29/03/2022
Hyenas AKA Fisi 😍
Here are fascinating hyena facts that will want to make you stop and observe these curious animals a while longer:
•Hyenas are real-life Survivor players,
Hyenas form intricate social groups but here’s the fascinating fact, they are known to form allegiances with group members much to the likes of a Survivor game strategy.
Their social structure is intricate but relaxed, and they will break allegiances and form new ones as drama on the African savannah unfolds. They form allegiances around hunting, scavenging, territory and social status. Although active allegiance players, hyenas will regroup to aggressively protect their territory if collectively threatened by predators, making them also good and tight team players.
•Hyenas have white poo
Nothing goes to waste—hyenas are literally trash cans of the savannah as they devour every inch of their prey, nothing is left behind for the vultures! This makes hyena droppings easy to spot among the carnivore droppings. The amount of collagen consumed with bone, horn and hooves give the hyena’s dropping a white coloring compared to other carnivore droppings.
•Hyenas are scavengers and hunters, and excel at both
Hyenas are truly opportunistic and their hunting behavior depends on who their predator neighbors are. If they find themselves in an environment with plenty of other predators around, hyenas will tend to scavenge rather than hunt—they literally wait around to empty the neighborhood plates.
However, in an environment with few other main predators, hyenas turn into fierce hunters with impressive skill and speed.
•Hyenas are brave
Whether out of pure bravery or laziness to hunt for their own prey—hyenas show no fear or hesitation in trying to steal food. Even if it means risking their own lives with a pack of lions, encounters which hyenas may not survive. Still, the behavior persists making hyenas the perfect description of a chancer personality with some clear benefits for easy meals and African survival.
•Hyenas are sky-grazers
Look out for hyenas staring at the sky during the day. They are not daydreaming but rather taking cues from circling vultures as their own unique GPS system—using circling vultures to point them to kills.
•Hyenas are highly-sociable
The hyena has lived with villain-status since the Lion King, but zoologists across the world that study hyenas have been working hard on the re-branding of the hyena.
•Hyenas in large group
Folklore has not helped in establishing a less favorable public profile, with many myths telling us that hyenas are the steads of witches, and the evil of ancient society has reincarnated as hyenas. But, luckily, hyena scientists are showing us fascinating facts showing us that hyenas are as clever as primates, magnificent hunters, fierce protectors of their young, and highly sociable creatures, helping the official re-brand of the hyena.
•Hyenas are more closely related to cats than dogs
Although hyenas resemble canines in appearance and behavior, genetically they are more closely related to cats than dogs.
•Females dominate
To great animal kingdom exception, the female is the dominant gender in the hyena world. Female hyenas are easy to spot as they are in fact more muscular and aggressive. In a very peculiar case for the animal kingdom, female hyenas have testosterone levels up to three times higher than male hyenas. There is even more confusion when trying to distinguish female and male hyenas, as the female spotted hyena has external genitalia.
Despite this strangeness, hyenas are however not hermaphrodites. Males do tend to suffer under tribes that become dominated by females. The male hyena’s social status drops even lower, making for a peculiar social grouping with young male hyenas often leaving the group altogether.
•Proudly part of the ‘Ugly Five’
We have to admit that hyenas aren’t exactly the most fine-looking of the African plains, and its looks saw it rated as one of Africa’s ‘Ugly Five’. Shaggy, untidy, sneaky, with supernatural status in African folklore and jaws that crush even buffalo in no time, they have perhaps rightfully earned their Ugly Five listing! Brown hyenas are slightly more attractive with pointed ears and a nicer long coat.
Photo credit Baraka Olais
