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| Spotted Hyena, Crocuta crocuta |
As a whole, these lovelies have been terribly misrepresented.
For generations, the hyena has been portrayed as a skulking, cowardly scavenger that loiters at the edge of someone else’s dinner, laughs unpleasantly and waits for an opportunity to steal the leftovers.
This is slander.
Spotted hyenas are intelligent, highly social and extremely capable predators. They hunt much of their own food, maintain complex relationships within large clans and possess jaws powerful enough to dismantle bones that would cause most carnivores to reconsider their career choices.
They are hunters, scavengers, bone-crushers, attentive mothers and enthusiastic recyclers. They are also survivors from an ancient lineage that once ranged far beyond Africa.
A SURVIVOR WITH AN ICE AGE PAST
Today, spotted hyenas live in sub-Saharan Africa, occupying savannas, grasslands, open woodlands, scrublands and semi-desert environments. Their fossil record, however, tells a much larger story.
During the Pleistocene, hyenas belonging to the genus Crocuta lived across vast portions of Africa and Eurasia. Their range extended through Europe and Asia, including regions that are far too cold to support spotted hyenas today.
The great Eurasian form is commonly called the cave hyena. It has traditionally been classified as Crocuta crocuta spelaea, a prehistoric subspecies of the living spotted hyena. Some researchers have argued that it deserves recognition as a separate species, Crocuta spelaea.
Fossil anatomy and genetic evidence indicate that the relationship between living spotted hyenas and the vanished cave hyenas was close, although their exact classification continues to be discussed.
Cave hyenas were generally large and powerfully built. Their fossils are frequently found in caves, but they were not necessarily permanent cave dwellers. Caves were used as dens, sheltered places to raise young and convenient locations for dragging food away from competitors.
Apparently, “Do not bring bones inside” was not a house rule in the Pleistocene.
Fossil hyena dens can contain hundreds or even thousands of animal bones. These assemblages are extraordinarily valuable to us because they preserve evidence of prey selection, feeding behaviour and ancient carnivore communities.
NOT A DOG, DESPITE THE OUTFIT
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| Spotted Hyena, Crocuta crocuta |
Yet hyenas are not dogs.
They belong to the suborder Feliformia, the cat-like branch of the mammalian order Carnivora. Their evolutionary relatives include cats, mongooses, civets and genets.
Yet, if you had to guess, you would be making a reasonable one at thinking they were a relative of our canine friends.
The resemblance to dogs is an example of convergent evolution. Hyenas and certain canids independently developed similar features because they occupied comparable ecological roles as active, ground-dwelling predators.
The spotted hyena’s unusual profile is produced by its long forelimbs and shorter hind limbs. Its shoulders are powerful, its neck is heavily muscled and its skull is built to withstand tremendous forces generated while biting and processing bone.
This is not an animal casually dressed as a dog.
It is a heavily engineered bone-processing machine wearing spots.
THE JAWS THAT LEAVE VERY LITTLE BEHIND
Spotted hyenas possess exceptionally strong jaws and massive premolar teeth. These specialized teeth can crack open the limb bones of large mammals, allowing hyenas to reach the nutritious marrow sealed inside.
Their digestive systems can process skin, tendons, ligaments and bone. Much of the mineral content is absorbed, which is why hyena droppings can appear pale or chalky white.
Hair, hooves and certain other resistant materials may be regurgitated rather than digested. There are limits, after all. Even a hyena has standards.
This ability to consume nearly every usable part of a carcass gives spotted hyenas an important ecological role. They recover nutrients that would otherwise remain trapped inside bones, clean up carrion and reduce the amount of decaying animal matter on the landscape.
They are not merely scavengers. They are ecosystem sanitation specialists with industrial equipment.
We can identify hyena activity by examining the damage preserved on fossil bones. Tooth pits, punctures, scoring, gnawed ends and characteristic patterns of breakage can reveal whether a bone passed through the jaws of a hyena.
Some bones may also have been partly digested, leaving their surfaces rounded, polished or chemically altered.
A fossil bone covered in hyena tooth marks is more than a damaged specimen. It records behaviour. It tells us that a carnivore found the carcass, chose particular portions, carried or consumed them and altered the remains in recognizable ways.
The hyena left notes. It simply wrote them with its teeth.
