AT HOME WITH THE CLAN

As the rainy season brings wildebeest back to Zambia's Liuwa Plain grasslands, spotted hyenas prepare for a feast

- ANDY SKILLEN

"THERE'S ONE, 10 O'CLOCK!” MY HEARING WAS still muffled following an exuberant takeoff from the Mongu helipad by Rachele, my Italian pilot, yet her proclamation pierced the whirring blades like the shrill tone of a morning alarm. “Have you got it?”

I had barely raised the camera from my lap when she had managed to pull the equivalent of a handbrake turn, spinning the helicopter 180° on its nose and pointing me directly at the slow, loping target below. And there it was, a full-blown example of what I had come all this way to see: Crocuta crocuta - the oft-unloved but utterly compelling spotted hyena.

For the previous five minutes, I had moderately cursed my decision to request doors off' as the chopper flew high across the Zambezi River, and had tugged gently at my seatbelt to reassure myself that I was safely strapped in. But now, catching my first glimpse of this apex predator making its way calmly through swaying grass and across open pans, I quickly forgot my fears.

Spread out below me was one of Zambia's most spectacular, yet largely untrammeled wild spaces: Liuwa Plain National Park. This 3,660km² reserve protects a large proportion of the Barotse floodplain, an extensive area that houses several other game management zones stretching as far as the Angolan border. The park provides ample resources, which ensures a peaceful co-existence between people and wildlife.