In africa people are used to living surrounded by killers so it takes an extreme animal to cause 4000 people to flee their villages in malawi.They were scared away because in just seven days during 2003 one animal killed three people and severely injured another sixteen.It was the hyena.
Hyenas will take an average of 50 human lives every year in the cold light of day hyena are not the cowardly scavengers we once thought they were.A study in the kalahari found that 70% of their diet was composed of direct kills.A single spotted hyena can catch an adult wildbeest after chasing at 5 kilometers at speeds of up to 56 kilometers per hour.The massive jaws of the hyena are probably the strongest in relation to body size of any mammal.