'Planet Earth II' Film Crew Describe Being Involved In A Mass Hyena Fight

Watching 'Planet Earth II' from the comfort of our living rooms is enough to make you soil your fucking trousers. God only knows what it's like being there filming it. Oh wait, the production team do.

They have revealed how they feared for their lives after finding themselves in the company of over a hundred hyenas who were embroiled in a nasty brawl.

Producer Fredi Devas said: "I've always found hyenas to be quite terrifying animals. In Harar in Ethiopia one night, we were surrounded by more than a hundred of them, fighting.

Credit: PA

"They were fighting on the outskirts of town to see who'd gain access to the city. They're the second-largest land predator in Africa after the lion.

"They were extraordinary. There are two hyena clans who regularly use the city. To work out who gets access, they go to a place outside the city limits and have a fight.

"A piece of ground where they can meet up like the gangs in Westside Story and have it out. They really fight. You've got a hundred around you, running around your feet and legs en masse, turning on each other.

"You do think that if they turned on you, you're gone. That's it. If they decided that we were the problem, that would be that. But they don't."

Credit: BBC

Audiences can tune in to see the footage in all its gory glory this Sunday. The episode will also showcase the leopards who integrate with humans in city life.

Fredi said: "Mumbai has the highest density of leopards in the world. There are around 35 living in quite a small forested area.

"They feed on deer and animals in that forest, but they also head out into the peripheries of the park at night and feed on domesticated animals like pigs and dogs. They also kill humans.

"What I find extraordinary is that they've been eating and killing people for decades, but the Indian people are still tolerant of them living there. I can't think of another country where a relocation program would not have been put into place by now."

Can't wait for this.

Featured image credit: BBC

Josh Teal

Josh Teal is a journalist at LADbible. He has contributed to the 'Knowing Me, Knowing EU' and 'UOKM8?' campaigns interviewing everyone from student drug dealers to climate change activists.

@tealioni