Hi I'm Danny! I'm travelling around the world! Follow my posts.

Today we had the chance to join the research team at the award winning African Impact and travel into Zambezi national park to dart and collar a male hyena.

The team needed to do this in order to take vital data on the hyenas that live in Zambezi National Park. The task was definitely easier said than done as it took a full week and we still hadn't caught this intelligent animal.

We were completely outwitted by the nocturnal hyenas. Using a cage with meat as bait didn't work as the hyena managed to get out with the meat and not set off the trap door.

After two nights of trying we put a piece of giraffe meat underneath a speaker (tied up in the trees) playing distress calls of different animals. This plan worked perfectly except for one thing: we attracted a huge male lion! We would have loved to been able to dart and track this lion but unfortunately we didn't have the license to do that.

As we sat in the vehicle in silence we heard rustling in the bushes. I then realised we were surrounded by a pride of lions completely hidden in the long grass. To my utter horror I quickly realised that beneath my feet was the left over of the giraffe meat covered in blood - these lions could definitely smell it.

Unable to do anything we had to just sit quietly. Eventually the male lion realised something suspicious was going on and left the meat and retreated back into the bush.

We went back the next night and used the same tactic again this time with a spotlight on some goat meat. The wily hyenas tiptoed around the spotlight avoiding the sight of our dart gun. Cunningly they managed to somehow steal the meat without us even noticing.