Cubs on the Move

Hi! I am the new Serena research assistant. I have been out in the Mara for a bit over a month now. A few days ago when Julie and I were heading back to camp, we came across these three in the middle of the road.  

Sherman was moving her two cubs, Rocket and Astro, from Schiphol Den to DeGaulle Den. As the cubs meandered across the road and snapped at grass stalks, Sherman patiently waited for them and slowly guided her easily distracted cubs towards their new den. The last few meters proved a little too exciting, and Sherman carefully picked up one cub and deposited him in the den hole. When we left, Sherman was curled up nursing Rocket and Astro.

Hyena talks

Recently we have started giving talks at Mara Serena Safari Lodge on Wednesday nights. This is a great way to teach to the tourists staying at the lodge as well as the employees that work there about hyenas. We spend a lot of time at the lodge (fueling our cars, using their mechanics, getting water etc.) and it feels really good to be able to share some of our work with them and explain why we love hyenas so much and why they are important to study and conserve.

Everyone we have talked to has really enjoyed learning some fun facts about hyenas!

We bring a hyena's skull (left) and a lion's skull (right) to show how their skull morphology differs and how that impacts their bit force! We also show off the hyena's worn down bone crushing teeth. 

So far this has been a really positive experience. We have met a lot of interesting people from around the world and have been able to dispel some very common misconceptions about our favorite social carnivore. Hopefully we are able to continue this

Waffles, LCS, and Kruuk's Culvert.

Right now the north hyenas “club” is at Kruuk’s culvert, a culvert just about a kilometer north of camp. We use the word “club” to refer to an area where the hyenas seem to prefer to hang out. The club and the den are the two main centers of activity within a territory. Kruuk was one of the first scientists to study spotted hyenas and is also the one who originally termed the word “club” to mean a spot where the hyenas like to hang out. The fact that the north hyena's club is currently at Kruuk's culvert is entirely coincidental but in the last few days we've seen some interesting stories unfolding here that have to do with our favorite hyena friendship, that of Waffles (North clan's matriarch) and LCS (a very low-ranking hyena in North clan named for her ear damage, a slit in the 'c' area of her left ear). 

LCS and Waffles are best buds. 

Two days ago we followed Waffles, North’s matriarch, to Kruuk’s culvert along with Waffles’ daughter LogC, son Torani, and grandson George. They joined up with Tinsel who was nursing her daughter Rama by Kruuk’s culvert. Not long after all the hyenas had seemed to settle down for the day we heard an antelope dying in the thicket not too far away. Immediately all six hyenas were up on their feet loping towards the source of the noise. We arrived to see LogC and Torani holding two halves of an impala calf- they clearly hadn’t killed it but they’d chased off the hyena who had before we arrived. Back towards Kruuk’s Culvert we saw that LCS had joined the group and we thought it might have been her who killed the calf since she was the only new hyena here. However poor LCS, a very low-ranking hyena, was not welcome at this hang out. LogC and Tinsel, with their blood still up, started aggressing on her the moment she got closer, asserting their higher ranks.

LCS also happens to be Waffles’ best friend but Waffles couldn’t do anything about her daughter’s aggression. In fact, in the heat of the moment Waffles actually joined in on a low level aggression we called a point, in which an animal rigidly points its entire body at the subordinate animal, usually with tails and ears erect. Even though this was a very low level aggression LCS had had enough, and she wasn’t going to forgive Waffles for that mishap. As LCS started to lope away Waffles’ demeanor changed from energetic to confused. We followed Waffles as she went loping after her best friend. When LCS disappeared a few hundred meters ahead of us over a low rise Waffles paused to give out four long low whoops, possibly trying to call her friend back. This was the first time I’d ever seen a hyena whoop in order to specifically call another hyena. Usually whoops seem to be reserved for announcing food or lions. However LCS essentially slammed the door in Waffles face when we crested the rise to see her disappear into a dense patch of grass without a single backwards glance.

LCS and Waflfes sharing a natal den.

