THE STRANDWOLF

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 January 1928, Page 11

THE STRANDWOLF

MYSTERY BEAST OF KENYA. LONDON, December 10. 'Who will solve the mystery of the Nandi “bear,” that strange beast of the East African veld which has terrorised the natives and taken heavy, toll of their stock, and which devours its prey in a manner unlike that of any other animal? The Nadi “bear” has also taken human life, killing a child of the Karasai tribe. Since the tragedy' a number of people claim to have seen the animal. The animal appears to have a charmed life, for on every occasion when it has been sighted some unusual circumstance saved it from identification. Captain Ritchie, a noted big game hunter and the game warden of Kenya Colony, believes in the Nandi “bear,” and thinks it may be a giant hyena, though he admits “it may be different from anything we know.” But why a giant hyena should have six digits, as the spoor of the Nandi “bear” suggests, he is at a loss to explain. It is now clear that the perpetrator of a third series of hitherto unexplained crimes is a hyena of huge size. This beast, which recently killed 12 cattle near Tuso, does his work in a most unprofessional manner. In every case the carcase is found almost unscratched except for one shoulder, the nearby ribs and the heart. The Kikuyu say that one of these redoubtable animals was killed at Tuso four years ago, that-it was big as a lion and had ten spears through it before it died. An expert who investigated the matter has no doubt that the animal is similar to the Strandwolf (Hyena Brunnes) of South Africa, a specimen of which he obtained many years ago in the Kalahari, and which he describes as being very large, of a dark brown colour, with darker spots and hair five inches long hanging from the flanks.