Alas, we often build our attitude towards someone based on appearance, and often accept the opinion imposed by television. Moreover, this happens from early childhood. We watch cartoons in which there are kind, brave and smart heroes, and there are stupid, mean and evil ones. We love good heroes, but, of course, we don’t love evil ones. Remember the cartoon "The Lion King"? The authors of this cartoon easily convinced all children that a lion is good and a hyena is bad.
Lions have a historically good reputation. They have long been depicted on coats of arms. Lions symbolized courage, strength, beauty and intelligence. I don’t want to destroy your ideas about the king of beasts, especially since we’re not talking about them. But I would like to change the erroneous idea about hyenas, which has stuck to them completely undeservedly.
So, let's start with the fact that most of you believe that hyenas are scavengers. This is not entirely true. Yes, they eat carrion, but carrion makes up no more than 30% of their diet. In most cases, the hyena hunts on its own. The hyena is not a very fast animal, but it is incredibly resilient. She is capable of stalking her prey for hours.
The hyena is often shown as a cowardly animal, capable of attacking only in packs. This is also not true. In the fight for food, one or two hyenas are able to engage in battle even with lions.
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Hyenas are also very intelligent creatures. They learn quickly, are able to transfer knowledge to other hyenas in the pack, and instantly adapt to new conditions.
But the main purpose of hyenas, no matter how strange it may sound, is to take care of the health of animals in the savannah. Yes, hyenas, along with the African vulture (vulture), clean the savannah. By feeding on carrion, they prevent the possible spread of diseases. Hyenas and vultures clean up carcasses abandoned by other predators. Birds gnaw the smallest pieces of meat, and powerful jaws and sharp teeth allow hyenas to gnaw even bones, thereby leaving no traces of a dead animal.
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In recent years, the number of scavenger birds (mainly vultures) has sharply decreased, which has affected the increase in diseases of ungulates, which are food for all predators. If the population of hyenas begins to decline, this may entail irreversible processes and, having lost some, we will lose dozens of other species...
Found throughout much of sub-Saharan Africa.
The length of its body is 128-166 cm, its tail is 26-33 cm, its weight is from 59 to 82 kg.
Inhabits various landscapes from hot deserts to mountain forests, but prefers steppes and savannas. The mountains rise up to 4000 m above sea level.
The spotted hyena is a typical carrion eater - its main food is carrion. However, hyenas themselves often attack antelopes and other animals. The hyena's reputation as a cowardly scavenger, surviving on the remains of the prey of lions and other predators, was firmly entrenched, but when research was carried out, it turned out that spotted hyenas are excellent hunters, in some cases even superior to lions.
Active at night, in search of food it can travel up to 70 km per night. Often found during the day, resting in the shade of trees or lying in shallow water. For reproduction it uses caves, anteater burrows and other animals.
A very social species - hyenas live in a matriarchal clan, which is a territorial entity occupying up to 1,800 km 2. A separate hierarchy of submission exists among males and females, but females are dominant over all males. High-ranking females have first access to food and resting areas located near the entrance to the den. They also raise more young than females lower in the hierarchy. High-ranking males have priority access to females. Males join new clans during breeding, showing constant submission to females. Neighboring clans fight among themselves to protect their habitats. Territories are patrolled by clan members, and clan areas are demarcated by anal scent gland marks and fecal piles containing large quantities of white bone sediment.
A walking hyena can run tirelessly at a speed of about 10 km/h for many hours, but can gallop at a speed of 40-50 km/h for at least several kilometers if necessary. The peak of their speed running over short distances is approximately 60 km/h.
The spotted hyena is clearly a carnivore, but is extremely picky in its choice of food. Hyenas are both scavengers and hunters, feeding on corpses, killed animals, or picking up and eating any organic matter. They use every part of the body, including the bones. It is the most effective of the scavengers due to its specific digestive system and active, very acidic gastric juice. The hyena is able to absorb nutrients from bone tissue, skin and even feces of other predators. She is able to satisfy her hunger even with the corpses of dead relatives who are in the last stage of decomposition. Bones, horns, hooves and even teeth are completely digested within 24 hours. Hyenas also pursue young and weak animals and animals with pathological changes. Some of their usual prey includes gazelles, zebras, rhinos, impalas and other ungulates. They also take mice and other small mammals, birds, reptiles, eggs, fruits, vegetables and insects.
