Greetings from Fisi camp! My name is Maya and I’m one of the newest research assistants for the Mara Hyena Project.
Thursday, September 28, 2023
Jambo from Maya
Tuesday, June 20, 2023
Jambo from Kayla Fowler!
Jambo! My name is Kayla Fowler, and I’m here to tell you a little bit about the time I spent this past semester with the Mara Hyena Project.
I always knew I wanted to work with animals. Living in Chicago meant frequent trips to Brookfield Zoo, and I would spend the entire day just watching the animals do what they do (sorry Mom and Dad – I know you probably didn’t want to spend an hour watching the zebras!). I grew to love and appreciate the animals, especially large mammals, and it became my dream to see these incredible species in the wild. In high school, I wanted to become more involved with Brookfield Zoo, so I joined their King Conservation Science Scholars program. Through the program, I was able to participate in some pretty amazing opportunities, including a week-long field research experience with the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program in Sarasota, Florida. That trip sparked my passion for animal behavior research, and as high school was drawing to a close, I directed my college search toward universities where I could continue to explore that passion. And that’s how I ended up at Michigan State!
At MSU, I am majoring in Zoology with a concentration in Animal Behavior and Neurobiology, with additional minors in both Documentary Production and Spanish. My goal is to one day combine everything I’ve learned to produce nature documentaries and other conservation-focused educational materials in a variety of languages. I started working with Dr. Kay Holekamp (you know who she is...) in January 2022, helping her compile data from research papers on the density and feeding ecology of spotted hyenas across Africa, and editing chapters of a book she is writing. I was so interested by what I was learning and wanted to get more involved in the animal behavior analysis, so I reached out asking how I could get more involved. (To be clear – I was envisioning myself reviewing videos of hyena behavior and helping analyze that data.). She took me completely by surprise and responded with an offer to spend my spring semester at the Mara Hyena Project’s field lab in Kenya. I was ecstatic! As only a sophomore, it was an absolute (and unexpected) dream come true.
I spent four months at the Project’s Serena Camp with Jana Woerner (who many of you already know from previous blog posts), and I can confidently say that the experience changed my life. Waking up every morning and being surrounded by such an incredible diversity of untouched nature and wildlife was a gift, and the work was so fun to be a part of (...although I could have done without mashing up stinky fecal samples. Yuck!). I worked with Jana to do the regular behavioral observations that the Project is responsible for year-round, and was also lucky enough to help with a special collaring project (which you can read about in the previous post) with the hyenas in South Clan.
Beyond that, I was able to take a couple of different brief trips to see other parts of Kenya, and was just stunned by the beauty everywhere I went. I’ve included some of my favorite moments from the experience below – I already miss it and can’t wait to go back! For now, I’ve returned to the States and will continue my studies at Michigan State in the fall. I will be continuing to work virtually with the Mara Hyena Project and hope to be back in Kenya sometime very soon.
At the risk of sounding like a long-winded Oscars speech, I’d like to thank a few people before I end this post:
First, Dr. Kay Holekamp – thank you. Thank you for offering me this once-in-a-lifetime experience, and for trusting me, supporting me, and encouraging me to follow my dreams. Thank you for being such a role model in the field of conservation and research, and for paving the way for students like me to follow in your footsteps. You are an inspiration. It has been such an honor to work with you, and I’m looking forward to what next year brings.
Jana Woerner – what can I say? You were the best research mentor and field buddy I could have asked for. Thank you for putting up with my ridiculous excitement at seeing all the animals (I promise, you’ll never have to stop for another impala for me again) and for being so supportive of my passions for photography and film (I know you didn’t want to spend 10 minutes with lions or a random elephant, but thanks for sticking it out). Thank you for all the uncontrollable laughs, your guidance and advice, and being such a good friend. I’m not sure what I would have done without you!
Thanks especially to Dr. Eli Strauss, Dr. Andy Gersick, and Dr. Frants Havmand Jensen, for all your insights into field research, conservation, and academia – I learned so much from you all during your time in camp and I look forward to continue working with all of you! Whenever I think of our hilarious conversations at dinner or the unfortunate situations we got ourselves into (like fishing a hyena collar out of a den), it always makes me smile.
