A Reconciliation

Dear Migration,

I know I haven’t tried to contact you since you left in November. I’m sorry, my pride kept me away. You were right to leave me. I was taking you for granted, just like you said. I had no idea how hard life would be without you around. I’m so sorry I pushed you away. The rains came just after you left and the grass grew so tall without you here to mow it down. Half the time we can’t even find the hyenas, and when we can, we can’t ID them because the grass is so tall and thick its impossible to see their spots. Ticks are breeding like crazy and I’ve found six of them on me in the last two days. That never used to happen when you were around. I’m so sorry I took you for granted. I’m so sorry I pushed you away. I’m so sorry I let my pride get the best of me and didn’t contact you until now. I’m nothing without you and I miss you so much. Life in the Mara just doesn’t hold the joy it used to when you were here. Please please please come back home. I’m ready to take the next step and I'll do whatever it takes to show you I'm ready. I love you. Please come back.

Yours always,

Kenna

Kenna dazzles IDing border patrol participants

OK, you’ve seen from her blog posts that Kenna has a great sense of humor, but let me tell you a little bit about her ability as an observer of hyena behavior out here in the bush. We arrived at the den yesterday morning to find very little going on; no radio signals were coming in from there either, so we drove west from the den until we picked up Pan’s signal. We tracked Pan to a processional of 17 hyenas coming toward the den from the west, apparently the tail end of a border patrol along the territorial boundary separating Talek West and Fig Tree clans. The sight of 17 hyenas coming at you is mighty intimidating, but what’s really scary is trying to identify all these hyenas as they move past you in pretty quick succession. Kenna did that yesterday morning with astounding ease, particularly for someone who has only been here for 7 months! She never hesitated, and recognized each one individually as soon as she got only a few seconds to see it clearly. Most of these 17 hyenas eventually got spooked by some cattle and herdsmen, and vanished into the bushes along Den One Creek at about 7:15am. We then moved on to determine how many cubs Gucci had at her natal den (she has two!), and we discovered incidentally that her teenage daughter, Gelato, has a snare around her neck. We’ll have to try to get that off of her soon. While we were nervously watching Gucci’s newest cubs pull on the end of Gelato’s snare, we heard sounds of excited hyenas coming from further up the creek, and so set out to see what was going on. I thought Kenna’s identification skills had been put to the test earlier that morning, but what we found next made that earlier effort look like a piece of cake. This time the sounds led us to a group of 30 hyenas engaging in yet another border patrol but this time along the southern border of the clan’s territory. Once again, Kenna dazzled the rest of us (a brand new grad student and me) with her ability to identify all these hyenas, even though this time they were moving through tall grass for most of the distance covered. Being able to ID hyenas is not something one can fake, as we could easily check all of Kenna’s suggested hyena IDs against photos in our clan spot pattern albums (which we have in the car with us every day), and she was always correct. Check out these photos andimagine how you’d do trying to ID all these (what seemed like) zillions of hyenas. No small feat! Click on a photo if you want to see it blown up.

Department of Missing Persons (crocuta division)

Hi. Andy Gersick here again. Sorry I have yet to properly introduce myself, and I promise to do so asap. But for now I want to start a little semi-regular feature I've been thinking of called...(drumroll please)..."unID of the Week."

Not sure if it'll actually be weekly, but we can dream. For “unID of the Week” I’ll be posting photos of hyenas we run into who defy our best efforts at identification. I know there’s not a whole lot that most readers can do to figure out who those hyenas are – you all don’t have a stack of dusty ID notebooks to page through like we do. So I don’t plan to take up a ton of blog real estate with “unID of the Week” postings. But I hope it’s at least a little interesting to see one of our ongoing puzzles. And I hope that old hyena-watchers and Talek-side researchers will take a look and let us know if any spots ring a bell.

Here on the Serena side we still see a fair number of hyenas that we don't know. This is partially because we're still learning who's who in our clans. Hyenas live in “fission-fusion” groups, which means that even though clans have a coherent identity, clan members don’t all hang out together and may not even see each other for long stretches of time. Hence fission (splitting) and fusion (coming together). But North clan seems to have more than its share of odd hyenas that show up one day, flash some great spots, and then disappear. I have my own pet theory about why this is: I think that some of our unIDs come from across the river, and go back there before we can get used to them. North-clan Territory borders the Mara River to the East, and we know that hyenas do cross the river sometimes. North clan also lost a whole swathe of high-ranking animals last year. The official line is that the lost hyenas – including Elf, the alpha female, and a number of the highest-ranked animals in North clan – died. But I'm more into JFK/Elvis-type explanations for the missing animals. I think they’re still alive. So if they’re alive, where did they go? Again, my theory is that they crossed the river. Sometime in 2009 the top third of North Clan up and disappears. Meanwhile, unfamiliar animals seem to pop up regularly in North territory. The other North hyenas know these animals, but we don’t. So what if North Clan split up, or just spread out, with most of the group staying here on our side of the river and a significant satellite group making their home base on the other side? That would explain the lost hyenas, the random unIDs… it’s perfect.