HUNTERS, NOT MERELY THIEVES
Spotted hyenas are opportunistic carnivores. They scavenge when carcasses are available, but they are also skilled hunters capable of killing animals ranging from small antelope to zebras, wildebeest and other large ungulates.
They may hunt alone or cooperatively, depending on the prey and circumstances. During group hunts, hyenas can pursue animals over considerable distances, relying on stamina rather than a short explosive ambush.
Lions and hyenas frequently compete for food. Contrary to popular storytelling, theft occurs in both directions. Lions steal kills from hyenas, and hyenas steal from lions when their numbers and confidence permit it.
The question is not which species possesses superior moral character.
The question is who currently has enough relatives nearby to defend lunch.
Although scavenging has been framed negatively in popular culture, it is an entirely sensible survival strategy. Hunting is dangerous and energetically expensive. A predator that ignores an available carcass because it did not personally make the kill is not noble. It is hungry for no good reason.
A MATRIARCHAL SOCIETY
Spotted hyenas live in social groups called clans. Some clans contain only a handful of animals, while others may include dozens of individuals.
Females dominate males, and even lower-ranking adult females generally outrank immigrant males. Rank is often inherited through the maternal line. Young hyenas learn their social position through interactions with their mother and other clan members.
Females are typically larger and more assertive than males. They possess unusually high levels of androgen hormones, which contribute to their muscular build and complex reproductive anatomy.
Female spotted hyenas have an elongated clitoris that resembles a penis externally. They urinate, mate and give birth through this structure. Birth can be difficult, particularly for first-time mothers, making the spotted hyena reproductive system one of the most remarkable—and least convenient—arrangements found among mammals.
Their social lives are equally complex. Clan members recognize individuals, form alliances, maintain rank relationships and cooperate during territorial defence. They use scent markings, body postures and a wide range of vocalizations to communicate.
The famous hyena “laugh” is not a sign that the animal has just remembered an excellent joke. The giggle-like call can communicate excitement, nervousness, submission or social tension. Its pitch may also provide information about the caller’s age and identity.
Spotted hyenas also whoop, grunt, growl, whine and squeal. A hyena clan is not quiet.
There are reputations to manage, alliances to maintain and neighbours to shout at across the savanna.
DEVOTED MOTHERS AND FORMIDABLE CUBS
Spotted hyena cubs are born unusually well developed. Their eyes are open, their teeth have erupted and they are capable of aggressive interactions almost immediately.
Litters commonly consist of one or two cubs. Siblings may compete fiercely, particularly when food is limited or when cubs are the same sex. In some cases, this aggression can result in the death of one cub.
Mothers nurse their young with exceptionally rich milk for an extended period—sometimes well over a year. The cubs depend upon their mothers not only for nutrition, but also for protection and social position within the clan.
A high-ranking mother can provide her offspring with better access to food and influential social partners. In hyena society, knowing the right individuals is important.
Preferably, one of them is your mother.
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE CAVE HYENAS?
Cave hyenas disappeared from much of Eurasia toward the end of the Pleistocene. Their extinction was probably not caused by a single event.
Climatic changes altered vegetation, prey populations and open habitats. Other large carnivores competed for food and denning sites. Humans also expanded across Eurasia, hunting some of the same animals and occupying caves that hyenas used for shelter and raising cubs.
Humans and cave hyenas may have competed directly for access to caves. This was not a minor disagreement over real estate. A well-positioned cave offered protection, a stable temperature and a defensible place to raise young.
One can imagine the prehistoric property listing:
Spacious limestone chamber. Excellent shelter. Convenient access to migrating herbivores. Previous occupants extremely bitey.
As Eurasian environments changed, cave hyena populations became fragmented and eventually vanished. Their African relatives endured, carrying the spotted hyena lineage into the modern world.
THE LAST LAUGH
The spotted hyena is neither a failed cat nor a peculiar dog. It is a highly specialized carnivore with its own extraordinary evolutionary history.
Its jaws can dismantle skeletons. Its stomach can process materials most predators abandon. Its clans rival primate societies in their complexity, and its fossil relatives once moved through the same Pleistocene landscapes as mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, cave lions and early humans.
Far from being a cowardly hanger-on, the spotted hyena is one of the most successful large carnivores alive today.
And after several million years of poor publicity, it may finally deserve to have the last laugh.