Sometimes it really seems like Waffles and LCS’ friendship is a little lopsided with Waffles always pursuing and trying to be friendly to LCS, who can be indifferent. It was Waffles who moved her cubs to LCS’ natal den (where she had given birth to her son WAWA) and though LCS seemed perfectly content to share her hole with Waffles’ she really didn’t have any say in the matter. This goes against what the literature says animals of different ranks should behave. In socially complex animal societies lower ranker animals almost always prefer to associate with higher-ranking animals for benefits that such associations can confer. As a very low-ranking hyena LCS should be the one pursuing friendship with Waffles, the matriarch, rather than the other way around!

LCS and Waffles looking alert while their cubs explore the breakfast plains. 

Yesterday, to our relief, it seemed that Waffles and LCS had reconciled their differences and were back to being friends again. Together they took their cubs for one of their first graduation walks. Their destination? No big surprise: Kruuk’s Culvert. Kruuk’s culvert is a little over a kilometer away and this was the furthest from the den I’ve ever seen cubs of only 4 months old. Mrs. Butterworth (MRSB), Aunt Jemima (ANTJ), and Wailing Wall (WAWA pronounced Way-Wah) were all extremely excited to be out in the world. MRSB, ANTJ, and WAWA are all best buds (all boys) and they happily romped through the tall grass with their heads up and tails bristled.

New best buds in the making. MrsB, Wawa, and AntJ. 

It made me worry a little, if Waffles and LCS had bumped into any trouble there weren’t any holes near by for the cubs to take cover in and Waffles and LCS certainly wouldn’t be able to protect them from lions if it came to that. However, late morning is probably one of the safest times to take your cubs for a walk because the lions will hopefully all be asleep in the warm sunlight.

On their way back from Kruuk’s culvert they detoured a little bit over to Muffin den, the natal den where all three cubs had been raised until they were a little over a month old. I imagine the cubs’ paws must have been extremely sore by that point but they were as bouncy as ever while Waffles and LCS were starting to look a little exhausted. Even if Waffles and LCS’ relationship is a little lopsided LCS clearly still trusts Waffles greatly. She decided to sack out (lay down) in the small water hole near Muffin den to rest while her son WAWA went with Waffles and her cubs back to the den.

Very excited bristle-tailed MrsB and AntJ running through grass. 

Stillborn giraffes and patient hyenas.

The other day while out on morning observations we saw a giraffe behaving very strangely. We first noticed her from almost a kilometer away, her tall form silhouetted against the rising sun to the east as we drove towards the river in south clan's territory. We thought it was odd to see just one giraffe and it wasn't until we were less than 100m away that we noticed the hyenas. There were 10 adult hyenas all sleeping in a circle around the giraffe. She seemed very distressed but unwilling to leave the ring of hyenas around her and we weren't sure why she didn't just walk off. It wasn't until we were just 25m away that we saw the dead calf at the giraffe's feet. It looked like it had been a stillborn, possibly born the night before. 

It seems that one adult giraffe can be quite formidable to a hyena, or ten. However, I was amazed by our hyenas patience. They knew they couldn't take on the mother giraffe but they were quite content to simply sleep and wait for the mother giraffe to give up on her dead calf. It was touching the way the mother giraffe would lower her head to nudge and sniff at the calf. She was clearly upset about the hyenas presence; it seemed that they made her even more reluctant to leave the calf. Though sad, this calf would provide a free meal for all the hyena moms that were patiently waiting. Four of the ten hyenas there all have little cubs at the den and they need nourishment too. 

We stayed with the giraffe and the hyenas for two hours before it started to get too hot and we left to go back to camp. The next evening there was no sign of the calf at all, since this is the lean time in the Maasai Mara for the hyenas this isn't too surprising. 

Teen Moms and Koi's Female Army

Eremet (Pike's daughter) and Pike with their four little black cubs. Chakram and Trebuchet (Pike's cubs) are the front most and back most cubs with the white eyebrows. Spyro and Falkor (Erem's cubs/Pike's grandcubs) are the two smaller black cubs in between Chak and Treb (nursing from Eremet). 

