Finding Feces

Jambo! My name is Chase and I’m the newest RA situated at the beautiful Talek camp. As I’m sure you can gather from reading these blog entries, there is a lot to learn out here in Fisi camp. However, there are some natural processes that everyone can recognize.

One such activity is waste excretion. Also known as pooping. Prepare yourself for a digestion digression.

When I first arrived I was presented with a new area to do my personal business, known to us lovingly as “The Choo” (Pronounced: Cho). The hyenas we study, on the other hand, use a large plot of land known as the Mara. It is a vital part of our job, when recording observations on aggressions, to also be aware of when a hyena has to excrete some fecal matter.

The infamous Choo

Why does the matter matter to us?

Kenna Lehman sporting a hefty poop bag and a can-do attitude!

Although poop can be used to analyze DNA and determine paternity for cubs, back at the lab they also look at hormones. The amount of a hormone in an individual’s excrement represents the level in the body. In fact, one intrepid researcher Sarah Jones uses poop to look at the hormonal basis of sex reversal in hyenas. So, why are females more aggressive and socially dominant to male hyenas? (Future Dr.) Jones looks specifically at the hormone androstenedione, which can act similarly to testosterone, but doesn’t usually have the same side effects that would be bad for females (reducing fertility or parental care.) In fact, female spotted hyenas exhibit higher levels than males till they’re at least five years old! The largest difference between sexes is actually when they are born, suggesting why most females assert dominance over their brothers at a very early age. Jones is looking at whether androstenedione concentrations in poop are related to female aggressive behavior and their rank. Do higher ranked, more aggressive females have higher levels of androstenedione? Stay tuned for that dissertation!

Wilson Kilong thinks poop is just the best thing.

Two poops in one obs session? It's my lucky day!

Additionally, Tracy Montgomery examines poop with a passion. She’s curious about male dispersal and what hormones play a role in that process. Adult natal males actually have lower testosterone than immigrant males, even though both are reproductively mature. Why might that be? What hormonal changes occur during the dispersal process? But, Montgomery doesn’t stop there. She’s also looking at the hormone progesterone and how it may be associated with affiliative and cooperative behavior.

Ashlei Tinsley handling hyena excrement with class.

As you can see, there’s a lot to gather from examining stool samples.

But, I’m sure you’re asking yourself, “How can I do this at home? I want to analyze my bowel movements!” 

Here is my advice:

1.   A keen eye is important. When we see a hyena get into that well-known position (the squat) we use our binoculars to assess whether the bomb has been dropped or if it is simply urination. Once we decide the poop is indeed a poop, we drive over and scoop it up using a plastic bag (a large one if you’re lucky.) On the bag, we write the time it was collected, the location, and which hyena did the deed.

Chase O'Neil, aka expert poop collector, does her job.

We see a variety of colors like above: pale banana cream pie.

A typical sample complete with white hairs from a tasty wildebeest dinner. But look, your expert eyes are right! BONUS: there are worms.

2.    A poor sense of smell is helpful. If you place the plastic bag within the car or whatever transportation device you use, it may exude fumes. Once we arrive, back at camp, we firstly describe the poop. What’s the color? What’s the texture: firm, squishy, soupy (these are the worst)? Are there hairs (wildebeest for lunch)? Are there worms? Then we proceed to smash up the poop (a well-muscled foot does the job) while still in the bag. This is to make sure the contents of the feces will be mixed around and our tubes will have an accurate measurement of what exactly is in the droppings. Again a poor sense of smell will be helpful when you open the bag for the next steps.

Foot-smashing time! Socks with sandals recommended.

3.    Steady hands are key. Once the bag is open, we use a popsicle stick to scrape/scoop the mashed up poop into a tube. Once full, we seal it up tight, and place in a big container of liquid nitrogen, so around -200º C.

A researcher with steady hands shoves pieces of the droppings into a tube.

This is known as the icing technique. Sometimes a hyena has a soupy poop (hey, we've all been there.) In this case, we cut a hole in the bag and squeeze out the future data. Just like icing a cake.

It’s that simple! (Note: gloves are also recommended. Even if you have the above 1-3 traits, gloves are a necessary precaution.)

So far, I have been lucky enough to see many hyena feces and participate in the collection. Everyday is an adventure here, but even more so when we have to scoop poop into tubes!

If you have a lab at home to analyze your poop, Julie did a wonderfully detailed post about poop processing in the lab that will give you step-by-step instructions (http://msuhyenas.blogspot.com/2012/07/what-do-we-do-with-all-this-poop.html

). Good luck!

