Teen Moms and Koi's Female Army

Eremet (Pike's daughter) and Pike with their four little black cubs. Chakram and Trebuchet (Pike's cubs) are the front most and back most cubs with the white eyebrows. Spyro and Falkor (Erem's cubs/Pike's grandcubs) are the two smaller black cubs in between Chak and Treb (nursing from Eremet). 

It’s cub season now and all three clans have very active communal dens. Most of the cubs are around 3 months old now and are showing their spots as well as their personalities. This year Koi, Happy Zebra Clan's former alpha, would have been the grandmother to 2-4 new cubs and the great grandmother to 5-7 new cubs if she hadn’t been killed by a lion a few years ago. When Pike took the matriarchy after her mother’s death she started a tradition of teen moms or “babies having babies” as we’ve been calling it. Most female hyenas won’t have cubs until they’re over 3 years old and many not until they’re 4 or 5 (lower ranking hyenas tend to wait longer before having their first cubs). Pike was only 3 years old when she took the matriarchy and she already had two cubs Boomerang and Katana when she was 2 years old.

Arbalet, Boomerang, and Boomerang's two new 3-4 week old cubs RumG and Plank. 

KOI - f (died 02Jun11)

            PIKE (30Oct07) – f

                        TREB (09Dec13) - ?

                        CHAK (09Dec13) - ?

                        CLAY (23Jan13) – f

                        ARBA (26Sep11) – f

                                    TULA (?) - ?

                        EREM (26Sep11) – f

                                    SPYR (22Dec13) - ?

                                    FLKR (22Dec13) - ?

                        BOOM (16Feb10) – f

                                    RUMG (14Nov13) - ?

                                    PLNK (14Nov13) - ?

                                    SWAG (23Oct12) – m

                                    JLYR (23Oct12) – f

                        KATA (16Feb10) – m

            SNAP (30Oct07) – f

                        MOJI (5Nov12) – f

            COEL (31Aug10) – f

Above: The linear hierarchy for Happy Zebra clan (only showing Koi’s descendants). Birthdays are in parentheses followed by sex. Offspring are tabbed once underneath their mothers. 

Boomerang and Plank.

Now, at 6 years old she has already had five cubs, four girls and one boy. Her son Katana (now 4 years old) is in the process of dispersal and we’ve seem him hanging out with both south and north hyenas. Katana’s littermate Boomerang was our second teen mom, giving birth to two cubs when she was 2 years old. This year she’s 3 and already has another two cubs who are growing up big and strong. Boomerang’s younger sisters are also, to our amazement following tradition, teen moms for the first time this year. Eremet has two cubs and Arbalet has one.

Plank, Boomerang's cub, was very explorative from a very young age.

Claymore, Pike’s youngest daughter at 1 year old, seems very confused by the sudden switch from being the baby of the family to almost completely ignored. Her two older sisters Arbalet and Eremet used to be her constant playmates and with Pike as her mother she was the clan’s princess. Now her mother and older sisters all have new babies. Most hyena cubs nurse for over a year, but Pike’s family seems to have no problem getting more than enough to eat and all of them are having new cubs every

year, meaning Clay was actually weaned at a little less than one year old. She doesn’t seem too happy but Clay has plenty to eat, just no more milk.

Boomerang carrying Plank back to the den. 

For comparison to Pike’s “baby making machine” family her take a look at her littermate Snapper and her younger sister Coelacanth. Snapper in this same time period has had only one surviving cub, Mojito. Coel finally had her first two cubs this year but we're not sure they survived. We also think Snapper has new cubs this year but we haven’t seen them yet. If I were to post the entire linear hierarchy for the entire clan you would see that Koi’s descendants make up almost half the clan! Considering their high rate of reproduction in the last 4 years this isn’t surprising.

Boomerang nursing RumG and nuzzling Plank. 

Welcome to the world!

Tracy and Brian and I were driving home from a foray this morning into the territory of the Mara River clan, when we stumbled upon a female giraffe standing out in the middle of a hug tall-grass plain all by herself. Or so we thought until we noticed a wee head with huge ears poking out of the grass at her feet. This female giraffe had just given birth a couple of minutes earlier; the afterbirth was still emerging, the baby was coated in amniotic fluid, and it couldn't yet stand up. The mother kept scanning the horizon as though on the lookout for potential danger to her newborn. She repeatedly switched between scanning and nudging her infant as though to encourage it to get up. As occurs in many species of mammals, it appeared that this female had given birth at a place and time of day when her baby would face the fewest risks. Although the Mara is teeming with large carnivores that would happily take advantage of a vulnerable infant like this one, none were about on this plain at 9:30 this morning.