It’s cub season now and all three clans have very active communal dens. Most of the cubs are around 3 months old now and are showing their spots as well as their personalities. This year Koi, Happy Zebra Clan's former alpha, would have been the grandmother to 2-4 new cubs and the great grandmother to 5-7 new cubs if she hadn’t been killed by a lion a few years ago. When Pike took the matriarchy after her mother’s death she started a tradition of teen moms or “babies having babies” as we’ve been calling it. Most female hyenas won’t have cubs until they’re over 3 years old and many not until they’re 4 or 5 (lower ranking hyenas tend to wait longer before having their first cubs). Pike was only 3 years old when she took the matriarchy and she already had two cubs Boomerang and Katana when she was 2 years old.

Arbalet, Boomerang, and Boomerang's two new 3-4 week old cubs RumG and Plank. 

KOI - f (died 02Jun11)

            PIKE (30Oct07) – f

                        TREB (09Dec13) - ?

                        CHAK (09Dec13) - ?

                        CLAY (23Jan13) – f

                        ARBA (26Sep11) – f

                                    TULA (?) - ?

                        EREM (26Sep11) – f

                                    SPYR (22Dec13) - ?

                                    FLKR (22Dec13) - ?

                        BOOM (16Feb10) – f

                                    RUMG (14Nov13) - ?

                                    PLNK (14Nov13) - ?

                                    SWAG (23Oct12) – m

                                    JLYR (23Oct12) – f

                        KATA (16Feb10) – m

            SNAP (30Oct07) – f

                        MOJI (5Nov12) – f

            COEL (31Aug10) – f

Above: The linear hierarchy for Happy Zebra clan (only showing Koi’s descendants). Birthdays are in parentheses followed by sex. Offspring are tabbed once underneath their mothers. 

Boomerang and Plank.

Now, at 6 years old she has already had five cubs, four girls and one boy. Her son Katana (now 4 years old) is in the process of dispersal and we’ve seem him hanging out with both south and north hyenas. Katana’s littermate Boomerang was our second teen mom, giving birth to two cubs when she was 2 years old. This year she’s 3 and already has another two cubs who are growing up big and strong. Boomerang’s younger sisters are also, to our amazement following tradition, teen moms for the first time this year. Eremet has two cubs and Arbalet has one.

Plank, Boomerang's cub, was very explorative from a very young age.

Claymore, Pike’s youngest daughter at 1 year old, seems very confused by the sudden switch from being the baby of the family to almost completely ignored. Her two older sisters Arbalet and Eremet used to be her constant playmates and with Pike as her mother she was the clan’s princess. Now her mother and older sisters all have new babies. Most hyena cubs nurse for over a year, but Pike’s family seems to have no problem getting more than enough to eat and all of them are having new cubs every

year, meaning Clay was actually weaned at a little less than one year old. She doesn’t seem too happy but Clay has plenty to eat, just no more milk.

Boomerang carrying Plank back to the den. 

For comparison to Pike’s “baby making machine” family her take a look at her littermate Snapper and her younger sister Coelacanth. Snapper in this same time period has had only one surviving cub, Mojito. Coel finally had her first two cubs this year but we're not sure they survived. We also think Snapper has new cubs this year but we haven’t seen them yet. If I were to post the entire linear hierarchy for the entire clan you would see that Koi’s descendants make up almost half the clan! Considering their high rate of reproduction in the last 4 years this isn’t surprising.

Boomerang nursing RumG and nuzzling Plank. 

Routine and Adventure

A while ago, a balloon pilot friend and I were talking about routine.  We were talking about how most balloon pilots don’t seem big on routine and love adventure.  Then he said that researchers must have a routine, and I replied, “Well, sort of, but it’s never the same.”  How is routine never the same?  I’ve been thinking about that conversation a lot since then.

Everyday, our general schedule is wake up to go out on obs at 5:30, observe the hyenas till about 9am, return to camp and eat breakfast, work and do camp chores during the day, go out for evening obs at 5pm, observe the hyenas again until about 8:30, return to camp and eat dinner, and go to bed.  We do this general thing everyday of the week.  It sounds simple, but it rarely is. 

