Hyena males! An ode to my favorite hyena: Jeep.

Eremet: The first hyena I ever IDed by myself. She was sacked out on the side of the road nursing her baby, Quetzal. Jeep, an immigrant male, was snoozing about 6m from the two of them. I watched as Eremet would get up to pace or readjust. Each time Quetzal would rise, clearly irritated, and begin to squitter for milk. This was pretty adorable, but it was Jeep that captured my attention. He opened his eyes and watched Eremet move. She strayed about 15m from Jeep before lying down. This was apparently too far for him, because he tentatively got up, stretched, and slowly crept back to sack out, again, about 6m from her. His eyes didn't leave her for a few minutes as if he was waiting to see if she'd move again, before shutting them once more. Over the next few weeks we freqeuntly saw Erem and Quetzal at that spot, and inevitably Jeep would also be there, gazing at Erem, but not engaging. He was just...present. How curious.

GAZR (male) stares lovingly at CRIM (a female).

The relationship between immigrant males and the rest of the clan is fascinating. For those unfamiliar with this aspect of hyena behavior, natal males in a clan usually leave around ages 3-5 in search of a new clan to mate. Sometimes males find a clan, hang out for awhile, realize life is too hard and come running home to mommy before seeking out a new clan again. Sometimes males will stop by several clans in before deciding on the one where they will remain. I got to watch little TERV, a South clan natal male, become an immigrant in North clan. We now frequently spot him hanging out with a group of Northies. When a male joins with a new clan, he drops to the absolute bottom of the hierarchy, lower than all the other immigrant males who are already lower than every natal clan member. It's a hard life to be a man (but hey, at least you don't have to give birth through your phallus).

It’s cute to see how the males have built relationships with females. Jeep has worked hard to get Eremet to tolerate him at 6m away, likely with the hopes that he will get the privilege of mating. You might see Erem and Quetzal feeding on the remains of a carcass while Jeep is sacked out 10m away, just watching. I spent much of the year totally enamored by Jeep and his ways. He is a particularly patient hyena.  I loved him so much that I began to be able to identify him just by the way that he walks or the sound of his whoop (I swear I can differentiate his whoop). See the video below for a prime example.

Jeep at Lugga Den (make sure your audio is on).

I absolutely love watching immigrant males interact with the clan. It’s bizarre to me how females seem to be moody with them. Sometimes a mom, like Eremet, will let an immigrant male hang out, while other times, she might run and chase him off even if he’s a good 50m away from the den. I’ve witnessed a group of moms totally tolerating TEMP’s presence, until CAMI, a young female, showed up and ran him off. I swear the other moms raised their head at CAMI when she came trotting back to the den as if to say “unnecessary.” We could still see poor TEMP wandering around about 100m away for the rest of the session. He's a good one...like Jeep. Very patient and the cubs love him.

OMHA (male) tentatively approaching THLS (female). 

I’m choosing to write about immigrant males, in particular Jeep, for my final blog post because it sums up a lot of my sentiments towards these creatures. I arrived not knowing much about hyenas at all. As I studied their behaviors a story began to form. By the end, it was like watching a movie...a movie where you know all the characters, yet the ending is always a surprise. When I first met Jeep, I had no idea what I was witnessing when I saw him sacked out just a few meters away from Eremet. I had no idea that it likely took him years to forge that relationship and that he actively works to earn that privilege. Or for example, take Wallflower, an old North clan immigrant male that all the females love. He has earned the right to come to the den and play with the cubs. I've even seen low ranking females act submissively toward him. He clearly has built a great circle of trust.

Jeep :)

On one of my last obs periods ever, Jeep came around to the den. I could hardly contain my excitement. He approached Eremet delicately, who was nursing her new baby Mushu. Jeep slowly walked around her, pausing only briefly to sniff her side, before sacking out about 6m away. I couldn't help but smile -- I'll miss you guys.

North Clan Excitement

It all started a couple of weeks ago while we were driving towards our North Clan* den. We first noticed more tour cars than usual stopping near the den before noticing the entire herd of elephants harassing the den. The elephants would run up, screaming and charging the den over and over. For nearly half an hour we watched this go on. Needless to say we didn't end up going to the den that night. We're already pretty cautious around elephants, but watching them harass the cubs was a whole new feeling. We were both intrigued and anxious at the same time. The hyenas didn't look like they shared our feelings however, they would run at the elephants in retaliation, not ever a threat to the elephants but standing their ground. I've never seen anything like it.

Elephants harassing the North Clan den

But the excitement didn't stop there!