Thank you to everyone who made me feel so at home during my time in Kenya. It can be isolating to live in a remote research camp, so I deeply appreciated the time we got to spend with these individuals and more. Thank you to Brian and Sue Heath, for graciously hosting us for dinners and taking us out on game drives; to Benson Pion and Junior Pion, for always cracking me up at the drop-offs and being such great friends and co-workers; to our guys – Philimon, Moses, and Stephen – for everything you do for us and Serena Camp (I’ll always remember the special birthday cake you made for me – you guys are the best!); to the Talek staff – Joseph, Samwell, and Chief – for always being so kind; to Warden Alfred Bett, Rakita, and Benson Ketere, for giving us some incredible sightings (including my first leopard, my first cheetah, and Risasi and her cubs); to Aruasa David, for the laughs and fun times over dinner and drinks; to Jake Wall (Mara Elephant Project) and his family – Christina, Willow, and Wolf – for being so kind and welcoming, and for being so receptive to my interest in MEP’s research; to Shachar Gelbart, for his hospitality and giving us such cool experiences with the balloon safaris; to Lenaipa Daniel Losieku, Robert Lemaiyan, and our ranger for making my time at Sarara Camp in Samburu so unforgettable; and especially to the groups that we had the pleasure of talking to throughout my time in Kenya – your interest in the Mara Hyena Project was so appreciated and we loved answering your questions!
Signing off for now – nitarudi tena! (I will come back again).

Saturday, October 8, 2022
Welcome to Mara Hyena Project's South Clan!
The Mara Hyena Project was established by Dr. Kay Holekamp in 1988 and has been studying the South Clan since 2008. We have two research camps in the Maasai Mara – one based in the Main Reserve, near Talek Town, and one based in the Triangle, near Serena Lodge. We are broadly interested in the ecology, behavior, and evolution of spotted hyenas. Right now, we are working on a large-scale research project to understand how communication drives coordination and decision-making in spotted hyena societies. To do so, we are collaring all hyenas 18 months or older in a single clan – the South Clan. These collars will record the GPS locations, activity levels, and vocalizations for every hyena in the clan for over one month.
SNUG running away with a baby thomson's gazelle she stole from a lower ranker. |
Spotted hyenas live in complex fission-fusion groups with stable dominance hierarchies. The fission-fusion dynamics of hyena society allow individuals to avoid competition at carcasses without sacrificing the benefits of group defense against neighboring hyenas and other competitors. We want to see how their vocalizations function to recruit clan-mates for group hunts and defense against lions and neighboring hyena clans.
Most collars will have unique color codes on the right side of the collar for easy identification of each individual. If you are in the Triangle and spot one of our collared hyenas, please leave us a comment below. You can also connect with us on Facebook (Mara Hyena Project), Instagram (@marahyenaproject), and Twitter (@MaraHyenas). This blog post will be updated regularly as we collar more individuals – we will include the name, color code, and some fun facts about each individual so you can get to know our South Clan 😊
A closer look at the color codes - these are read from top to bottom and there are four possible colors (blue, green, red, and white). This code is red, green, blue and belongs to MPRS. |
Although these hyena names may seem random to you, we do have a system! Each female hyena gets a theme (lineage) after which her offspring are all named. Adult males that immigrate into a clan are named after cities. Lastly, these names are abbreviated into 3-4 letter codes that we use in our data collection. For example, Waffles, a mom in our North Clan, is abbreviated as WAFL and all of her cubs are named after syrups. If you think you’ve cracked the code for some of our South Clan lineages, leave a comment!
Update from December 2022: We officially collard our 25th and final hyena, GYRO, at the beginning of the month. The research team is taking the rest of the year off to spend the holidays with their friends and families, restock on field supplies, and watch a World Cup game or two in Nairobi. We will be back in the field in time for January 1st, when our collars start recording all hyenas around the clock and the real fun begins!
Meet The Hyenas
Silver Nugget – SNUG
SNUG is the matriarch of South Clan. With the help of her sisters, she rose to the top of the dominance hierarchy when the old matriarch died in 2018. She successfully raised her daughters ISSA and MPRS to adulthood and currently has two cubs at the communal den.