Pregnancy lasts 98-99 days. There are usually 2 cubs in a litter, rarely 1 or 3.
Brown hyena
Brown Hyena
(Parahyaena brunnea)
Lives in central Africa south of the Sahara Desert, mainly in the Kalahari and Namib deserts. Its range lies south of the Zambezi River in Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and southern Angola. In South Africa, the species has been practically exterminated, except for the northernmost Transvaal and Cape Province.
Body length is up to 1.2 m, of which the tail accounts for 25-30 cm. On average, it weighs from 25 to 35 kg.
Inhabits barren savannas, but has also been found in deserts. Mainly prefers herbaceous semi-deserts with a mosaic of shrubs, typical tropical savanna and wooded areas (with a well-developed layer of cereal vegetation, under the forest layer).
It is the most carnivorous animal in the most barren parts of the Kalahari and Namib deserts. Here it feeds mainly on carrion. In the absence of carrion, it makes do with fruits, vegetables, marine organisms, insects and other invertebrates, and can also hunt small bustards and other birds, ostrich eggs, and can hunt small mammals, lizards and occasionally poultry. It also attacks larger prey up to the size of young antelope (particularly springbok).
The brown hyena is a fairly solitary animal and is mainly active at night. Although this hyena has keen eyesight and hearing, it usually relies more on its sense of smell.
Brown hyenas live in clans, but they do not hunt in groups. Most members of the clan are closely related, although sometimes immigrating males join the clan. Within the clan, its members have much more peaceful relations than other members of the hyena family, because the cubs are less aggressive towards each other. The older pups help guard the younger, younger pups by sounding an alarm if a lion or other threat approaches their den. Although clans are territorial, females breed with nomadic migrating males. Males often leave their clan and join another's clan (as do the occasional emigrant female) or become strays. Vagrants represent one third of all adult males and 8% of the population and are responsible for the reproduction of the species; resident local males rarely show sexual interest in females of their clan.
Within clans, there is no seasonality or synchrony in reproduction. Pregnancy lasts 92-98 days. Usually there are 2-4 puppies in a litter. During the first three months after birth, the mother visits the cubs at sunrise and sunset to nurse them, spending up to 5 hours a night. They reach sexual maturity at 2.5 years.
Striped hyena
Striped Hyena
(Hyaena hyaena)
Found throughout North Africa, in large parts of Asia from the Mediterranean Sea to the Bay of Bengal. Common in North-Western and Central India, becoming rarer towards the south and absent in Ceylon, as well as in all countries further east; in sub-Saharan Africa it is also common in places, but becomes rare in the south of the region.
Height at the withers is up to 80 cm, weight of males is up to 55-60 kg. Males are larger than females.
Prefers foothills with dry riverbeds, gullies, ravines, rocky gorges and labyrinths of caves. Lives in low clayey hills with desert and steppe vegetation, overgrown in some areas with pistachio and juniper. Willingly inhabits areas overgrown with dense bushes. Avoids high mountains and extensive forests. In some places it is found in sandy desert, but the water source must be within 10 km. Prefers sparsely populated deserted areas, but sometimes visits gardens, vineyards and melon fields. Hyenas are not found in areas with stable snow cover and do not tolerate high humidity.
This is a predominantly nocturnal animal, although it occasionally wanders during the day. Unlike the spotted hyena, it does not form packs. It feeds mostly on carrion. Often hyenas are content with the bare skeleton of ungulates, gnawed clean by other scavengers - in this case, powerful jaws help out, thanks to which hyenas can easily chew any bones. We can say that, minus the feeding on carrion, the striped hyena is practically omnivorous - it catches any living creature that it can cope with and that it can catch up with, eats insects, and destroys the ground nests of birds. In the spring in Central Asia and Transcaucasia, when hatching from turtle eggs, the hyena switches almost completely to them. The shell of even a large turtle is no problem for a hyena's teeth. In addition, a hyena, like a jackal, can collect garbage. Plants form an important part of the diet. Hyenas willingly eat many types of succulent plants, but they especially love melons and watermelons, for which they raid melon trees. They eat nuts and seeds. Having eaten, hyenas often sleep near the feeding area.
