In the 10 years that Doctor Nancy Barker spent studying the interaction between lions and hyenas in Southern Africa, she also learnt a lot about how human beings interact with one anoother. She is the first deaf zoologist to receive her PhD at the University of KwaZulu-Natal studying big carnivores. Barker says people need to make concessions for animals, just as they need to recognise the abilities of other people - whether they can hear or not. Dries Liebenberg reports . . .