Issidae – ISSA
ISSA is the 2-year-old daughter of the matriarch, SNUG. We suspect that she is currently pregnant for the first time and will hopefully give birth in November or December. Though female hyenas are sexually mature at 24 months, most don’t have their first litter until they are 3+ years old. However, high-ranking hyenas like ISSA are generally on the “fast track” to adulthood – they grow faster, wean earlier, and have their first litter sooner.Empress Cicada – MPRS
MPRS is the 4-year-old daughter of the matriarch, SNUG, and the older sister of ISSA. She was “second-in-command” to SNUG but is slowly being pushed down the dominance hierarchy as SNUG has more offspring. Hyenas follow what we call a “youngest ascendancy” rule – new cubs inherit the dominance rank immediately below that of their mother, making them higher ranking than their older siblings. MPRS currently has two cubs at the communal den.Jojo McDodd – JOJO
JOJO is the 3-year-old daughter of PALA. JOJO was the subordinate cub in her litter but was able to flourish when lions sadly killed her dominant sibling. Hyenas usually give birth to 1-2 cubs at a time. Immediately after birth, the two cubs fight over who becomes dominant. The dominant cub generally grows faster and fares better than the submissive cub, especially if the mother is low-ranking. JOJO is currently at a natal den, raising her first litter of cubs.
Update from December: JOJO unfortunately lost her first litter of cubs, though this is pretty common for first-time moms. Generally, hyenas are pregnant again within a month or two after losing a litter.
Sam I Am – SAMI
SAMI is the 5-year-old daughter of PALA and the older sister of JOJO. She is currently raising her second litter at the den, a single cub named TOD. However, she likes to keep her distance from the main action. As a mid-ranker, this behavior seems to be more typical: one of the lab’s former PhD students found that mid-ranking hyenas actually have smaller social networks (friends/alliances) than low- and high-ranking hyenas.Seabiscuit – BSCT
BSCT is a 9-year-old female and currently has one cub that is becoming independent of the den. After a brief period at the natal den, spotted hyenas bring their cubs to a communal den. Each communal den functions as a social “hot spot” for the clan and allow the cubs to meet the other clan members. Once the cubs are 8-12 months old, they start to explore the territory and venture farther away from the den until they no longer reside there at all. We call this process “den graduation.”Rachel Carson – RACH
RACH is a subadult male who grew up during the pandemic. His mother has been missing since last year, so his only remaining kin is his cousin, DETH. RACH is almost 3 years old; he will likely leave South Clan soon to find a new clan. Right before dispersal, subadult males tend to distance themselves from the other natal animals – we generally see them hanging out with immigrant males, other subadults who may be dispersing soon, or by themselves along the edge of the territory.Death Star – DETH
DETH is a 9-year-old female and the granddaughter of the former matriarch, JAVA. She was pushed from the top of the hierarchy to the bottom third when SNUG and her sisters took over after JAVA’s death. Generally, a matriarch’s youngest adult daughters will fight over the matriarchy when she dies, but both Happy Zebra and South Clan experienced drastic hierarchy shifts after the deaths of their most recent matriarchs. Since losing her high rank, DETH has not been able to raise any of her litters to adulthood successfully.
Honor Harrington – HONR
HONR is an 8-year-old female that is relatively low-ranking. She had her first litter when she was 5 years old (recall that the high-ranking ISSA may already be pregnant at 2). HONR is currently at a natal den, though we have not seen her new cubs yet. Spotted hyenas give birth in a secluded den (natal den), where they keep their cubs for 2-4 weeks before bringing them to the communal den.
Update from December: HONR moved her cubs to the communal den for a couple of weeks, before ultimately moving them to her sister's natal den.
Capellini – CAPE
CAPE is a 2-year-old male subadult and a master of disguise. In the Mara Triangle, we rarely see den-graduated cubs and subadults during our regular observation sessions. Many earlier blog posts have alluded to this, but the tall grass, wallows, and rocks all provide perfect cover for the hyenas to hide from us (or, more likely, lions). And if you thought that having VHF tracking on these collars would make things easier, think again! The other night, I drove by CAPE three times before I finally found him sleeping in the shade of a massive boulder.
