The Great South African Hyena Prison Break

Hyena philosophy on ballsy jailbreaks: "It ain't no thang."<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/44124348109@N01/6002532662/">Steve Jurvetson</a>/Flickr

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Hyenas, being total badasses:

Two hyenas escaped from a South African wildlife park Wednesday by chewing through an electric fence during a power outage, but were recaptured within half an hour, the park said.

“The power went off… and the hyenas — who will chew through wire and even iron bars — managed to escape,” said Earl Smith, general manager of the Lion Park, located just outside Johannesburg. “The hyenas always try to escape if there is a long power failure. The lions don’t try to escape,” he told the [South African Press Association].

He said park employees tracked the hyenas and recaptured them near one of the main roads leading into Johannesburg…[and described] the animals as “shy and timid” and said there was never any risk to the public…

Yup. That’s right. The park’s lions—the Cadillac of the animal kingdom that’s renowned for owning things—wouldn’t even try pulling off this kind of gutsy jailbreak. A hyena, however, will evidently chomp through electrified “wire and even iron bars” if it means tasting sweet, glorious freedom.

If you ever learned anything about hyenas, chances are you learned it from Disney’s hysterically racist 1994 portrayal—amoral, wolfish, hate-filled. But despite their tarnished reputation, hyena attacks on people are extremely rare, even more so for fatal ones. And as the AFP article mentions, there was never a moment when the two escaped hyenas were a “risk to the public” (and this was when they were strutting straight into South Africa’s most populous metropolitan area). This story is just another quick reminder of how basically everything movies have taught you about wild animals is dead wrong.

(It’s also another reminder of how feckless electric fences can be, whether you’re a park owner trying to keep some hyenas detained, or you’re Herman Cain trying to stem an illegal immigrant invasion by constructing a deadly barbwired barrier along the US-Mexico border.)

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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