhav-mr3kq]

This is unbelievable... Hat's off to ResQ Team!!!

[@shwethamaddela4253]

You people are amazing..... really a great job

[@arjitjere1559]

Very inspiring success story!

[@Unexist612]

Respect you mam & your team 🙇🏻

[@Jenvlogs404]

Great initiative! Never liked hyenas but having stripped hyenas is unique and will be iconic. In AFG & PK they’re hunted for peniIe strength and many carry their hair.

[@raghavendrasridharmurthy6425]

Great Job team 👌 Keep up the good work and thank you.

[@BigBrotherTheWatcher1984]

I love all the species of hyenas. I had the pleasure to see one in the outskirts of my city.

[@ashdog236]

Great work

[@Birdsnaps]

Great video and work 👍🏻

[@harshalshinde6412]

Nice work keep it up ❤

[@kalpakgadhave7202]

Great Job Team!!!

[@shaileshgaikwad2256]

Great efforts by the Resq Team..👏 Amazing Work... 👍

[@mayankmishra1186]

Wow this is so great

[@abhijeetnale765]

Great Job guys 👌👌👌👌

[@abhaykankariya]

Good job .. GOD bless you all 🥰

[@qudratnature2916]

Great job done by you guyz.

[@adityakavangal1352]

Amazing story , would love to know more updates about the project

[@gauravkulkarni6403]

Well done!👍

[@itssac4u]

God bless you 🙏, I wish I would've there to help you you guys

[@KingaKucyk]

Congratulations ❤

[@himanshuprakashpal]

After watching a few documentaries I feel Hyenas are really in danger, but much focus is given to just a few animals.

[@gundyabhau5986]

Respect 👌

[@MrAshokKB]

Great effort, much appreciated.

[@ResqCharitableTrust]

Thank you!

[@AviDhanda]

Nice work Keep it up

[@BHARATAGROFARMOFFCL]

❤️❤️❤️

[@EmotionalWinner]

good work

[@RamaKrishna-em5xt]

Great job, but can it survive alone? Did it find a pack and did the others accept it?

[@arjitjere1559]

Except when they are raising their offspring, Striped Hyenas are generally solitary.

[@ianspingle8865]

how did she make out, is she still alive?

[@mazisanvedana9838]

Interesting...great👌👌👍

[@ResqCharitableTrust]

Thanks a lot!

[@begoodfeelgood1707]

👍🙏

[@aniketgaikwad276]

Save animals

[@tinyGrim1]

poor dears. thank you 💞 🙏🏻🙏🏻 are they like an ardwolf? eating insects and not to fear anyway as the larger aggressive African hyenas . bless your work 💕💕🌠✌️🙏🏻 I saw meat eater. but still small and reletivly harmless.

[@robinhoodsherwood2646]

No they are like African hyena. But not in a clan

[@Neo-ut3gw]

What's the update?

[@srigurusai3002]

Good ❤️🔥🙌

[@jrf_aspirants7397]

I love hyenas😻💕

[@turanpirali]

👏👏👏👏

[@rahulnavale1869]

Hynea and wolf stay friendly with village people...

[@siddharthpawar1334]

❤️❤️❤️❤️🙌

[@karmenvasquez782]

Sea libre, ¡Sin collar o cadena!

[@bikashgohain386]

I respect the intent.But will she survive in the wild with the oversized GPS collar? Will she be able to hunt There are better ways to monitor movement and progress, you people know it better. Cruelty is the word.

[@gargwinvinesnake6961]

She isn't the first animal to be released with a GPS collar. They put the collar on before her release to see if there would be any issues. If there had been they would have adjusted things.

[@siddhantbhalerao3940]

Marathi madhe video banva

[@nehapanchamiya9462]

Karto!

[@karmenvasquez782]

Por qué colocarle un collar grande? No puede ser algo pequeño o ligero🤔

[@leonnheidi822]

I more worried about will she ever meet her species.If not it's a failure to let her roam in the jungle without one of her kind.

[@yuvarajsanga8442]

Great work

[@turanpirali]

❤❤❤