We were all thrilled and fascinated to be so privileged as to witness this initial interaction of a newborn giraffe with its world, so we stuck around and watched for awhile. The baby tried several times to stand, but kept tumbling back into the grass at its mother's feet before it finally made it up onto its very wobbly legs. The mother promptly began licking the amniotic fluid off the calf, but that was apparently just too much for it, and the baby tumbled back into the grass again. Finally, the calf made it to its feet again, and this time seemed a bit steadier.

After standing against its mothers' forelegs for a few minutes, the calf began nosing around until, after several minutes, it finally stumbled upon the mothers' teats. It appeared to take several minutes of suckling (quite noisily!) for the mother's milk to start flowing, but when we drove away the calf was happily nursing below it's mother's belly.

Hierarchy, interrupted?

RBC is the current (?) alpha female of North clan. She's a tough girl alright, when she has to be, but her personality leaves much to be desired. I can't tell you how many times I've been at a den, struggled to keep up with all the hustle and bustle that usually accompanies den sessions with lots of cubs, but had this one, oddball hyena sacked out (usually deep in tall grass and covered in mud) that didn't move an inch the entire time. Take a quick look at her ear and, sure enough, it's RBC. She's the hyena that doesn't even put her head up when 5 other females lope away from the den, whooping like crazy. Her cub will be 'wrongfully' aggressed on by other, lower-ranking cubs and she just chills out. For some unknown reason, she just can't be bothered.

DIGS is the current (?) #7 female of North clan. During my short 7-month tenure, she's been somewhat of a transient hyena. We would see her often-ish at the communal den, usually sacked out and nursing her cub (who is now a subadult), SANA. She never seemed to be in the center of activity, but she was never the loner at her own exclusive den, either. It wasn't shocking to see her at the dens with everyone else, but it also wasn't shocking when she would go missing for a week or more.

Both of these ladies made a contribution to the baby boom of late. TYPH (Typhoon, RBC's cub) is almost 4 months old and seems to be doing well. MARI (Mariana, DIGS' cub) is almost 2 months old and also seems to be growing steadily.

Just a couple of weeks ago I witnessed - what I believe to be - a pretty extraordinary event. I showed up at one of the communal dens to find RBC bleeding from fresh puncture wounds on the left side of her belly. She also had a little blood coming out of her mouth. She seemed to be just fine walking around, but I could tell it was uncomfortable for her to sack out.

I was surprised to see her up and moving around, which was when she started doing some weird stuff. After some low-grade aggressions on some lower-ranking hyenas (normal), RBC went bristle-tailed (showing excitement), wandered around, groaned, and pawed the ground. A lot. Ground-pawing is something that is most commonly done by males when courting females. Hyenas also paw the ground after urinating or defecating. There's speculation that it may also play a role in scent marking (this alternative purpose of ground-pawing is something I read in an outdated book on hyenas that suggested there could be interdigital glands that release a substance used for marking. I don't know if there have been recent studies on the phenomenon). Males do it randomly when no females are around, so I'm inclined to believe that there are motivations other than courtship. Before this day, the only other time I had seen a female paw the ground was after urinating or defecating.

Soon after this DIGS arrived at the den. In response to DIGS' presence, RBC immediately giggled and went into a submissive posture (and was still bristle-tailed). Um, WHAT? I had to take a few extra minutes to confirm that I had the IDs correct. Yup, I definitely saw what I saw. Rumor has it that not even Kay has heard an alpha female giggle. Later, it happens again. RBC was bristle-tailed, in submissive posture, and giggling, while DIGS was bristle-tailed, groaning, and sniffing her.

I know what you're thinking. RBC is hurt. RBC wanted to prevent any potential conflicts or confrontations to avoid over-exertion while injured. Definitely, definitely possible, especially because it seemed like her submission wasn't elicited by any aggression on DIGS' part. However, that doesn't explain RBC's voluntary participation in aggressive interactions before and after her giggling bouts with DIGS (which happened with an intensity that seemed uncharacteristic of RBC, but pretty standard for most adult females).

Perhaps RBC and DIGS got caught up in some altercation and DIGS is actually the cause of RBC's puncture wound (I also noticed later in the session that DIGS had a wound on her right cheek, suggesting they were both involved in an antagonistic interaction, perhaps with each other, lions, and/or other hyenas). If DIGS did indeed hurt RBC, intentionally or otherwise, I can understand RBC's immediate submission.

Or, DIGS is working her way up in the world. Just this morning DIGS seemingly had it in for JONI, who currently sits in the #4-5 spot. DIGS' aggressions were clearly not cub-related (maternal interventions, which I alluded to in my previous post, are common and don't necessarily follow the strict hierarchy), and JONI appeased like she was standing at the door to heaven.

