Hyenas Have the Last Laugh

Image source

I recall the trio of hyenas from childhood viewings of The Lion King, three squawking, slobbering brutes, greedily desiring an endless supply of prey from Pride Lands, foolishly believing Scar would actually grant it to them. When, if ever, you envision hyenas, the image in your mind probably isn’t much prettier; you’re more likely to imagine them as cunning, avaricious or outright evil.

More than just skulls and bones

It may surprise you to know that real hyenas are nothing like their modern media counterparts. In fact, these mammals aren’t even dyed-in-the-wool scavengers! Spotted hyenas, the most common of the four major hyena species (the others being striped, brown and aardwolf), are known to scavenge for food. But what most of us don’t realise is that they are also prolific hunters, with a higher success rate than the mighty lion. Perhaps the most shocking revelation of all is that lions are known to steal more kills from hyenas than vice-versa! As packs, hyenas hunt antelopes, wildebeests and zebras, killing the majority of their prey themselves.

This proficiency may be attributed in part to their intelligence, which is just one of their natural advantages. Evidence of this intellect lies in their remarkable teamwork. An experiment conducted at Duke University showed that hyenas work better together than the brainy chimpanzees themselves, outperforming these primates on a cooperative problem-solving test.

To gain further insight into their minds, I spoke to Lakshmi Natarajan, who has been volunteering at the Zoo Zurich for the last 15 years and working with hyenas for two. “I feel like a hyena ambassador sometimes,” she jokes as she introduces herself. “Of all the animals we have in the zoo, hyenas are the most misunderstood.” She shares how hyenas are “challenging species to have in zoos” as they “get bored quite easily”. To keep animals active and mentally healthy, the Zoo Zurich uses behavioural enrichment exercises. With hyenas, this involves concealing meat in jute sacks and hanging them up on trees for the clever creatures to sniff out.

Are hyenas the OG feminists?

Another sign of their smarts is the hyenas’ complex social behaviour. Hyenas are one of the few species that live in matriarchal societies. A group of hyenas, also known as a cackle, can consist of any number from six to 100 members. “The hierarchy is extremely strict,” Lakshmi tells me, with a dominant matriarch who decides everything from feeding timings to defence strategies; and every other female in a rigid order below her. When born, a female takes her place in society based on her mother’s ranking. “What about the males?” I wonder. “They don’t play a permanent role in the hierarchy,” Lakshmi replies. They live “on the periphery of the group” and often move to another clan at about two years of age. Therefore, the highest-ranking male in a cackle is often subordinate to its lowest-ranking female.

Female spotted hyenas are also physically larger than, and possess as much testosterone as their male counterparts. Some zoologists believe that their high levels of this hormone is what leads to an astonishing biological phenomenon: a female hyena’s pseudophallus. Yup, you read that right! Female hyenas have genitalia that is so elongated that it looks - and in some cases behaves - like a phallus. The urogenital canal running through this appendage allows it to perform urination, copulation and even be used as a birth canal. Additionally, it “prevents any forcible copulation,” Lakshmi shares, so the female chooses whether and when to mate.

But hyenas aren’t just cool creatures for us to gawk at. They are, according to Lakshmi, “absolutely essential for the ecosystem”. Hyenas consume their kills (and occasionally those of other animals) bones and all, recycling the carrion and keeping the environment clean. If not for them, several ecosystems would be filthy, rancid and rich with disease.

Busting myths

So why is it that we view hyenas as unnecessary at best, and as base, cowardly nuisances at worst? This disdain may originate from the uniquely human fear of the unknown, or xenophobia. Hyenas, with their awkwardly proportioned limbs covered in scruffy greyish-brown fur, do not appeal to us visually. Add to that their propensity to chew and digest bones directly and the females’ extraordinary pseudophalli, and they’re pretty much monsters in our eyes.

Widely considered hybrids, hyenas were excluded from the Noah’s Ark in The History of the World by Sir Walter Raleigh, who explained his belief that god would only save the “purely bred”. Ernest Hemingway, in his novel The Green Hills of Africa, described the animal as a “hermaphroditic self-eating devourer of the dead, trailer of calving cows, ham-stringer, potential biter-off of your face at night while you slept, sad yowler, camp-follower, stinking, foul, with jaws that crack the bones the lion leaves”. This notion continues unto today, when proverbs like “hyenas come with merry smiles” warning people against hypocrites are a part of our vernacular.

Why should we care?

As CNN host Brianna Keilar once said, “misinformation is a virus unto itself”. And as this virus spreads, it is hurting hyenas. People of many cultures despise hyenas, and this hatred has manifested as persecution. The striped hyena, found in Africa and Asia, is classified as Near Threatened by International Union for Conservation of Nature. The spotted hyena, brown hyena and aardwolf, meanwhile, occur naturally only in Africa. Even in this continent, Lakshmi states, violence against hyenas is common. For example, meat laced with poison is laid out to trap hyenas that venture near human territory. They are “not animals that people want to conserve,” she explains, and so even as their space is encroached upon, even as they lose their habitats, even as they are poisoned to death, there is scarcely any effort taken to save them.

It’s time to spread the word: hyenas aren’t the cruel cackling crooks you think they are. Because, to paraphrase and, in the process, absolutely butcher an old proverb: until the hyenas have their historians, tales of wildlife shall always glorify the lions.