There are surprises that don’t change the routine much if at all.  For instance, I can be sitting at the same seat every morning for breakfast.  You would think you would see the same view every day, but you don’t.  Sometimes we’ll see an elephant crossing the plain in front of camp, dwarf mongooses working up the courage to try to steal some peanut butter, warthogs walking up to us to snort for our leftover vegetables, zebras grazing by my tent, etc.   The following pictures are all taken from our dining table at Serena.

Some of our warthog breakfast companions

Zebra by my tent

Dwarf mongoose eating a banana

Driving down our driveway after obs, we don’t expect to see much of anything besides antelope, but then there are those days when you have a lion or a rhino in the “front yard.” 

Lion at the bottom of our driveway in Serena

But most of the time, none of these things are there.  There are the extremely rare and amazing surprises, like when you’re driving the same path you take everyday, and all the sudden a leopard appears right outside your window!  Those experiences are so unusual, they just take your breath away.

These events don’t actually alter our routine any, but they definitely make it so much more interesting.  Other occurrences can radically change our schedule though.  Usually it’s cars that make us completely drop everything and deal with them, rather than following our usual schedule. 

There are things that we do frequently enough for the cars that should be simple, but because we’re in Kenya, the chores run on their own time or some strange twist occurs.  For instance, you can go get petrol for the cars and be stopped by tourists to take awkward photos shaking hands.  Or, you can go to pick up car parts from the airstrip one day, but they weren’t put on the plane, the next day the plane forgot to unload them, and finally they get sent to the wrong airstrip, but your great Kenyan friends drive out to get them for you…Even car parts have adventures flying around the Mara.  If you have to go into down after a tire puncture on obs, you may have to explain to everyone why there is a fake hyena in the back of the car before they will fix the puncture.

People exclaiming about us having a fake hyena in the back of the car while changing our tire in Talek town.

Cars are so important to us; they’re necessary for us to go out on obs and follow our plan.  They’re so crucial that one of the rules in the Research Assistant Manual is always drive with the windows down so that you can immediately be aware if something breaks.  When (not if) something breaks, we have to drop everything and get the car fixed.  This leads to us spending whole days with the mechanics and not doing our routine work.  There are the rare, awful for us animal-obsessed researchers, occasions when we can’t go out on obs at all because there is something wrong with all of the cars.  Other times, everything is working until you drive into an unseen mud hole you can’t get out of after all the tour cars that can help pull you out have left the park…then your plans change from going home for dinner and bed to spending the night in the car in the middle of the Mara until a balloon tractor can pull you out in the morning.

Tractor to the rescue! You really can't see what we got stuck in...

To me though, the worst change in the routine happens when you find out a hyena is dead.  Sometimes you find it on obs, sometimes you get a call from someone and get a pit in your stomach because you don’t want to know who was found dead; we get to know all of our hyenas really well.  When there is a dead hyena, we have to drop everything, ID it if it is one from one of our study clans, and then perform a necropsy and collect the skull.  All of this is time consuming to say the least, but it’s also emotionally draining but interesting to see something’s insides.

Basically, there is always something that can pop up in our daily routine that is out of the ordinary.  I find myself frequently saying, “Always an adventure,” when I’m out here.  There is so much that can change or happen at any given time whether it’s a hunt, a rare animal, an engine explosion, an unexpected hole, a surprise storm, a shower gone awry, or any other thing you can (or can’t) imagine.  Everyone who has been out here has their own crazy stories.  We come to expect nothing to go as planned; so maybe that is our routine?  Our “routine” always is an adventure.

February is hatari time with hyenas

This is what Philimon told us at the beginning of the month. Hatari means danger or dangerous in Swahili, and Philimon was explaining how the hyenas can be naughty this time of year.

The migration has moved on, and the rains are (theoretically) over; so there is a lot less prey in the area. This means that the hyenas are having to look harder for food. We can see their GPS points clustering around the trash pit in Serena or town in Talek; human scraps can be easy pickings.

The hyenas also come into camp more and can get into trouble... hence, this is what happened to Philimon's chair the other night. 

Life can be hard for a hyena cub.

