Thursday, September 12, 2013

Ratchet enjoying a good back scratch...

Posted by Lily J-U at 1:13 PM

Ratchet is the lowest ranking natal male in North clan, but he enjoys coming to the den to visit the cubs and have a good roll in the dirt of course! Emily and I were impressed with his good balance.

1 comment:

Scissors MacGillicutty said...

He looks like one happy hyena—and a handsome one too. I'm actually bit surprised that he's the lowest ranking natal male, as his ears are in such good shape. I was under the impression one can get a rough idea of a hyena's standing in their clan from the condition of their ears, as tugging and biting a subordinate hyena's ear is a favorite way of enforcing/reminding the subordinate of its status (or so I've come to believe—is that my mistake right there?)
Question: are there any known cases of male hyenas staying with the clan they're born into for life? Related to that: are there any known cases of a male mating with/having offspring by a female where both parents have been born into the same clan?
My thanks to all of you for sharing your experiences with and knowledge of these fascinating (and beautiful!) animals.

September 16, 2013 at 11:10 PM

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