SO: unID of the Week. Again, if you’re an old hyena watcher or a Talek-side researcher, watch this space for pictures that might ring a bell. If you’re an at-home reader, I hope this feature will ultimately provide documentation for the unraveling of a mystery in real time. Maybe it’ll turn out that hyenas who make only cameo appearances over here are regulars on the other side of the river. Maybe one day, a Talek-side researcher will see a picture of Elf on the blog and say, “Oh her? I ran into her on the border of Prozac-clan territory yesterday.”

Today, we have “unID with Emma, Krest, Arrow and Golgotha near Mgoro Lugga.” This hyena was wandering around with a bunch of our clan regulars. The spots are distinctive, the other hyenas acted like this was a familiar clan-mate, but we can’t find a match in any of our ID books.

DO YOU KNOW THIS HYENA?

Requited Love

Previous bloggers have expressed great admiration for certain male hyenas that hold special places in their hearts. And while I can see where they're coming from, I must confess that I cannot agree with them. In my experience I find that love/hate relationships never work out. It takes a strong woman to move on from an unhealthy relationship to one that is requited and, therefore, fulfilling and worthy of the investment of her time.

Which is why my heart has been stolen away by Rough and Ready. He is an amazing specimen of all the qualities I could ask for in a male hyena.

He has the most amazing spots you can imagine and was even dubbed "Awesome Spot in our data collection until we deemed him worthy of an official name (Immigrant males have to earn their name by sticking around for a few obs sessions and proving to us they have integrated into the clan by their behavior towards the other hyenas.). His spots are so amazing that is easy to identify, even when completely caked in mud.

Which brings me to another point. He is NOT afraid to get a little dirty. He's a real man's man of a hyena, not a wussy boy who's afraid to get a little mud on his paws.

He showed up in Prozac territory acting like he owned the place, amicably hanging out with the other males, following the alpha female around, and sacking out in the center of the action without a care in the world. Not only that, but he has covered a lot of ground to get to where he is today. Jeff and Dave have confirmed that he is the same hyena that they had previously seen on the other side of the Mara and named Acme. He seems to have been trying out different territories to find the perfect fit (or he was looking for me!).

In contrast to some other males I know, he LOVES the car. You can't get close enough to bother him without consciously trying. He'll go about his business like you are a part or it, or as if he's glad you're there to witness and share it.

Ours is a love/love relationship and I couldn't be happier.

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).

The North Side Story

In a land where Elf (the dominant female) is queen and clashes with lions are the norm, we bring you a clan. Located between the beautiful Oz Valley and the famous Mara River, this is where the drama unfolds. Known to many as “fisi,” we just call them “North.”

This is the North Side Story.

Cast of (cub) Characters -- From Oldest to Youngest

'SAGRADA' - A big cub with a huge heart, trying not to step on any higher-ranking cubs’ paws.

'KREST' - Easily distinguished with his light coloration, always up for a good chase.






'HOOKER' - A bit of an airhead, often aloof as to what is happening.








'TSUNAMI' - A brave cub who is developing a taste for adventure.





'AVALANCHE' - The lower ranking member of the natural disaster lineage, with the ear damage to prove it.

'TYRANNOSAURUS REX' - Known by many as “bear face,” her muttonchops can be seen for miles.







'50 CENT' - Recognized by his signature “monkey ears” and quizzical look.






'JIU-JITSU' - The dominant cub of the martial arts lineage who enjoys the benefits of his higher rank by napping all day.



'MUAY THAI' - The submissive cub of the martial arts lineage who follows suit by also napping all day.




'EDWARD TEACH' - Confined by his small frame and scraggly appearance, the quintessential underdog.





'PARTHENON' - A punky youngster trying to make her way in a cub eat cub world.

Episode 1: “Precocious Parthenon”

It was a lazy morning like any other day at the North clan’s den off of the runway. Arriving at just past 8AM, most cubs were sleeping-- however this would not last for long. At precisely 8:22, Parthenon emerged from the den. And with her, came a new attitude to the group. It became quickly known by all cubs present that their lazy morning would not last much longer.

