"The hyenas are the least of your trouble"

This article gave me an extraordinary pang of regret that I have not spent my life as an observer of baboons or spotted hyenas. On the other hand, I do not really have an adventurous soul:

To understand the social intelligence of hyenas, Dr. Holekamp and her colleagues track the animals from birth to death. Their work begins in the communal dens where the cubs live for their first few months. Crawling into the dens, a network of underground chambers, is Dr. Holekamp’s least favorite part of her job.

“The hyenas are the least of your trouble,” she said. “You know when the mom’s there and when she’s not. But is there also a warthog in there that’s going to take off your face with its tusks? Is it a cobra?”