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.