In the north of the range, mating occurs in January-February, and in hotter countries it is not confined to a specific season. Pregnancy takes 90-91 days. There are 2-4 blind puppies in the litter, which gain their sight in a week or a little more. Both parents appear to be involved in their upbringing, although in captivity male hyenas may eat the litter. Young hyenas reach sexual maturity at 3-4 years of age.
Families exist for a number of years and consist of a male, a female and one or two, rarely three, grown-up young, who remain with their parents for at least a year. Such a family can live isolated from its relatives, but two or three families can also live close to each other, with each family having several of its own “towns.” In the family, hyenas show sociability and friendliness, which is not characteristic of a hyena in relationships with other animals.
Aardwolf
Aardwolf
(Proteles cristatus)
Found in Eastern and Southern Africa. Its range is broken by the tropical forests of Zambia and Southern Tanzania, where this species is not found.
Body length is only 55-95 cm, tail length - 20-30 cm, shoulder height - 45-50 cm. Adults weigh from 8 to 14 kg.
It lives on open, dry plains and is found in agricultural areas. Avoids mountainous areas and deserts. It is also not found in tropical dry forests. The habitat generally coincides with the distribution of termites of the family Hodotermitidae, inhabiting grassy plains and savannas. Aardwolves live alone, although they usually live in monogamous married couples. They aggressively protect their feeding territories from invasion, the size of which, depending on the availability of food, varies from 1 to 4 km 2. Active at dusk and at night, only in South Africa in winter does it become diurnal, which corresponds to the behavioral patterns of its main food, termites. During the day, the aardwolf usually hides in underground shelters, usually in old aardvark burrows (which are built near termite mounds), as well as in empty porcupine and strider burrows. Able to dig its own burrows.
Unlike true hyenas, the aardwolf does not feed on carrion, but on termites and occasionally on other insects and their larvae (in particular, carrion beetles, which it collects on animal corpses) and arachnids. Occasionally, the aardwolf catches small rodents and birds nesting on the ground or eats their eggs. Does not depend on water sources, obtaining liquid from termites.
Aardwolves form monogamous pairs. However, if the male is unable to defend his territory, the female mates with another, more dominant male, although the offspring are later guarded by her regular partner. Pregnancy lasts approximately 90 days, the female gives birth to 2-4 cubs. In South Africa, puppies are born from October to December; in warmer northern regions (Botswana, Zimbabwe) the breeding season is less pronounced. Puppies remain in the den for 3-4 weeks; lairs change approximately once a month. Until 9 weeks, puppies do not move more than 30 m from the den. 12-week-old puppies begin to accompany their parents to feeding, but still do not move more than 300-500 m from the den. By 4 months, milk feeding stops and the young animals switch to independent feeding, but remain with their parents until the next breeding season, that is, for 1 year. By 2 years old, young aardwolves reach sexual maturity.
The brown hyena, also called the brown hyena, lives in central Africa, mostly in the Kalahari and Namib deserts. Their range stretches from the Zambezi River in Zimbabwe to Namibia and southern Angola. In South Africa, brown hyenas have been almost completely exterminated, with the exception of the Cape Province and the Transvaal.
Features of the appearance of the brown hyena
Brown hyenas are significantly smaller than spotted hyenas - the body length is 71-82 centimeters, plus a tail 25-30 centimeters long. The average weight varies from 25 to 35 kilograms, and the maximum body weight is 39 kilograms. Males are slightly heavier than females.
In isolated areas - the provinces of Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape - exceptionally large individuals weighing about 70 kilograms were found.
This species has external characteristics typical of the family: a reverse tilt of the body, a large head, long and strong legs. The head is wide, the ears are narrow, the teeth are large. The front legs are much better developed than the hind legs. The claws on the fingers do not retract.
The brown hyena's mane is very long, not erect and shaggy, it runs along the back and hangs down the sides of the body. The color of the mane is much lighter than the rest of the body. The coat is a solid brown color, and the stripes are located only on the legs. The lower part of the body is lighter. The tail is shaggy.