Starting with a harmless sniff of the sleeping Edward Teach’s back, things quickly got out of control. No one seemed to be giving Parthenon the time of day and she was not having any of this. Fed-up with being ignored by the whole gang, she knew something had to be done.

Parthenon approached and bit Avalanche, and it started-- setting off an avalanche if you will. Avalanche counter-attacked by biting and shaking Parthenon, followed by chasing her around the den. His point was made.

Trying to rally more towards her cause, Parthenon approached a sleeping Jiu-Jitsu and bit him as well. Un-phased and not looking for problems, Jiu-Jitsu backed away from the troublemaker and fell back asleep. It’s hard being a cub he thought.

Sick of Parthenon’s antics, Tsunami reached to give her a good biting. However, she juked him and Tsunami’s mouth made contact with Avalanche. Taking a second swing he finally got a hold of Parthenon. She had learned her lesson.

After backing away from the scene, Parthenon seemed to be contemplating her part in this crazy world. She knew this was not going to be the last these lazy cubs had seen of her.

One-eyed wonder

About a month ago, we noticed that Quark, a 5-month old Happy Zebra cub, had a very swollen right eye. The swelling has finally gone down, and now we realize the eye isn’t just damaged…it’s completely gone.


I know what you’re thinking: are you guys really geeky enough to name a lineage of hyenas after subatomic particles?

Um, yes we are. But perhaps you’re also thinking: yikes…what’s it like being a hyena with only one eye?

Hyenas have what we call “binocular vision,” meaning that their vision is a result of two overlapping images – one from each eye – that the brain puts together. This allows for several fantastic advantages, such as depth perception and increased detection. Animals such as predators (which rely on particular visual cues to hunt moving prey) and primates (which need to find and select particular fruits from the surrounding vegetation) often have binocular vision. Their eyes are usually placed closely together on the head and oriented forward.

Animals with “monocular vision” (like the rhino below) have eyes that are on opposite sides of their head, rather than in front. These animals use each eye separately, but the big advantage here is an increased field of view – sometimes nearly 360 degrees. If you’re a tasty Mara antelope and the biggest problem in your life is some scary carnivore creeping up on you while you’re chowing down on grass, you’re going to want to see as much as the world around you as possible. For most prey species, accuracy and depth perception probably aren’t quite as important as knowing what's around you at all times.


OK, enough biology lessons. The point is that, since hyenas need abilities such as depth perception, poor one-eyed Quark is probably at a real disadvantage. Try closing one eye and trying to play darts (first, please make sure nobody else is within striking distance)…it’s not easy. Now, imagine losing an eye and trying to catch a gazelle zipping around at 50 miles per hour.

But, Quark still has one good eye, and we aren’t counting her out quite yet. After all, our resident rebel Moss is likely blind in one eye, and she continues to kick some serious butt. Plus, Quark is pretty high-ranking, so, in theory, she doesn’t need to hunt at all to survive…she just needs to take advantage of others’ success. In any case, life probably isn't going to be easy for Quark.

Faux fisi

Here on the Hyena Project, we can turn any Average Joe into an eagle-eyed hyena finder. After a while, you’ll be able to detect the flick of a hyena’s ear in a stand of tall grass, or spot a hyena on the move hundreds of meters away. In fact, when you’re really on your game, you’ll know exactly which hyena possesses that flicking ear by its distinctive shape, and you'll be able to identify that distant hyena by its idiosyncratic gait.

However, you may occasionally go for hours, or even days, without seeing a single hyena…that’s when your super-hyena-sense gets a bit too sensitive. You’ll see, out of the corner of your eye, a shape that you’re convinced is absolutely, without a doubt, a hyena. You’d swear it on Darwin’s grave.

As you raise your binoculars to your eyes to see it more clearly, you’ve already started celebrating, gloating inwardly (or, in some cases, outwardly) about being the first to spot this long-awaited hyena.

Sadly, at this point you look through your binoculars and realize it isn’t actually a hyena at all, but a rock. Or a bush. Maybe it’s a topi. In any case…it definitely isn’t a hyena. This happens repeatedly, until you think you’ve gone insane.

In fact, there are particular stumps and termite mounds along our daily route that I know for a fact aren’t hyenas. Yet I am inexplicably compelled to look at these inanimate objects through my binoculars every time I pass, just in case they've somehow morphed into actual hyenas. They never have, but still, I check.

