Hi all,
Serena has been incredibly busy this month – the migration is slowly starting up, with the first batch of zebras starting to cross into the Triangle; my new coworker finally arrived to camp last week; and I have lots of visitors coming for the rest of the summer. Nonetheless, I wanted to share some exciting news with our devoted hyena followers: after ~4 months of extreme den hunting (rock fields, swamps, wallows, mud… you name it, I drove through it…), I finally found our Happy Zebra communal den!! So without further ado, please meet the current residents of Eyrie D2 (named in honor of the Mara Raptor Project, who helped me find our cubs):
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| BRRY - Charlotte de Berry; Mom: JLYR (Jolly Roger) |
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| ANNE - Anne Bonny; Mom: JLYR (Jolly Roger) |
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| PYXI - Pyxis; Mom: TULA (Tarantula) |
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| SOLO - Song of Solomon; Mom: ANDO (Andor) |
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| SARA - Black Assarca; Mom: OMLY (Grace O'Malley) |
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| QUEN - Sequence; Mom: CSBY (Cosby) |
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| ARCH - Archean; Mom: COEL (Coelacanth) |
The Fight to Rule Them All – Matriarch Update!
Now that we have the communal den, we can finally observe more interactions, allowing us to slowly figure out who the new matriarch could be. EREM is officially disqualified (LANC and EREM were my original top contenders as both of them are high rankers who sustained intense ear damage while I was gone), making my new top choice JLYR! Although she has not aggressed onto a lot of other hyenas so far, her daughter, OMLY, is very feisty at the moment. If somebody’s starting a “fight” at the den, chances are OMLY’s involved.
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| Potential Matriarchs: Green - top contender; Orange - potential contender; Red - no longer in the race |
I was guessing OMLY just to be different! It's cool to be so close.
ReplyDeleteWouldn't FEMI also be a potential matriarch, due to being the youngest daughter of Pike?
ReplyDeleteFEMI was only 2/2.5 years old when PIKE died, so she was likely too young to take over. It’s still a possibility though!
DeleteAny of the females could take over, if they're old enough.
ReplyDeleteAlso, why were Eremet and Lance disqualified from being the next potential matriarch?
I’ve seen both EREM and LANC behave submissively towards other hyenas (same thing with BARD). If I remember correctly, LANC appeased to BARD; EREM and BARD both appeased to JLYR and OMLY. Of course, I’ll need to collect more data and it’ll likely take at least another month or so to officially confirm who is/isn’t the new matriarch!
DeleteThanks.
ReplyDeleteJust something I've been wondering for some time: but is it common for a clan to use more than one communal den at the same time?
ReplyDeleteHappy Zebra does have a tendency to use two communal dens at the same time - a bigger one and a small one that mainly has lower ranking moms. Lila and I suspected that North also had a smaller second den at one point in 2019, but we weren’t able to find it.
DeleteThanks, again!
ReplyDelete