Striped hyena kept as pet in Karak home rescued

AMMAN — Environment inspectors have seized and confiscated a striped hyena, whose owner was keeping it in a residential area in Karak Governorate, a conservationist said on Thursday.

A joint inspection team from the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN) and the Rangers was tipped off about a man raising a hyena in his house, according to Abdul Razzaq Hmoud, head of the conservation and hunting regulation section at the RSCN.

“The team obtained a warrant to inspect the house on Wednesday, where they found the animal,” Hmoud told The Jordan Times.

The animal, which was moved to a shelter, will undergo rehabilitation in order to be released back into the wild, he added.

The inspectors took legal action against the man, who violated the law which prohibits hunting an animal that is not allowed to be possessed, sold or displayed.

Appendix 56 of the Agriculture Law, which was issued in the Official Gazette in April 2015, stipulates that it is illegal to hunt down wild birds and animals without a licence. It is also illegal to hunt in areas and times where and when hunting is prohibited. The same appendix further stipulates that it is illegal to kill, possess, transport, sell or display for sale wild birds and animals.

People in Jordan either kill hyenas out of fear, hunt them for taxidermy purposes, or for their flesh and blood, which some believe have medicinal properties. Others catch them to sell to zoos, according to RSCN personnel.

Despite a lack of statistics about the hyena population in Jordan, field work indicates that their numbers are dwindling due to the destruction of their natural habitat, in addition to hunting practices, according to the RSCN.

The striped hyena is native to the Middle East, North Africa, the Caucasus, Central Asia and India. The carnivorous mammal is frequently mentioned in Middle Eastern literature and folklore as a dangerous predator or a symbol of treachery, although attacks on human beings are rare, according to web sources.

A nocturnal animal, the striped hyena typically only makes itself visible in complete darkness, and is quick to return to its lair before sunrise.

The species is listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as near threatened, as the global hyena population is estimated to be under 10,000 mature animals.

Hyenas continue to experience deliberate and incidental persecution along with a decrease in their prey base, such that the species may come close to meeting a continuing decline of 10 per cent over the next three generations.