To be fair, we don't know as much about the rankings as we'd like to. I'm speaking for Serena camp, now; I suspect that Talek camp - the mzee of fisi camps - has a pretty good idea of who should be submissive to whom in their own clans. But after studying our hyenas for only 3 years, we are still trying to sort out the pecking order these guys have in place for themselves. So, really, a big switcheroo of (what we know to be) the rankings shouldn't be all that surprising to us, given how little we actually know.

Keeping that in mind, it's still fascinating. For the past 7+ months it seemed like our ladies had been behaving consistently with what we thought was their place in the hierarchy. But given that there have been only 2 instances of possible change in one month, it is all the more clear to me why still, after 3 years, we have not yet been able to fine-tune the rankings with the limited data that we do have.

Baby Boom

We live exciting lives, us hyena researchers. Chasing carnivores across the African savanna, witnessing the couple-second transition of an ungulate full of life to an ungulate as an early-morning snack, and getting regular, nighttime visitors in camp (namely hippos, buffalo, and elephants). However, in my opinion, there are few events more exciting than the first glance of a brand new hyena cub.

It all started at the end of September. We had finally re-discovered the active den sites of all three (Serena) clans, and the hyenas were more social than usual. It was an exciting time, especially for me as a new(ish) RA on the project; I finally felt comfortable with a majority of the spot pattern IDs and the daily behavioral data collection. I was learning behaviors, and the hyenas were giving it to me.

Then we started noticing that certain females were acting unusually protective of their dens, typically never going more than a meter or two away from the hole unless it was to chase away other hyenas. We started seeing low-ranking females act aggressively towards higher-ranking females. Unusual, considering the strictly-followed social hierarchy of spotted hyenas.

Finally, I saw my first little black cub. Only 4 weeks old: about a tenth the size of its mother with pure black, velvety fur, bare, stretchy skin under the arms, a thin, wormy-looking tail, and fearful eyes. Who would have thought that such gnarly, tough creatures could start off looking so cute and fragile? (though I think hyenas of ALL ages are cute)

The next day we discovered that this cub had a twin. We showed up at the den and the new mama was nursing not one, but TWO cubs. By the end of the week we discovered 4 more brand new cubs in this clan (Happy Zebra). By the end of the month our other two clans also decided to hop on the baby bandwagon. 3 cubs in North, 2 cubs in South.

I was excited. I got to name some cubs and come up with lineages for new moms. It was fun to watch the cubs grow up and gain their confidence (for the first couple months most cubs will shy away from a blade of grass that blows in the wind). Slowly the cubs went from being all-black to having a dusting of white fur on their faces and foreheads. Eventually, spots started to develop on their shoulders and forelegs. Almost, just barely, enough to start differentiating between the little black fur balls.

Then came the boom. November and December yielded 22 new black cubs. January, 11. Still exciting, but now stressful. 33 more individuals to name, age, sex, and keep track of at the dens. More often than not we would find a batch of unaccounted-for cubs at a den and not learn who the mothers were until days or weeks later (when we finally saw them nursing). As soon as the cubs got old enough I was scrambling to take photos of their one or two shoulder spots just to try and figure out who everybody was. Without nursing information, or having spots to go by, there was virtually no way to confirm the identities of these young cubs.

So I've been busy. I'm trying my best to manage the influx of new hyenas while still discovering more. Just this month I've seen 5 more new cubs, and I'm waiting on at least one more subadult-now-turned-adult female whom I saw with a torn phallus recently (MSTL, for those of you in the know).

We've even had two litters of triplets, a rarity in the hyena world (and the first, for the Serena side): CLOV, the alpha female in South clan, and SILK, a low-ranking female in Happy Zebra clan. We have already, unfortunately, confirmed the death of one of CLOV's cubs, MAYO. It survived to be about 2.5 months old. I have not seen SILK or her cubs in quite a while, so their fate is unknown as of yet.

Otherwise, cub mortality seems to be low. I am only certain of one other disappearance, but I suspect there are 3 more. With the clans' best interests in mind, I hope these cubs live. We are starting to see some of the subadult males less and less, which means they're probably dispersing. I find it hard to believe that our already-small clans are at carrying capacity, so we could use the boost in numbers. With my own self-interests in mind, I REALLY hope these cubs live. I would (will) be devastated to see some of these cubs go, especially after having watched them grow up as if they're my own. They're already showing unique personalities. And they're just cute. See below.

Who be that?!

One of my favorite parts of my job, silly as it seems, is naming hyenas. We have a fancy naming scheme to help us keep track of which hyenas are related. As soon as a hyena has her first litter of cubs we assign her a 'lineage' theme. These cubs and all the cubs she has after are given names that relate to this theme. For example, Murphy's (the alpha female of the Talek West clan) lineage is "Greek gods and goddesses" so her cubs have been named Helios, Adonis, Artemis, Morpheus, and Dionysus, just to name a few.