This log is an expert in hyena mimicry...it gets me every time.

Over the years, we’ve mistaken nearly everything possible for hyenas. Logs, dirt mounds, and bushes are among the most common culprits. Warthogs’ rear ends look uncannily like hyenas. Someone on the project, and I won’t name names, once mistook a single blade of grass for a hyena. It sounds crazy, I know…but when you really want to see a hyena, your imagination can trick you into almost anything.

Hyenas, by the numbers

Let's face it: we all love fun facts. With these, you can impress your friends and family, or at least procrastinate for a few minutes...
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The oldest hyena we’ve studied is K-Butt, who lived for nearly 17.5 years.

The lovable Bailey holds the record for our heaviest hyena, weighing in at a whopping 179 lbs. She was just under 3 feet tall at the shoulder.

Hyenas can run at 40 miles per hour for about 2 miles. For comparison, the fastest human clocked in at just over 27 miles per hour, and that was only for 100 meters. Wimp.

In the longest hyena hunt ever recorded, a hyena chased an eland for nearly 15 miles.

While the average hunting group size is 1.8 hyenas, successful zebra hunts require 10 or more hyenas. The reason? Hyenas need to call in reinforcements against male zebras, who protect their ladies fiercely and have a deadly kick.

Here in the Mara, hyenas kill 95% of the food that they eat. I bet you scavenge a heck of a lot more than 5% of your food.

Their bone-crushing bite force has been estimated at about 9000 newtons (2000 pounds), which roughly equals the force of a big NFL hit.

They have 11 distinctive vocalizations.

They can hear noises from over 6 miles away, and can probably identify odors from a distance of nearly 2 miles.

A mother hyena’s milk contains 15% protein, compared to less than 1% protein in human milk. No wonder hyenas grow up fast and become big bullies!

When erect, a female hyena's pseudopenis may be up to 7 inches long. Enough said.



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**Remember, we're talking about spotted hyenas...the other hyena species are strange in their own ways. Most of the info here is from our observations. The rest is from the IUCN Hyaena Specialist Group website (http://www.hyaenidae.org/) and the book The Spotted Hyena by Hans Kruuk. Both are fantastic sources of information for you hyena-philes out there!

I am William Wallace

Identifying hyenas by their spots can be a difficult task. Hyenas make this task even more difficult by "sacking out" in mud holes, which leaves them essentially spotless. I don't mean spotless as in clean, certainly they are not that type of spotless. By spotless I mean almost none of their spots are actually visible.

In addition to using spot patterns to identify the hyenas, there are various other tactics we use to identify hyenas. One of the first ways I learned to identify individual hyenas was by their ears. Many hyenas have notches in their ear from squabbling over food, play that got a bit too rough, or aggressive interactions with other hyenas or lions. Recognizing ear notches is very useful when only the head of the animal is visible or the entire hyena is covered in mud. Ear notch identification is not much use at night or when the animal is running. I have found a combination of facial features, such as ears, and spot patterns to be most effective. Relying soley on one or the other just doesn't cut it.

The pictures below shows why just knowing spots does not always work. If you look closely at the left ear, you can see this guy's ears are in rough shape, with multiple notches in the ear. This Kyoto, an immigrant male in the Talek West clan. If you look closer and have an imagination you may see shades of William Wallace, ready to lead his army to victory against the English (see Braveheart for those of you that don't get this bit)!

What's in a name?

Naming hyenas is a much trickier task than you might think. This project has been running for 20 years, and we’ve named a LOT of hyenas (over 1,400). Since we never use the same name twice, we have to get pretty creative!

Every adult female we study has a “lineage.” That means that all her kids’ names fall into one category. Lineages range from the obvious (like authors, rivers, and colors) to the obscure (such as surf breaks, talk show hosts, and places in Tolkien books). We have hyenas named after liquors, Kenyan tribes, gangsters, mystical creatures, and even cuts of meat. Food-based lineages are always popular here too, mostly because we live in the bush and constantly crave various treats…we’ve got junk foods, healthy foods, Italian foods, cheeses, breads, and chocolate bars.

(The cubs in this photo are Papagano and Rigoletto, from our "opera characters" lineage.)

We even have a lineage of donors to the Hyena Project. Unfortunately, we’ve only had two donors - thank you Primeau and Hogan - so we’re in trouble as soon as this mama has another litter! This means if you’ve got a few bucks to give away, or a spare LandCruiser lying around, send it our way and we’ll name a hyena after you.

