A brown hyena moves through a seal colony on Namibia's wild skeleton coast
with purpose and focus.
She's searching for prey...
...and there she goes!
Just one bite and the meal is hers.
For years, she and other brown hyenas have been feeding on the seal population.
But now more and more clans are vanishing from the coastline.
Where are these so-called strandwolves going?
And why have they left?
European sailors once called this brutal coastline "the gates of hell".
And Namibia's Atlantic Coast is indeed one of the driest, windiest
and most extreme places on our planet.
But one creature has made this place its own.
The brown hyena, better known on these shores as the strandwolf.
Like a desert mirage, it blends into the dunes,
elusive and full of secrets.
Hyenas are known as scavengers.
But in fact, these animals are proper hunters.
Seal pups are an important food source for them.
To catch their prey, the strandwolves are active by day rather than just by night,
like their inland relatives.
They're skillful predators.
Just one bite crushes the seal pup's skull and kills it instantly.
Afterwards, they carry the kill back to the den,
in a secluded mountain valley,
where all the members of the hyena clan meet up.
A typical den will have 2 to 4 adults who all bring back food for the cubs.
Black-backed jackals are squatters at the den site,
always after an easy meal.
But in recent times, the jackals have been becoming desperate,
as more and more hyena dens are emptying out.
But where all the hyenas going?
Tosca might reveal the mystery.
She's one of the hardest-working hyenas in the region.
When her mom died, Tosca became the main breeding female in her hyena clan.
To track her journey, scientists attached a GPS collar to her neck.
It records exactly where she travels from day to day
and how long she stays in each place.
The data showed that her clan was spending a great amount of time on the coast,
near the seals.
The nickname of strandwolf rings true.
But after time, Tosca's signal vanished.
She'd also abandoned her home range.
Even at the beach, there was no sign of her.
Only a group of hungry jackals ripping a seal pup apart.
Since the hyenas left, the jackals have had to hunt on their own...
...confirming that not all predators kill their prey as swiftly as a brown hyena.
The local seal populations have been decreasing
and more hyenas are moving further inland to find enough food to survive.
This might sound smart, but there's another danger waiting for them: the roads!
Has Tosca been hit by a car, like so many other hyenas?
Or is she still alive somewhere?
A new signal from Tosca's collar provides the answer.
The GPS leads to Atlas Bay, somewhere with another large seal colony.
And there she is.
But the questions remains, why did she leave her former home?
A look back at the old seal colony, which Tosca abandoned,
reveals a devastating picture.
Hundreds of seals lie dead on the beach.
Tosca's decision to move her clan elsewhere begins to make sense.
The seal population on this small beach must have decreased dramatically.
This stretch of coast, which was once full of seals, is now like a ghost beach.
Marine biologists in Namibia suspect the deaths were caused by a neurotoxin
called domoic acid, which is produced by algae blooms like red tide.
The poison attacks the brains of mammals like seals and even people,
and can kill them.
Outbreaks occur when normally cold ocean water warms up.
All this is connected to our changing climate.
So here, even in this remote corner of our planet,
global warming is threatening brown hyenas.
Tosca's decision was the right move, not only for her own sake.
But also for her 2 cubs, which are now probably 3 months old.
They're getting more confident by the minute
and hopefully will lead their own clans one day.
The cubs will adapt to this harsh environment, they're born survivors,
just like their mother.
But still, it isn't clear how long brown hyenas can last in this changing world.
Want to see more smart predators?
Check out our top hunters in the animal kingdom playlist.