Spotted hyenas in Harar
Written records indicate that spotted hyenas have been present in the walled Ethiopian city of Harar for at least 500 years, where they sanitise the city by feeding on its organic refuse. The practice of regularly feeding them did not begin until the 1960s. The first to put it into practice was a farmer who began feeding the hyenas in order to stop them from attacking his livestock, with his descendants having continued the practice. As tourist attraction Some of the hyena men give each hyena a name they respond to, and call to them using a "hyena dialect", a mixture of English and Oromo. The hyena men feed the hyenas by mouth, using pieces of raw meat provided by spectators. Tourists usually organise to watch the spectacle through a guide for a negotiable rate. As of 2002, the practice was on the decline, with only two practicing hyena men left in Harar. Folklore According to local folklore, the feeding of hyenas in Harar originated during a 19th-century famine, during which the starving hyenas began to attack livestock and humans. In one version of the story, a pure-hearted man dreamed of how the Hararis could placate the hyenas by feeding