Mama Bear..I mean hyena

            We recently confirmed that Polar, one of our Serena hyenas, has had a cub! As far as we know, this is Polar’s first cub (or at least it’s the first that has survived long enough for us to see it). It is looking very healthy, and Polar is a very attentive mother.

Prepare yourself for adorable photos:

             

Polar's baby poking its head out of the den

                                     

Polar getting her cub out of the den so it can nurse

                  

The first time Molly and I saw Polar’s cub was pretty amusing. We had Polar at the den hole, and a black cub emerged from the den and appeared to be trying to nurse. Polar seemed rather irritated with the cub and would kick it off a nursing position with her hind leg. She finally got so annoyed that she tried to bite it. Molly and I were aghast at Polar’s lack of mothering skills and figured we shouldn’t get too attached to this obviously doomed cub. But lo and behold, a second, smaller black cub popped out of the den hole and started climbing all over Polar. She tolerated this with aplomb, and we later confirmed this was fact Polar’s cub when we saw it nurse. We later realized Polar was sharing her den with another mom, Diggory, and Diggory’s baby had been trying to nurse from Polar. It is not actually uncommon for cubs to try and nurse from the wrong mother, but they are usually quickly told off.

                     

Polar telling Diggory's cub off

Polar putting up with her own pain in the butt cub

Diggory and Polar are keeping their cubs miles away from the communal den, where the older cubs hang out. Moms keep their babies in dens isolated from the rest of the clan while they are still very young. Diggory and Polar are both very protective of this den hole, so woe to any lower ranking hyena who wants to come say hi to the babies. In fact I’ve even seen Diggory chase and snap at Lady, a higher ranking hyena, because he dared to come within 5 meters of her den hole.

 

Diggory and Polar getting ready to chase off a male who
was silly enough to come within 30 meters of their den.

Polar chasing off some big cubs from the den hole

You might think these ladies are over-reactive bullies who terrorize anyone in the vicinity of the den hole. However, female hyenas have a very good reason to be defensive. Young cubs are easily killed by predators and adult hyenas of either sex.

On the other hand, this still doesn’t explain why Polar was so grumpy when a hungry cub tried to sneak some milk.

Hyena mothers have good reason to try and hoard resources for their own cub. The skull and jaw muscles of a young hyena take a particularly long time to develop compared to other mammals. This is because they need to develop the unique ability to crush bones. During this time of development, which lasts about three years, hyenas can’t eat their normal food very quickly. When you’re competing with clan-mates, which can devour an entire wildebeest in 15 minutes, this could be a serious liability (I grew up in a human family of four, and I’m still not sure how I survived being the slowest eater). Moms play an important role in ensuring their slow-feeding cubs get enough to eat in two ways: 1) Moms aggressively displace other hyenas at carcasses so their precious baby has time to feed. 2) Moms nurse cubs for prolonged periods of time, up to 2 years. Therefore, cubs rely on mom heavily for all their food for a long period of time. So yes, hyena moms have particularly good reason to be grumpy with anyone trying to steal food from their cub.

So good job Polar! Don’t let that bad cub nurse from you!

Polar's baby (left) with Diggory's baby (right)

EXCITING BLOG ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

From now on, we will have regular updates!  Blogs will be published EVERY Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  Our loyal readers (that's you!) will now be able to anticipate a new blog.  They can check in three times a week without feeling the disappointment of finding the same blog they read last week.  It will be a long, sad weekend waiting two whole days for the next update, but our readers are tough and should survive.

We'll see you back here again on Monday for our very first scheduled update!

SOUNDS OF KENYA – Rain in my Tent

Kenya doesn’t have seasons, at least, not in the traditional American sense.  The Maasai Mara is nearly on the equator so the days don’t get longer or shorter and there is nothing you would call Spring, Summer, Fall, or Winter.  Instead, we have rainy seasons. 

During a typical year, there are two rainy seasons: One from November to January (short rains) and another from March to June, when we get long rains.  When the short rains arrive, we will get an intense, hard rain once a day, usually in the afternoon or evening.  If we’re lucky, the short rains will come in cycles and we may have a few days to a week break.  The grass gets lush and green but we are still able to go out on hyena observations (obs) when the ground dries out enough for driving.  During the long rains, it is almost always raining and we can end up stuck in camp for weeks at a time.