If we don’t know who the hyena’s mom is (like many of the hyenas in our new study clans), the options are endless. Often, a name comes to mind after a single glance at their spots. Archer has a bow and arrow, Silkwood sports a radiation symbol, and Leprechaun’s got a rainbow…it’s kind of like seeing shapes in the clouds. Hyenas like Geezer and Pain in the Butt are named after something unmistakable about their demeanor. Sometimes, it’s more personal; there are hyenas named after our pets, our friends, and our inside jokes.

Moral of the story? To be a good hyena researcher, you have to be patient, dedicated, an excellent observer, etc…but more than anything, you need a good imagination.

Meet Murphy, Our Alpha Female

Murphy is the current alpha female of the clan we’ve been studying for about twenty years (Kate will primarily be posting on the new clan that we just began to watch). Murphy is twelve years old and has been the alpha for a whopping nine years, which means she assumed the throne at the young age of three. Perhaps more impressively, she is a great-great-grandmother, and she just had two young cubs of her own. She has mothered at least sixteen cubs over the years, several of whom she has outlived. Her lineage’s theme is characters from Greek mythology, including Artemis, Hermes, Athena, and her two youngest, Loki and Juno, who are just two and a half months old. It is a bit mind-boggling to think that little Loki is the second-highest ranking hyena in our clan, considering she’s the size of a small puppy and weighs about 6 lbs.

Murphy has a pretty great life when you consider that she rarely (if ever) has to hunt, because she can always just help herself to prey killed by anyone else in the clan (see previous entry). She’s also, not surprisingly, immensely popular. It’s unusual to see her alone because many of the lower-ranking hyenas love to be in the presence of the queen. In the photo, Murphy is the hyena in the center, and you can see her being crowded by four other hyenas. I imagine being The Big Cheese can get a bit tiresome, though, because she rarely gets a moment of peace, and is constantly being presented to, greeted, groomed, etc. Quite frankly it looks exhausting.

Perhaps our favorite thing about Murphy isn’t Murphy at all, but her boyfriend, Midget. Midget is the highest-ranking immigrant male in the clan, but doesn’t have the reproductive record to match. Midget is absolutely obsessed with Murphy, but in the classic male hyena way: he keeps his distance and rarely approaches her. He follows her around constantly—it’s unusual to see Murphy without Midget lurking somewhere in the grass. Come to think of it, he’s more of a stalker than a boyfriend. But a loveable stalker, because he’s always quick to jump up and ward off any pesky lower-ranking immigrant males whom he thinks have strayed a bit too close to his One and Only. It’s tough not to pity Midget, though, because Murphy never so much as bats an eye in his direction. It’s the ultimate case of the nerdy underclassman following around the popular senior girl, who doesn’t even seem to know he exists. But Midge, bless his heart, never gives up his devotion.

The Dominance Hierarchy

One of the major reasons that we find spotted hyenas so fascinating is their social complexity. Hyenas operate under a linear dominance hierarchy that is extremely strict: no two hyenas share a rank, and it’s very clear who is dominant to whom (to them and to us). When a cub is born, it inherits a rank immediately below its mother, making it dominant to all its older siblings. Females will retain this rank throughout their entire lives, although how close this rank is to the top will decrease as more higher-ranking cubs are born (or increase as higher-ranking adults die). Males have a slightly shoddier deal, as is usually the case in this species. When a male is born, he inherits the rank immediately under his mother, just like a female cub. He keeps this rank for the first couple years of his life, while he’s still in his birth (or “natal”) clan. But once he reaches sexual maturity, he needs to disperse to another clan, because females from his natal clan won’t mate with him (high probability of incest—gross). So each male immigrates to a new clan at around age 2, and enters this new clan at the very bottom of the pecking order. He’s below all adult females, all cubs, and even below all the other adult males who have immigrated to this new clan. The only hyenas to whom he will be dominant are future immigrant males. This must be an especially tough blow to the ego to the son of an alpha female...

The first take-home lesson is that all adult female spotted hyenas are dominant to all adult males, because all adult males in a clan are immigrants. The females will be the first ones to point this out to you when you’re watching them—they are constantly putting the males in their place by being aggressive toward them or just ignoring them. The males, for their part, act the role—they tend to tiptoe around females, keeping their distance and acting very submissively.

