Faten Shwaykani plays with pet hyenas at her house in the suburb of Garamana near Damascus June 27, 2007. Shwaykani’s husband is a hunter of dangerous animals which he keeps at their house and farm.

Hyenas are highly intelligent animals, and some scientists claim they are of equal intelligence to certain apes. One indication of hyena intelligence is that they will move their kills closer to each other to protect them from scavengers; another indication is their strategic hunting methods.

Hyenas also a very fierce carnivore. They have a very strong jaw. Although hyenas look rather like large dogs, they make up a separate biological family which is most closely related to Herpestidae (the family of mongooses and meerkats).

But, how they managed to make the hyena as their pet?


Faten Shwaykani and her son Noureddin play with pet hyenas at her house in the suburb of Garamana near Damascus June 27, 2007. Shwaykani’s husband is a hunter of dangerous animals which he keeps at their house and farm.