It’s not the rainy season, but we have had an unseasonal amount of rain in the Mara this August.  Unfortunately, anytime we get more than 6ml of rain we have to cancel obs and stay in camp.  If we get more than that, we have to assess whether we can go out the next morning or even the next evening.  A 20ml rain can shut us down for a day and a half.  If the ground is already wet from a previous rain, even 10ml can make us miss a couple obs.  The end result is that this August, we have been stuck in camp A LOT.  Instead of recording hyenas I have been listening to and recording the rain.  This is what a 55ml downpour sounds like when you live in a tent with a tarp above it:

Mom, Cubs, and Fur Answers

Hello Fisi readers!

I hope that you all have been working hard on aging the cubs from my last post. It’s finally answer time!

This hyena cub was named CHOBANI at the time this picture was taken. CHOBANI was the cub name given since we did not know who this cub’s mother was when he/she emerged the den (We’re still working on the sex of this cub). However, we were all pretty sure that this cub’s mom was YOGURT.  I’m sure that most of my yogurt lovers who read this can understand why we chose to name the cub CHOBANI. Once YOGURT was confirmed to be the mother, the cub was officially named LAZER. Now onto the aging!

LAZER has a fully black body but there are also white patches present around his eyes. These white patches are not the rings around the eyebrows characteristic of cubs 4-5 weeks old but larger. The patches are also beginning to spread to the other sections of his face. These features put LAZER in the latter part of the second stage giving him an age of 5-6 weeks.

The next hyena cub is BULMA. BULMA has what we call here at Fisi camp GREAT or AMAZING spots. His spots are very distinctive compared to the other cubs around the den. This makes him very easy to spot and identify.

The spots on BULMA’s shoulder and sides have appeared and are easily visible. He is not fluffy and the spots on his legs are not completely visible. The legs are mostly black. The short non- fluffy fur in addition to the black legs puts BULMA in the stage of 4-7 months. Since the spots along his sides and shoulders are completely visible and dark I would give him an age of 6-7 months. 

Last but not least is XENA. XENA is one of our interesting cases. When she was a cub she nursed from two different adult female hyenas; leaving us researchers with even more of a mystery to solve when it came to her age and maternal line.

XENA has long and fluffy fur. She is also pretty large in body size compared to the previous cubs. XENA’s features place her in the last stage. Her den graduation fur would give her an age of 8-9 months. 

How did you do? Do you think you would make it in the life of a Fisi researcher?!

Keep coming back to the blog for updates on your favorite hyenas and life at Fisi camp.

SOUNDS OF KENYA: Vulture Scramble

In this line of work we see a lot of hyenas on carcasses.  If you stick around long enough, this leads to seeing a TON of vultures on carcasses.  Vultures here have amazing eyesight and are quickly clued in to a carcass by feeding carnivores, loping hyenas, and other vultures.  I have seen over thirty vultures arrive at a hyena den where there is only a small, meatless scrap.  They seemed to appear from out of nowhere, seemingly because they happened to sight other vultures swooping in.  They all waddled around very disappointed in the lack of available meat, but that didn't stop the bravest ones from approaching the den hole and trying to scare the cubs off of their carcass scrap toy.

At most kills, the vultures will fly in and wait patiently on the outskirts for the hyenas to finish.  Once enough hyenas move away from the kill though, they begin sneaking in to grab mouthfuls of meat.  A lone hyena on a kill will futilely attempt to chase the vultures off now and then, but its never long before they are sneaking back in.  Once the last hyena decides they've had their fill (either of meat or chasing vultures) and abandons the carcass, the vultures swarm over it, stripping every last bit of edible meat, tendon, and connective tissue from the carcass bones.

It looks a lot like this, but more frenetic:

And it sounds exactly like this:

Den Woes

Dens are my favorite places to sit at and do observations. I get to watch the cubs play, grow up, and learn. They start out as small funny looking but adorable black cubs who come out of the den so nervously and bob their heads up and down, smelling the air. Over the course of months, these cubs grow into bold, confident, fluffy cubs who strut up to the den and then leave the den whenever they want. They look so full of themselves (like any teenager). Don’t need mom! My favorite stage is when the cubs are still small but are very playful and are no longer worried about coming out of the den. Mom becomes their favorite jungle gym, and the moms are always so patient with them.

Jungle gym!! Hooker with her cubs Thriller and Mim (Man in the Mirror) and a smaller black cub. I couldn't resist putting these two pictures in. 

Thriller sitting on his mom!