Jean-Luc Picard – JLP
JLP is a 12-year-old adult female in the lowest-ranking matriline of the clan, and the mother of KNIN and MCKY. She is currently at her natal den, nursing ACE, the newest addition to South Clan. Like most low-ranking hyenas, JLP is one of our more elusive individuals and spends most of her time away from the more gregarious high rankers. In fact, we nearly gave up on darting her until the GPS points from HONR, JLP’s sister, led us right to her natal den. Phew!
Mickey Smith – MCKY
At 23 months old, MCKY is the youngest hyena to wear one of our collars. She is currently at the tail-end of the most dangerous life stage for hyenas: the time between den graduation and adulthood. During this time, young hyenas often venture out on their own, or with their littermate if they have one, and encounter all types of troubles… namely lions, but also the risk of starvation as their slow skull development puts them at a huge disadvantage while feeding. However, the odds of survival increase dramatically when a hyena turns 2 years old, so we have our fingers crossed for MCKY!
K9 – KNIN
KNIN is our lowest-ranking female in the clan. Life’s not easy at the bottom of the hierarchy, but she seems to manage just fine! She is currently raising her second litter of cubs at the communal den and usually has a full belly when we see her. Maybe she’s a talented hunter? Time (and our collar data) will tell! We did find one surprise while collaring her: she is missing one of the toe pads on her hind right paw. We didn’t see any scars, so she was likely born this way.KNIN's foot with the missing "toe." |
Texas Slim – SLIM
SLIM is a 9-year-old immigrant male who stems from North Clan. He joined South Clan in December 2015, making him the highest-ranking adult male in South. Unlike natal animals, immigrant males follow a “queueing” system for their dominance rank: when a male joins a new clan, he usually becomes the lowest ranking hyena in the entire clan. To rise in rank, he must wait for the immigrant males who have been around for longer than him to die or move on by dispersing again to a different clan.Strummer – STRM
STRM migrated from North Clan to South Clan in 2016, making him one of our long-term males in South. Research shows that spotted hyena males undergo an “endurance rivalry”, meaning that they generally must stay in their new clan for at least 2 years before siring their first cub. This is not always an easy feat as the lowest-ranking members of the clan, but STRM seems to have made close alliances with STAR, one of our females, and SLIM, another long-term immigrant.
Bakersfield – BAKR
BAKR is one of the immigrant males in South Clan. We are not sure which clan is his natal clan (where he was born), but we’re sure glad he chose South as his new home! Although female spotted hyenas stay in their natal clan for their entire lives, males usually disperse when they are sexually mature to find mates. This is an important aspect of hyena ecology that prevents inbreeding.Silver Spring – SLVR
SLVR is an adult male who immigrated into South Clan at the end of 2019. Immediately after collaring SLVR, he decided to go on a “vacation” to Tanzania. Our GPS data indicate that KNIN, a lower-ranking adult female, also went to Tanzania for a few days, and several other hyenas have gone on excursions outside of South territory in the past couple of weeks. These hyenas are likely trying to find food as the migration has officially moved back to Tanzania, leaving South territory with relatively few prey animals.Momo – MOMO
MOMO is a 7-year-old immigrant male originally from our North Clan. MOMO’s mother is a high ranker in North Clan, so MOMO enjoyed the “sweet life” before emigrating. However, once males immigrate into a new clan, they behave submissively to all hyenas they encounter, which makes them automatically lower ranking than all natal clan animals. MOMO seems to have adjusted well to the drastic decline in rank: we found very few scratch/bite marks on his body, and research shows that males who were higher-ranking in their natal clan often have an easier time when immigrating into a new clan.Lexington – LEXI
LEXI immigrated into South Clan at the beginning of 2020, which seemed to be a hectic time for the clan. During the span of 2 weeks, we saw 9 new aliens in the territory, 8 of which officially joined the clan. Unfortunately, all researchers had to leave the field around this time because the pandemic, so we’re still not sure what caused this immigrant boom.Friday, August 19, 2022
How to dart a hyena
Hi all,
It’s been a busy time in Fisi Camp (“fisi” means “hyena” in Swahili for those of you who are new to the blog), so this will be a short and sweet update. We are currently prepping for a massive study on communication and coordination in spotted hyenas (read more here: https://www.movecall.group/what-we-do). If all goes well, we will be deploying custom-made collars on all juveniles and adults in our Serena South Clan starting this fall. These collars will record all vocalizations, fine-scale movements, and GPS locations of each individual, allowing us to monitor the clan around the clock for a few months. Very exciting!!
