How a 2-year-old baby made friends with wild hyenas
Two-year-old Kiki Volkhuter lives with her parents in Zimbabwe, in the Sango National Park. As befits the daughter of zoologists, she loves animals. Most of all, she loves hyenas, and not only loves, but also makes friends with a whole pack of hyenas, spending time playing with puppies.
Most children dream of a kitten or a puppy, but two-year-old Kiki Volkhuter has made unusual friends — a whole pack of hyenas! After her parents, zoologists working in Sango National Park, gave her a toy hyena, she just fell in love with these animals. Today, the girl runs a race with hyenas, squeezes puppies and plays with them with a stick, not at all afraid of predators.
Usually Kiki plays with young hyenas under the supervision of her father, a biologist specializing in the study of these animals.
Kim Volkhuter, Kiki's father, not only studies hyenas in natural conditions, but also makes films about them. For many years, he and his family have been living in Africa, near the objects of their interest. Even before the birth of his daughter, 61-year-old Kim made friends with hyenas. According to him, he does not feed them, and therefore they regularly come to his house only because they love him, and they like to play with him, and now with his daughter.
Kim himself decided to introduce his daughter to hyenas.
According to Kim, Kiki perceives hyenas as pets and is not afraid of them at all.
At the same time, Kim says, since he does not feed hyenas, their relationship has become much more sincere than the relationship between the dog and the owner, and is entirely based on mutual sympathy.
Kim is sure that hyenas are noble and intelligent animals that have not earned their notoriety. In his opinion, the creators of the cartoon "The Lion King" are to blame for the fact that hyenas are considered malicious and hostile to the whole world.