Common Name: Spotted Hyena
Scientific
Name: Crocuta crocuta
Family: Hyaenidae
Classification:
Mammals
Diet: Omnivore
Group
Name: Clan
Lifespan
(In Wild): Up to 25 years
Body
Size: (Up to 2m)
Head and body- 34 to 59 inches; tail- 10 to 14 inches (Up to 2m)
Weight: 50-86kg
Top
Speed: 65km/h
Habitat: Grassland and savanna
Spotted hyena facts
The spotted hyena is one of three living species
having a remarkable variation in behavior and ecology. It has tiny peg-like
teeth to the phenomenal bone-crushing power in the jaws of the spotted and
brown hyenas. These strong jaws, including the animals' large size and a
digestive system capable of digesting even bones and teeth, help the hyenas
fully digest the remain of large vertebrates more perfectly than any other
carnivore.
Spotted hyenas inhabit savannahs, grasslands,
woodlands, and forest edges across sub-Saharan Africa. They have a sandy,
ginger-colored coat having black marking on their neck and shoulders. The
hyena's social organization for its flexibility is also notable. Having
variations according to habitat type and the abundance of the primary food
source.
Female hyenas
A female spotted hyena lopes back to its den with
clearly enlarged mammary glands. When the same milk-laden animal welcomes a
fellow clan member with a massive phallic erection, you might feel less
specific. This organ is flabby, but the male still has to insert his erect
penis into the clitoris during sexual intercourse. If this sounds like it may
be uncomfortable, then imagine what it's like to deliver a 1.5-kg fetus from
the same aperture.
A more likely difference is that female hyenas have
been naturally shorted out for their size and aggressiveness. Unusually high
growth hormone levels during early development could make their reproductive
organs develop in this abnormal process.
It is also possible that such a strange reproductive
span gives a female some control over her babies' father. Not only it makes it
challenging for a male spotted hyena to insert his penis, but the bladder also
empties into the same passage. So a female hyena that has just mated with a
male can change its mind easily.
Females can afford to be chosen in their social
relationships because of their higher ranking. They also stay in the same clan
for their entire life to have a more excellent perception of the clan's social
environment..
Male hyenas
A long-term study of outsider male spotted hyenas
living in large groups (clans) illustrates that males acquire social rank by
queuing. Levels of aggression among males were low; males do not try to improve
their rank through physical contests. Size and body mass failed to influence
male social status. The soundness of queues was insured by an increase in the
rate at which males formed coalitions against other males as they rose in
social position and by partnerships between high-ranked males and dominant
females. High-ranked, long-tenured males chiefly consorted with (“shadowed”)
and focused their affiliative behavior on females of high reproductive value
and disrupted attempts by subordinate males to escort these females.
High-ranked males always supported females against lower-ranked males that
harassed the females.
In contrast, lower-ranked, short-tenured males focused
their affiliative behavior on young adult females and sometimes shadowed or
defended females. Males that did not scatter from their natal clan quickly
received top rank within the male social ranking. No matter the position
obtained from their mother when young,
adult males submitted to all or any adult females.
Hyena habitat
Where hyenas live depends on their type. Brown hyenas
have the slightest range and live in Southern Africa only, including the
Kalahari and Namib deserts. One can find them between the Angola-Namibia border
and the Orange River in South Africa.
There are two visible populations of aardwolf. One
subclass lives in Angola, Mozambique, and southern Zambia, as well as Somalia
and northeastern Uganda. The other subclass extends into central Tanzania,
Ethiopia, Egypt, and Sudan.
Spotted hyenas have a little bit larger extent and
live in the south Sahara Desert. They occur all over sub-Saharan Africa and are
the most numerous large predators in the Serengeti.
The spotted hyena has the most extensive scope of all.
It also lives in north and northeast Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and all the
way to southern Siberia.
Hyenas can adjust to almost any habitat and are found
in woodlands, savannas, grasslands, sub-deserts, forest edges, and mountains as high up as 13,000 feet
(3962.4 m),
Hyena reproduction
According to the research with convict hyenas at the
University of California, the male's penis glans distend slightly in the
female's reproductive span, such that the sex partners endure in a brief
"intimacy lock" for some minutes after the male discharges.
Therefore, the mating couple is entirely unsafe for lions and other hazards
during this "lock" period. This vulnerability recommends why the
hyenas appear to look for the most private and safe places attainable in which
to mate
Hyena behavior
Spotted hyenas are very social. They live in groups
called clans. According to the National Wildlife Foundation, Clans can have up
to 80 members,
Spotted hyena females are larger and they are also
more aggressive and are dominant in the clan. All-female spotted hyenas rank
higher than males in the clan. Even so, the brown and stripy hyenas and
aardwolves have male-dominated clans.
Hyena hunting
The spotted hyenas are an excellent example of how the
collective form of hunting can be dominated by the kind of prey, as well as the
carnivore’s ability to hunt and smash the different types of prey. When they
hunt an animal bigger than themselves, they may hunt in groups and by biting
and dragging, they take down the quarry to the ground. They hunt alone in a
fox-like matter if the quarry is small.
Like dogs, hyenas do not directly kill their prey.
They smash their target to exhaustion; their quarry cannot ascend any further
protection of itself and is caught and eaten while still alive.
Hyenas adjust their specific hunting strategy to the
environment in which they live. There is a wealthy and intensive amount of prey
in the Ngorongoro Crater, and there are comparably many massive beasts such as
wildebeest or zebras. These animals very much jump to one place and don’t
wander. Here, hyenas live in large clans and establish hunting territory, which
they often defend against neighboring clans. Large prey animals make Hunting in packs is proven to be more
effective and fast than hunting alone, especially with large prey animals.
