The first time I came across an image from South African photographer Pieter Hugo's "Hyenas and Other Men" series I just couldn't take my eyes of it. I go through at a lot of images and every once in a while I find one that just really hits me and sticks to my mind. The whole wild beast/heavy chains/bad ass attitude looked almost too cool to be real.

Pieter Hugo is a self-taught photographer born in Johannesburg in 1976. He documents social issues globally but has a special interest in Africa and other developing countries. After seeing a cell phone picture of these guys in the streets of Lagos he managed to track them down and decided to go to Nigeria. Rumored to be bank robbers, bodyguards, drug dealers and debt collectors, they turned out to be a group of wandering minstrels living with three hyenas, four baboons, and two rock pythons. He spent time with them twice over a period of two years and produced these extraordinary pictures. The story of the life of this group is also a fantastic insight into Nigerian culture.

Let's just hope hyenas don't become the new rage as pet replacement for pitbulls.