Moving Next Door

In the Mara, when male hyenas are between two and five years of age, they will leave the clan that they were born into (natal clan). The males are not kicked out of their natal clan, but in order to have breeding opportunities, they will need to immigrate to another clan. Over our years of research, we have found that males often move to a neighboring clan or a clan that is just one over.

One of my favorite things to see are our natal males, checking out and moving to another clan that we study. This is very exciting because we do not know where most of our immigrant males have come from or any details from their past. However, we have known these males since birth. We know their mother, natal rank, and many other valuable details.

Here are a few of them

1. Wailing Wall: Wawa was born into our Serena North clan. His mom was LCS who was a very low ranking female. Wawa has beaten the odds and successfully dispersed to the neighboring Happy Zebra clan, which we study as well.

Wawa as a cub out on an expedition with some adult males.

2. Strummer: Strummer's mom was Arrow, a mid-ranking female in our Serena North clan. Strummer has dispersed to our Serena South clan.

Strummer as a sub-adult before he immigrated.  

3. Voyager: Voya and his brother Gazr were both born into Serena South clan. Their mom, Komo, was the daughter of the matriarch and quite high ranking. Both boys have recently immigrated to Serena North clan. We are interested to see if both boys stay or if one will eventually move to another clan.

Voya as young cub.

4. Katana: Katana was born into Happy Zebra clan. His mom was and still is the matriarch of Happy Zebra. Katana first seemed to be settling into our Serena South clan, but then he changed his mind and ended up in our Serena North clan.

Katana looking handsome.