Watching cubs at the den isn't always fun and games; Clever was a rather depressed cub yesterday morning! Her brother Shooter, wasn't letting her nurse from their mom T-Rex at all. First she went and moped on top of mom (above), but T-Rex was too tired to give her second cub much affection. So Clever went and curled up with Jude (below), a young subadult female who has been spending a lot of time at the den playing with the cubs. 

It was awfully cute how sad Clever looked curling up with Jude, but it was also a reminder of how tough life can be for a hyena cub! T-Rex is a young mom and this is her very first litter. That both cubs have made it to 9 weeks is quite impressive, especially since T-Rex has been lame on her front left leg for over a month! Usually siblings are best buds and Shooter and Clever play quite happily with each other when they aren't nursing. At first it looked like Shooter was being really mean to not let his sister nurse, but it's more likely that T-Rex simply didn't have enough milk for the two of them at the moment. 

We have over twenty new cubs between the three clans we study in Serena, and though I really want all of them to survive I know that a large proportion of them won't. Watching these nursing troubles between Clever and Shooter is a strong reminder of how tough life can be for a hyena.

Serena's Dudes

In response to my post about Serena matriarchs Emily and I thought it would be a good idea to include a post about high ranking males, so we collaborated to write up this post about a few of Serena’s dudes.  When a male hyena first leaves his natal clan and joins a new clan he becomes the lowest ranking member, not only below all the females and their cubs, but also below all the other males (among the males rank is based on tenure). Joining a clan isn't easy though and many males spend many years alone. We see these males passing through our territories on occasion and every once in a while one of them sticks around. Eventually if a male survives long enough all the males that were there when he arrived will have left or died and he will find himself at the top (albeit still below all the females and their cubs). Here we profile the three highest ranking males in each territory. 

Leprechaun is the highest ranking male of north territory. Like most of the males in north clan he stays fairly distant from the drama of the clan. The north males are most often seen in trios, strolling around the territory, enjoying life. If we ever see Leprechaun at the den it’s usually a distance, but luckily Leprechaun’s face is extremely easy to identify (note the crease in his forehead below) so we never have to pause our observations at the den to drive after him.

 

Out of all the north males Leprechaun is very tough and smart. I saw him once underneath a tree where a leopard was hoarding an impala carcass. His patience paid off; when an impala hoof dropped from the tree he promptly picked it up and swallowed it whole. We know Leprechaun is an accomplished hunter because at carcass sessions he is usually quite bloody (since the highest ranking animals usually eat first, eating isn’t a good indication of who made a kill, how much blood is on an animal’s face however is). Overall we think his name is quite fitting, his angry facial expression, the rainbow of spots on his side, and his place as the highest-ranking immigrant male.

When I first arrived in Serena, Happy Zebra’s top ranking male was an ancient old dude named Pegleg. I only got one good look at him and he was easily identifiable by his facial expression. I think someone may have described it to me as a drooly expression. However it’s been 8 months since I’ve arrived in Serena and Pegleg hasn’t been seen in over 6 months (and though we usually wait a little longer to classify HZ animals as missing since it’s such a large territory) we’ve considered Jazz to be the top-ranking male for some time now.

The first time I ever got a really good look at Jazz, Happy Zebra’s extremely handsome top ranking immigrant male, was at Holy Grail Den. This is a rather unusual place to learn a male hyena’s spots because immigrant male hyenas aren’t typically tolerated the den (natal males often come to play with their younger siblings without any harassment). This was about the time that we had first seen Higgs Boson poking his head out of the den, Ojibway’s new cub.

When the other hyenas left the den Jazz cautiously approached and carefully stuck his head into each den hole, sniffing curiously. Julia, a graduate student, was about ready to MI in place of the absent hyena mothers! (MI stands for maternal intervention which is an aggression context we use when coding behaviors. When a lower-ranking hyena is sniffing or interacting with a cub, or a high-ranking animal is being too rough, a mother hyena will often aggress on that hyena partly in defense of the cub but also so that the cub can learn its rank in the hierarchy). Infanticide has not been documented in adult male hyenas but it made all of us nervous to see him walking around the den holes unsupervised. However, over the next few months it seems like our fear was unwarranted. Jazz is a very sweet, playful, and friendly father to all the cubs at the den, but it seems like he has a special affinity for Higgs, the cub it looked like he was searching for that first time I saw him show up at the den. 