This morning I woke up to the sound of what must have been close to 20 hyenas vocalizing. There were whoops, lows, and giggles. It was quite a ruckus. So I went to investigate. I could see hyenas charging at 4 female lions on a carcass and within seven minutes they had not only chased the lions off but nearly demolished the entire carcass. I even got to see one of our mom's provisioning for her cubs! She took off from the carcass with an entire leg and guarded her cubs from other hyenas as the cubs dug into the leg. It's astonishing how quickly the hyenas were able to not only chase off the lions but also demolish and entire carcass. And all before breakfast! It's always exciting here at Fisi Camp.

 One of the North Clan mom's bringing a leg back to her cubs.

 One of our hyenas carrying a whole ribcage!              

*North Clan is one of our three study clans here in the Mara Triangle.

Jambo from Kenya!

Hi all!

My name is Jana and I’m the newest research assistant at Serena camp. Abby (Talek’s new RA) and I both arrived in Kenya at the end of May and spent a couple of crazy days in Nairobi to stock up on camp supplies before splitting ways in the Mara. Although moving to a remote research camp in the Mara for a year seemed a little overwhelming at times, I was super excited to return to the home of the Big 5, get to know our hyenas, and be reunited with Erin, Serena’s current senior RA. (We actually became friends while learning about wildlife conservation and ecology in South Africa during college, so it only seems fitting that our first post-college reunion happened back in an African savannah).

For those of you who don’t know me, I graduated from Duke University in 2018. I’m primarily interested in human-wildlife conflict and the combination of technology and community involvement to address these conflicts. After graduation, I went to Brazil for a short field stint to set up camera traps in the Atlantic Rainforest, which will eventually help us track the effectiveness of local habitat restoration efforts in terms of wildlife presence/abundance. I also interned at the Nature Conservancy back in North Carolina, where I analyzed the possibility of planting pollinator-friendly vegetation on solar farms across the state to increase viable habitat for bees and other pollinators.

For the past two weeks, Erin and Lila (my co-RA for the majority of my time out here) have been working overtime to train me and get me up to speed with all things Fisi (which simply means hyena in Swahili). During my first night observing our hyenas, Erin told me to sit back, relax, and maybe try to differentiate some of the spot patterns of the various hyenas we saw. Needless to say, they all looked pretty similar to me. Since then, however, I’ve been able to successfully identify our cubs in North clan and Happy Zebra clan, and I’m slowly starting to learn the spot patterns for moms and subadults that like to frequent the dens. Honestly, it is so cool to be able to drive up to a den and recognize who all is there – I can’t wait to learn more about their behaviors and personalities this year!

Can you spot the difference? LOVE (in front) and BBOY are siblings from our North Clan.

Unfortunately, we’ve been getting quite a bit of rain in camp since I’ve arrived, which means that we can’t observe the hyenas as much as we’d like to. However, some of our North clan cubs have decided to take matters into their own hands – since we can’t come visit them, AANG and TARA (siblings from North clan) came to camp instead last week! I’d like to think that they mainly came because they missed us, but their attempt at stealing one of Erin’s buckets to play with begs to differ.

Overall, the past two weeks have been incredible, and I can’t wait to see what all this year has to offer. Tune in next month for another update. Oh, and don’t forget – hippos are in fact the most dangerous mammal in the Mara!

Tale of an Aging Matriarch

Waffles, the North Clan matriarch

If you’ve kept up with the blog for a while, you’ll no doubt know of Waffles the North Clan matriarch. Some time back, Waffles infamously rose in the ranks with the help of her female friends and went from the bottom of the hierarchy to the top. Since then, she has reigned peacefully, and we know her as one of the kindest and most forgiving matriarchs.

While I can’t claim to be as kind or as forgiving as Waffles, I do feel that our stories in the Mara run parallel. Just like Waffles, I came to Serena at the bottom of the hierarchy. As the newest RA, I quickly had to keep up with the pace of work –  learning how to ID hyenas, transcribe, and manage camp. I’m sure that Waffles experienced a similarly steep learning curve as she discovered her low rank in the clan, and how to hunt and defend herself against lions. Luckily, Waffles and I both had the help of some strong, female friends. While Waffles’ friends helped her to battle other hyenas for dominance, my fellow RAs patiently trained me and I slowly rose in rank from newbie to fully competent hyena researcher. Just like Waffles’ co-conspirators, my coRAs Kate and Erin rose with me and we became an unstoppable force of hyena research.