Immigrant males require a different system because the vast majority of the time we do not know their mothers. All immigrant males are named after cities and towns.

I get irrationally excited about naming cubs and thinking up new lineages. The hyenas can't mature fast enough for me to run out of lineage ideas that I want to use and the adult females can't pop out enough cubs for me to run out of name ideas for the lineages I really enjoy. Plus, when conversation gets slow around camp and we're looking for entertainment, cub names and lineages are inexhaustible discussion topics.

I'm also very proud of the hyenas I have had the honor of naming so far. My favorite hyena has turned out to be Gambit, a hyena I named in the Fig Tree clan. He/she (we're not sure what sex it is yet) was the first cub born to Potter so I was able to start the X-men lineage off with him. Not only was Gambit born on the day of my arrival in Kenya, but he/she has also turned out to be a pretty spunky little cub. Gambit is always "play romping" and "play biting" with the other bigger cubs at the den and even has the gall to be pesky to Carol Doda, one of our most grumpy hyenas.

Other successful naming endeavors include Wozzeck, The Cunning Little Vixen (both from the operas lineage), Aero, Krackle (chocolate bars lineage, Levi's, Wrangler (brands of jeans lineage), Cherry Garcia, Karamel Sutra (Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Flavors lineage), and Rough and Ready (immigrant male lineage; and yes, this really is the name of a town in California. It's a great place, look it up).

Ahh, the miracle of life

It sounds so pleasant and innocuous when one describes giving birth as a “miracle,” but from what I can gather, from the point of view of the mother it’s more along the lines of “yeah, it’s a miracle all right—it’s a miracle that I survived this hell and thank god it’s over.” Full disclosure to readers: I have never given birth. Despite my own “nulliparity” (from the Latin, “nullus”=none + “parere”=bear children), birth has been on my mind a lot lately, mostly because my best friend, Perrin, is about to pop out her first child any day now (shameless plug: not just any child, but my very own goddaughter).

Hyena mamas carry their young around in their bellies for 110 days before sending them out into the world. I know what all you mamas are thinking—“wimps! I carried my child around for two and a half times that long!” Well, that may be true, but you should know that elephant mamas have you beat; their pregnancies last 22 months. Maybe you need to read that one more time to really let it sink in: that’s right, in the time it takes an elephant mama to make ONE baby, you could have made TWO. Betcha feel like kind of a slacker now, don’t you?

Anyway, I digress (what else is new). The point of this story is that I saw my very first live birth the other day. It was a topi mama, and she was just standing in the middle of a field. At first it looked like she was pooping, but upon closer inspection we saw that she was actually about to give birth to a calf. I took video of the birth itself, which I can't post here unfortunately, so thanks to Andy for the first photo.

It was pretty amazing, mostly because of how quickly it happened. Her entire labor lasted less than two minutes…the calf just slid right on out like it was popping out of the bottom of a water slide. It was covered in amniotic fluid and was very endearingly confused. Interestingly, though, the mama topi seemed equally confused. She had a look that said, “I don’t know what just happened, but I REALLY didn’t like it. By the way, did anyone notice that some crazy alien just popped out of my butt??” In fact, after the birth was over, she wandered away from her newborn calf and stood with some other mamas that had more well-established calves (i.e. at least a day or two old—see last photo) and just stared in the direction of her calf, stopping occasionally to graze. We had to agree with her that those clean, fuzzy calves looked a lot cuter and a lot more inviting than her own messy one, but that didn’t stop us from shouting (softly, inside the car), “For crying out loud, stop eating grass and go tend to your bleeping baby!!!”

We watched from afar for a little while as the mother wandered farther away from the spot where her calf lay. It had started to lick itself clean and had made a couple attempts at standing up, although to no avail. However, during the time we watched it, it did make solid progress, leaving us optimistic that it would stand up and its mother would notice it and remember, “Oh, wait a minute, that’s mine and I’m supposed to take care of it,” which is entirely possible. Well, actually, everyone’s definition of “optimistic” is different. Audrey and I, Future-Mothers-of-America, were optimistic that the mama would retrieve it and the topi calf would have a happy ending. Andy was optimistic that she would forget all about it and a bunch of hungry hyenas would stumble upon it and have a jolly good time arguing over who got the choice cuts. We left before any of our versions could be spoiled by something as bothersome as the truth.

So today’s life lesson is just for Perrin: when the time comes for you to have your baby, try to stay focused. Yes, I hope for your sake the process is as quick as it was for the topi. But I hope for your baby’s sake that you don’t become forgetful and sidetracked and wander away from her to check out the hospital’s cafeteria.