December 23, 1991
Spotted hyenas, once mistakenly reviled as scavengers, are now recognized as the region's most numerous and ecologically important predators, killing more game than lions. In the last few years, researchers have discovered that hyena "clans" are organized in a strict hierarchy unique among predatory mammals, with males at the bottom and females leading the pack.
The new findings contradict the theory that only primates are intelligent enough for the Machiavellian social calculations required by such a complex dominance structure. They also add hyenas to the short list of mammal species -- including hamsters, lemurs and red colobus monkeys -- in which females dominate males...
females are larger than males, are unusually aggressive and have male-looking genitals, including false penises. It is so difficult to distinguish the sexes...
A female cub is destined from birth to take her place in a rigid social order, where her mother's rank will determine her access to food, her permanent status and even her ultimate reproductive success. A male cub must eventually leave the clan where he was born and seek acceptance by a new clan, where as a stranger he plummets to the bottom of the social ladder and is subject to vicious attacks...
The spotted hyena is... also called the laughing hyena because its cry sometimes sounds like a hysterical giggle...
When a group is threatened or needs reinforcements to bring down a large prey, its members make a whooping noise to attract other hyenas. Several dozen clan members often gather at a kill, where competition is savage for a share of the booty...
Hard as life is for hyenas, nature has prepared them well for the fray. Hyena cubs, which are usually born in mixed-sex pairs, begin fighting within minutes of birth, and one -- usually the female -- quickly establishes dominance. Because the animals are born with open eyes and fully erupted teeth, the battle is often to the death and about one of four newborns is killed....
The mother keeps her cubs in a private den for the first month of their lives. She then moves them to a communal den, which they share with up to 20 other young hyenas until they are eight to 10 months old. There, the young animals at first establish dominance relationships that seem based on aggression, rather than size or sex. But by the time they are six months old, the cubs' hierarchy changes to reflect the relative ranks of their mothers. Hyenas are the only non-primate species where position in a dominance hierarchy is passed on from mother to offspring...
When cubs leave the den and begin to accompany adults to feed at kills, each takes a place immediately below that of its mother in the social hierarchy...
"Every hyena knows just who is of higher rank, who is of lower rank and which allies are present,"...
A young hyena often waits to attack a lower-ranking adult until a higher-ranking animal shows up and can be enlisted as an ally, said Smale. "What they have to calculate and figure out to work their way into the hierarchy is really pretty striking,"...
"It's funny to watch them mate," said Smale. "The males are scared of the females. They're used to being chased and bitten."
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