Erin, Kate, and I conquering the Mara, one obs sesh at a time

In recent months, a lot has changed in Serena – my year in the Mara is over, and, perhaps more shockingly, Waffles has lost the matriarchy. Again, it seems that Waffles’ and I have parallel journeys. 

Waffles’ adult granddaughter, Soup, is now the highest ranker in North clan. We always believed that when Waffles lost the matriarchy it would be with a quick but violent clash of fights and bloodshed, but the rank shift actually happened very quietly over the course of several months. We noticed a few scratches on both parties, and some unusual interactions in which Soup almost seemed dominant, but not quite. Waffles wasn’t ready to give up just yet. After a few months, Soup was winning all of their (infrequent and low level) aggressive interactions, and it was clear that Waffles had relinquished the throne.

In the same way, I believed that my time in the Mara would end with fireworks and fantastic sightings of events and animals I’d never seen before. But it didn’t. My goodbye to the Mara lasted for months and came in quiet moments that I didn’t realize were happening until my time was almost over. North clan moved dens to a spot right near camp, so I could hear the cubs whooping every night. I even spotted Waffles’ newest cubs, Illovo and Grenadine, in camp more than once. We had a few spectacular rainstorms that reminded me of how powerful and even scary the Mara can be sometimes. The sunsets and sunrises became, somehow, even more breathtaking than usual. Each quiet morning at the den, sitting with my favorite hyenas and sipping coffee as I watched the sun rise, felt more poignant.

One last spectacular Mara sunset

Don’t worry – Waffles doesn’t seem at all upset about losing her spot as matriarch. In fact, she seems to have accepted the change gracefully and is enjoying her retirement. Up next for me is graduate school! I begin my PhD in Biological Anthropology with Professor James Higham at New York University this fall. We have a new group of young and eager hyena researchers on their way to camp right now and, although I’ll miss the hyenas and the Mara’s spectacular views, I’m confident that they can manage without me. I can only hope I’ll handle all of the coming changes as gracefully as Waffles stepped down from the matriarchy.

I’m home

Jambo friends of the hyena project! I am Abby the new research assistant here at the Talek Camp of the Mara Hyena Project. I arrived exactly a week ago and let me say one thing... I’m finally home. 

I recently just graduated from Michigan State University studying both zoology and fisheries and wildlife. I started working for the hyena project as an undergraduate research assistant the spring of 2015. I’ve been working with the lab for about 4.5-5ish years now and it was truly one of the best decisions I’ve ever made throughout my college career. 

I am yet another student that was able to study abroad to Kenya studying animal behavior up close and personal. It was that trip that sparked my passion for research within the East African landscape. I was able to see hyenas, understand some of the behavior I’ve been reading up on and I left my heart here in the Mara for good. I am so thrilled to be back here gathering data hands on for the lab that has shaped me into the scientist I am today.

I’ve worked on a range of projects throughout the last five years. I was a carnivore technician for the Michigan Predator Prey Project helping to understand bear densities in the Upper Peninsula using bear hair snare techniques during the summer of 2018. I’ve helped with setting camera traps for bobcats within the lower peninsula of Michigan as well as tag and ID photos. I’ve also done other projects such as dealing with camera trapping data for feral swine in the Applied Forest and Wildlife Ecology lab at MSU and I’ve dabbled in DNA work on lake sturgeon and vegetable entomology work on campus. I’m now working on my own project in the hyena lab identifying hyena mortality causes in adults! Science has been my passion since I was a small girl and it’s privilege to make it my career.

Through it all I have continued my passion for the spotted hyena and my absolute love for this amazing species. Animal behavior has always been an interest of mine. Understanding how animals work, why they do what they do, and how their behaviors have evolved is incredibly important for work on conservation and management of species all around the world. 

Within the first week I’ve been here, the Mara has shown me some rain and the start of the great migration. There are thousands and thousands of wildebeest roaming the plains. I’ve experienced elephants chewing, breathing and swallowing right next to my tent at night and I’ve seen hyenas interacting with each other in various context. I’ve noticed the personalities of each hyena I’ve witnessed so far. I’ve been watching them and observing the behaviors I’ve read for so many years. Each individual is unique and I’m so excited to get to know them all. 

I am currently learning how to ID the hyenas, how the camp set up works and trying to set up a routine for myself. I cannot wait to be able to put names to the magnificent spot patterns and see what else the Mara has in store for me within the next year.

I’ll be here observing everything from the baboons in camp, the tracks in the mud, the skulls left behind and everything I can get from our hyena friends. I’m so excited to continue with the project and to learn more about the animals I’ve fallen in love within the last five years.

Until next time...