Whether or not Jazz is Higg’s father is up for debate until we collect poop from Higgs that we can extract DNA from but Jazz has seems to have a special affinity for him and all the cubs. In fact because of Jazz it seems that we may need a knew aggression context: PI for paternal intervention. When Higgs was about 4 months old he was starting to wander away from the den a bit and a mid-ranking immigrant male named Ista was slowly approaching Higgs and sniffing at him. When Jazz noticed this he immediately chased Ista away from little Higgs and then returned to give Higgs a little sniff himself. 

South’s top ranking male is a very old and scruffy looking hyena named Venice, or Veni, for short (disclaimer: in the above photo his spots are showing up extremely well). Despite his scruffy appearance all the ladies absolutely love him and he seems to sire a dominant proportion of South’s cubs. Like a lot of south hyenas he barely has spots at all (hyena spots tend to fade as the hyena ages) making him both easy to ID and sometimes very frustrating. Though scruffiness is a good indication of a male hyena being Veni we have to be 100% certain in our IDs and the only way to do that is by matching spots. So though the lack of dark spots tips us off very quickly to the fact that this is 95% certainly Veni, we still have to peer through the scruff and be sure to match a few key spots in order to confirm that it’s him. Hyenas’ appearances can change on a daily basis depending on the color of the dirt they’ve been lying in, whether they’ve been swimming, how fat they are or whatever else it is that hyenas get up to that change the fluffiness and color of their coat. The only thing that stays constant are the spots and all other generalizations tend to be variable.  

Veni is generally well loved by the clan but his favorite female hyena is a lady named Marten, who usually seems to just barely tolerate his presence. It’s quite hilarious to see Veni trailing forlornly after Marten for hours, going ears back and keeping his head low, trying to be as submissive as possible (above he shows the submissive behavior open-mouth appeasement to Marten). Abruptly he’ll turn and go bristle tail to chase off other males before returning to his puppy-dog state as he follows his favorite girl. 

The drama continues in Serena North

This morning it was really rainy and wet. When I arrived at the den there were no hyenas visible and I wondered if it was even worth it to go out. I decided, after sitting for 45min at an empty den waiting for some action, that I would just do a quick loop by the river and see if anyone was down there.

When I got down to the river road I found Tinsel, Hurricane and Oakridge with a topi carcass. A few minutes after I arrived, Sherman (who I thought was the new matriarch) loped up to the carcass and chased everyone else off. I hung around with Sherman for a little while until continuing on down the road. About 300m away I found Waffles, LogCabin and Torani (the royal family that had fallen in rank, we thought). Waffles and LogCabin were acting very excited and were bristle tail parallel walking while Torani loped around after them. They were headed towards the carcass so I decided to turn around and follow them. I arrived back at the carcass just as Waffles and her two kids were arriving. Instantly, I knew LogCabin and Waffles meant business. LogCabin didn't waste anytime before approaching the carcass and bite shaking Sherman. Waffles is a little bit more benevolent than her daughter so she let LogCabin do most of the roughing up.

After LogCabin and Waffles chased Sherman I had to take a long detour to follow them (it was too wet to just drive straight after them). When I arrived, Waffles was standing eating the carcass with LogCabin and Torani. Sherman was out of sight. It was so exciting to finally see a face off between Sherman and Waffles. I don't know if this actually means that Waffles is still the Serena North matriarch or it just means that things are still really unstable but Waffles isn't giving up her throne easily. If Sherman gets her daughter and her two granddaughters together Waffles and LogCabin may not be able to keep up for long.

As I was driving away from all the excitement I saw some hyenas on the other side of the river. These weren't any hyenas that we study but I sat and watched them check out a crocodile while hippos look on anyway. This morning once again reminded me how absolutely amazing hyenas are and that I must have one of the coolest jobs around.