We are currently finishing up a small pilot project to test out the collars to make sure that everything works. Last month, we deployed collars on two very lucky KCM females (BRGR and BLLN). Here’s a “behind-the-scenes” look into what it takes to get these collars on:
Step 1: Find the hyena.
This is often easier said than done. Not only do we need to find a specific individual (luckily this time any adult female hyena in KCM clan was good), but we also need to make sure that they are in a “good” darting situation. This means that they are ideally in short grass, away from any water sources, and with no other predators nearby.
Step 2: Dart the hyena.This is left to the professionals – we had two vets from Kenyan Wildlife Services who helped us with this step. It is important to note that we darted and handled all individuals with the proper permits. I very highly do NOT recommend that you go out and dart your neighborhood hyena after reading this blog post.
Step 3: Wait for the hyena to go down.We generally have to wait 10-15 minutes for the anesthetics to work their magic before we can approach the darted individual. On an unrelated note, these drugs also work great as a hyena laxative.
Step 4: Collect biological samples and body measurements.Dartings give us a unique opportunity to collect critical data about the hyenas that we wouldn’t be able to get from purely observational studies. We generally collect blood, saliva, paste, and hair samples, as well as body and dental measurements.
Step 5: Fit the collar.
Now comes the fun part: attaching our precious collars to the individual. This is a pretty simple step – we just need to ensure that the collar is loose enough to not cause discomfort, but tight enough to not fall off easily.
Step 6: Let the hyena recover.
Once we’re done collecting our samples and attaching the collar, the vets will administer the antidote. Within 10-20 minutes, the hyena is awake and ready to rumble (with a fancy new necklace!)
Thursday, June 30, 2022
Jambo from Kenya: Part 3
Hi all, I’m backkkk!
For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Jana (Yah-nah) and I’ve been working with the Mara Hyena Project for a little over three years now. I started out as a Research Assistant in our Serena Camp in 2019, before joining the lab officially as a PhD student last summer. After finishing my first year of classes at MSU, I returned to Kenya at the beginning of last month to help teach BEAM, a study-abroad course run through the Holekamp lab for MSU undergrads. After BEAM, I spent a couple of weeks in Serena Camp before heading over to Talek Camp. That’s right! This Serena girl is making the Big Move to Talek!* If everything goes according to plan, I will be working with the Pond Clan over in Talek until April 2023 for my dissertation research. So, if you’re a Talek fan, rejoice! This blog will be featuring lots of exciting updates in the next coming months. And if you’re a Serena fan, fret not! This post will focus exclusively on our beloved clans, and I hope to visit Serena Camp while I’m out here. So, let’s get started!
*For our new readers, we have two camps: Talek Camp, which is in the Main Reserve, and Serena Camp, which is in the Mara Triangle. These two camps allow us to compare how hyenas respond to different management strategies and disturbance levels.
South Clan
OWEN, the dominant cub of MPRS's first litter |
Happy Zebra Clan
CHET, JLYR's latest offspring and one of the newer cubs at the HZ den |
North Clan
YANA, daughter of the current matriarch and hopefully future matriarch of North Clan |
North Clan has been unusually elusive. During the nine months that I was back in the States, David only had their communal den for 3 weeks. Unfortunately, half of their territory turns into an impenetrable swamp during the rainy seasons, so our den hunting is very limited during those times. However, the long rains are officially over as of last week, so hopefully the territory will dry up soon. Either way, the North Clan hyenas graced us with a big hippo carcass, so I was able to confirm that the two most important hyenas are still alive: WAFL and YANA. WAFL was even nice enough to deposit a fecal sample for me to collect – science at its finest! *WAFL: Waffles, YANA: Solyanka
Spotted in Serena:
MPRS with her two cubs, DYDA and OWEN |
I may have lost some of my photography skills while I was gone... |
Staying warm on a cold and rainy morning |
South Clan getting ready to steal a warthog from three lionesses |
ANUB showing off the hippo skull he found |
What a gorgeous field site! |
Some quality bonding time between two brothers |
ELDR from Happy Zebra following the buffalo |
Lions are thriving in the Triangle right now! |
Cub cuddle puddle |