The second take-home lesson is that when we say this hierarchy is “strict,” we mean STRICT. It dictates everything. Yesterday we saw one mother approach a den hole to try to nurse her cub, and when a higher-ranking mother (whose cub was in the same hole) saw this, she immediately walked over and snapped at the first mother, displacing her in the hole. After the first mother backed off submissively, the dominant mother walked away—she didn’t even want to nurse at that moment, she just wanted to make it perfectly clear that it was HER hole at that time. When the submissive mother made a move to approach the hole again, the dominant mother lunged at her, decisively ending the conflict. Eventually, they both lay down a couple feet from the hole, just staring at it.

Likewise, when the hyenas have killed a prey animal, such as a wildebeest, the highest ranking females and their offspring get to eat first. They are then followed by lower-ranking females/offspring, and finally by the adult males, who often stand near the kill looking longingly (and hungrily) at the carcass as all the choice cuts are devoured by their superiors. By the time these immigrant males get access, what remains is often just the skeleton—good thing hyenas can digest bone (more about that another day)!

What can be especially heartbreaking is that these adult males do much of the leg work (pun intended) when it comes to the hunting—and yes, hyenas hunt about 95% of their food—they don’t scavenge, as many mistakenly believe. Last summer we saw one male chase down a Thompson’s gazelle, eventually killing it. He had only taken a few bites when his higher-ranking brother came along, marched right up, and swiped the carcass. Because of the strict hierarchy, there was nothing the lower-ranking brother could do except watch as his brother ate the entire gazelle.

But it gets worse. Still hungry, this male proceeded to get himself ANOTHER meal, this time chasing down a juvenile gazelle (hunting is exhausting, so this is no small feat). Just as before, within seconds of biting into it, his brother showed up on the scene. He waddled over—his enormous belly, already full of the first gazelle, was definitely slowing him down—and promptly stole and ate this meal, too. You can imagine the torrent of expletives we let out as we watched this unfair sequence of events unfold. However, to the hyenas, it is more than fair, because everyone knows the rules, and everyone plays by them.

Important life lesson: if you’re low-ranking and you’re hankering for filet mignon, try to kill your prey in private, and then eat very, very quickly.

Up next: meet our alpha female, Murphy

Dominant and Subordinate Cubs

Spotted hyena cubs are usually born in pairs, although singletons and triplets are not unheard of. One cub will immediately assert itself as the dominant cub, and if the cubs are of different sexes, this is usually the female. This dominant cub—which will remain dominant to its sibling for the rest of its life—enjoys many privileges. One particularly notable privilege that manifests early in life is that the dominant cub gets to nurse “in the preferred position.” An adult female has two teats, and the cub nursing in the preferred position lies closer to her head. The mother will often drape her front paw over this dominant cub, and even groom it as it nurses. The subordinate cub is relegated to the back, lying either between the mother’s hind legs or behind her entirely. Unfortunately for the subordinate cub, the benefits of nursing in the preferred position extend beyond cuddles and a bath: the dominant cub is often able to limit the subordinate cub's access to the teats. The result of this disparity is that the dominant cub grows more quickly than the subordinate cub—a significant difference when trying to survive in the savannah.

Important life lesson: try to be the dominant cub.

Photo: Pictured above are Ursa, an adult female, and her two cubs, Muffin and Macaroon (Ursa's lineage theme is “things found in a bakery”). You can see Muffin, the dominant cub, with its back to the camera, Ursa’s front leg wrapped around it. The subordinate cub, Macaroon, is that dark lump in the back under Ursa’s hind leg.

Individually ID-ing hyenas

One of the most common questions I get about my research is, “Can you REALLY recognize all the different hyenas you study?” The answer is yes, but it takes a while to get good at individually identifying animals! There are several ways we tell our hyenas apart…

The first clues we use are a hyena’s body shape and coloration. Male hyenas look quite different from females; their bodies are smaller and skinnier. This lets us immediately determine whether a hyena is male or female. Coloration is also really helpful in being able to tell who's who! Hyenas’ color ranges from blonde to red to dark brown, and their spots can be anywhere from barely noticeable to extremely dark.

The second way we can recognize hyenas is by their spots. After a hyena develops its spots, the pattern never changes. Once we learn what a hyena’s spots look like, we can recognize it for the rest of its life!

Finally, hyenas often suffer ear injuries due to aggression from others. This damage can range from tiny slits in their ears to huge chunks of missing skin, and it lasts forever! We often use hyenas’ ear damage to help us tell different individuals apart.

The pictures above are of two different hyenas, ET (a female) and Alum (a male). Their body shapes, coloration, spot patterns, and ears all help us to tell them apart. Could you recognize these hyenas again?