She moves through the seal colony on Namibia’s wild Skeleton Coast with purpose and focus, gingerly stepping around the adults who snap at her heels. She’s searching for smaller prey.

The rare brown hyena, a long-haired, primeval-looking carnivore, is called Tosca. Following her is a young German field scientist, Ingrid Wiesel, who has now spent 17 years with Tosca’s clan; tracking, observing and learning everything she can about one of the world’s least understood and most unusual predators.

The carnivores are being hit hard by climate change in ways that no one could have predicted. By understanding the forces that have an impact on the lives of brown hyenas, there’s a better chance of helping these rare animals survive.

The story takes us through some of Namibia’s most spectacular landscapes: down the wild coastal beaches which are popular resting and breeding sites for thousands of Cape fur seals; across the great dunes of the Namib desert; and into the abandoned mining town of Elizabeth Bay, a ghost town, whose crumbling, empty buildings now provide ideal shelter.

‘Strandwolf’ is the first in depth, high definition film about the secret life of the brown hyena.