But lately we have been having trouble getting to some of our dens… Our North clan has been denning in a cave! This is really cool but impossible to get to. The cave is near the top of a very steep, rocky hill. We can get within about 350m of the cave, and then there are just too many rocks. Our hyenas appear as distant specs, if you can even see them. When we look through our binoculars, we can see multiple adults and cubs of a variety of ages up there but that is about it. We have not seen the small den cubs in over a month. These include Deni (Dennis the Menace), Kath (Kathleen Hanna), Jett (Joan Jett), and Remi (Remington). I cannot wait for them to move dens. Last time we saw those four, Kath was the only one with spots. They are going to be so big and spotty!!! I hope they move soon!

Can you spot the black cub? The cub is just under the entrance to the den. (Photo credits: Emily Thomas)

Since February, our Happy Zebra clan had been at a very large den complex called Tigris Den. About a week and a half ago we showed up in the morning and nobody was there. That had never happened. We knew they must have moved dens, so we started driving the territory looking for a den or any hyenas. We did not see any hyenas anywhere except for one place. We were on one track and we could see them in the distance on a hill frolicking. The problem was we were separated by a large rock field and a lugga, a swampy area that was impassable. We have since been working on finding a track that might lead to this area and then figuring out the best areas to off-road drive in order to get to this particular hill and valley. We did it!! Unfortunately, we have still not been able to find the den. The four foot tall grass has been a major issue… , but we are happy that we are seeing hyenas.

We have seen them on the hill to the left and right and in the valley between the two hills. 

South clan is being the good clan at the moment and we are very thankful to them! They are all at this one lovely den called Artemis Den. Well, until a few weeks ago, I might not have called it lovely. It is surrounded by tall grass which the hyenas can easily slip into and become hard to find, but we can get to it!! And the wildebeest have been helpful in shortening the grass. It is wonderful to go to the den and see all the cubs. South has a large range of cubs of different ages. There are small cubs who we have not even seen yet. We just know they are there because their mom, Marten, is guarding this one den hole. Slinky’s cub has just started coming out of the den hole and is completely black. There are cubs that are just getting their spots (Gnug and Snug) and are starting to get really curious about the car. There are larger cubs (Reina and Four Eyes) who still live at the den and the largest cubs who we barely see at the den any more. It is a busy den!

Hopefully, our Northies move to a more accessible den soon and we will find the Happy Zebra den, so we can go to a den every time we go out!

Aardwolf Adventures!

Hello! My name is Molly and, as one of the new RAs, I will be spending the next year in Serena camp. Like most recent college graduates, until now my attention span has been kept quite short by semesters and summer jobs; I’ve never spent a whole year in one place doing one thing before! It’s become very clear, however, that field research in the Mara is not going to get boring anytime soon!

My first night driving on obs, we were waved down by a car and told that there was a dead hyena in a tree off the road. When we arrived at the tree we realized it was not a spotted hyena, but an aardwolf. Aardwolves are the smallest, and only insectivorous, member of the hyena family. They are nocturnal and are solitary foragers; sightings of them far rarer than sightings of our spotted hyenas. (You can read about Julie’s latest encounter and see pictures of a live aardwolf here!). A leopard probably made the kill and then stashed the aardwolf in the tree for a snack later.

The aardwolf in its tree

            After locating the aardwolf and tree we had a bigger challenge; figuring out how get it down. This involved driving the car under the tree and trying to poke the aardwolf down with branches.

Emily trying to get the aardwolf down!

              When Emily and Dave finally succeeded, we collected the head and brought it back to camp with us. Because aardwolves almost exclusively eat harvester termites, their teeth and skulls are adapted to a completely different diet than those of spotted hyenas and are an interesting comparison. Of course, as we started to drive home the headlights on our Land Cruiser decided to stop working, and we drove back to camp holding flashlights out the window to light the way. 

             In camp we took a several tissue sample from the ears and from the temporalis muscle, deep in the cheek, for DNA analysis. We wrapped the head up in a plastic bag, put it in the lab tent, and went to bed, tired after a long obs session. 

Maggie, Dave, and I removing the skin from the skull to get a tissue sample

Maggie preparing to take a sample from the temporalis muscle

Maggie getting the sample!

              The next day, however, our carefully secured head was totally gone! We think a genet (a nocturnal animal related to cats) that hangs out around camp managed to sneak into the lab tent and steal it from us, so we were hoping the skull would turn up around camp once the genet was done with it. Unfortunately we haven’t found it yet, but at least we got some samples before it disappeared!

Thanks to Yabanci TV from Turkey for telling us about the aardwolf! They will be releasing an episode about spotted hyenas, featuring our Happy Zebra hyenas and several Serena Camp researchers, this fall­­!