The anus has odorous glands, from which a secretion with an unpleasant odor is released, which is why hyenas smell bad.
Brown Hyena Habitat
This species is endemic to the arid and barren regions of southern Africa. Although the range of brown hyenas has declined significantly in recent years, they are still quite numerous in southern Africa. They have learned to survive close to humans.
Brown hyenas mainly live in barren savannas, but they also live in deserts. Brown hyenas prefer semi-deserts, savannah and wooded areas. They hunt and hide in rocky areas.
Lifestyle of brown hyenas
These are fairly solitary animals that are active mainly at night.
Although brown hyenas have excellent hearing and vision, they mostly rely on their keen sense of smell to detect carrion and other prey. Having sensed prey, the hyena quickly runs, covering a considerable distance in order to arrive at the place first than other scavengers.
During the dry season, brown hyenas actively search for food; they hunt for about 10 hours, while walking 30-50 kilometers per day.
Fortunately, during the rainy season there is more food, so hyenas do not have to travel as much.
Brown hyenas live in clans, but they hunt alone. Most of the group are closely related, but migrating males sometimes join the clan. Relations within the clan are more peaceful than among other hyenas, and the cubs are not as aggressive towards each other. Older pups even guard their younger counterparts and make alarming sounds when a predator approaches their den.
Females mate with migrating males. Females and some males remain with the clan even after maturation, which occurs at 2.5 years. But most often, males leave their clan and join someone else’s, or constantly migrate.
The meeting of brown hyenas takes place in the den; when the hyenas are outside the den, they are solitary. Individuals obtain food alone and can only gather in groups of several near a large carcass.
Young individuals rest near the den and play, while grabbing each other's manes with their teeth. These games are so tough that all the cubs have numerous scars on their necks.
In conflict situations, hyenas raise their manes on their backs and necks. Brown hyenas have overly developed chemical communication. There are scent marks throughout the clan's territory. Each individual has a unique smell, so other hyenas are able to identify each other. Brown hyenas have two types of odorous secretions. One has a short effect, it disappears after a few hours; with the help of this secretion, hyenas find out where the individual obtained food. The second secret has a persistent aroma that does not fade over the course of a month, with the help of which the hyena strengthens its position in the clan.
The coastal hyena is the largest land animal whose diet consists primarily of carrion. Brown hyenas, like spotted hyenas, are very vocal, but unlike their cousins, they do not make cackling sounds. The brown hyena is most often heard at night. When individuals quarrel over food, they growl, whine and howl.
Listen to the voice of the brown hyena
Natural enemies of brown hyenas are lions and common hyenas.
Brown hyena feeding
In the Namib and Kalahari deserts, brown hyenas feed primarily on carrion. If there is no carrion, then hyenas switch to fruits, vegetables, termites, locusts, dung beetles, small birds, rodents, and lizards. Occasionally they attack poultry. Brown hyenas can also attack larger prey, such as young antelope.
During the rainy season, leftovers from the meals of cheetahs, lions and leopards form the basis of the diet of brown hyenas. During the dry season, the percentage of vegetables and fruits in the diet drops sharply, so melons become the main source of moisture for them during the 8 months of drought.
The brown hyena's jaws are not as powerful as those of the spotted hyena, but it is capable of biting through an ostrich egg. Hyenas, like foxes, stock up on food. They also bring additional food to the den by feeding the pups.
Brown hyenas can pursue small game for a short distance, but only one out of 6-10 hunting attempts is successful.
Reproduction of brown hyenas
There is no seasonality in the mating season among brown hyenas. Females mate with various nomadic males. Some males mate with females and leave the clan, while others remain after mating and take part in raising the offspring. If the female dies, then other females begin to feed her babies.
Pregnancy lasts 92-98 days. There are usually 2-4 babies in a litter. For the first 3 months, the mother comes to the cubs at sunrise and sunset, and spends about 5 hours with them. There are teenagers in the den, so the puppies do not get bored, and the mother does not need to come too often. As the babies grow, their milk diet is supplemented by meat that the mother and other clan members bring to the den.
When babies begin to eat solid food, the mother comes to them once a day, staying with them for about half an hour. Teenagers as young as 8 months can stay on their own for 2-3 nights.
At 10 months, young individuals already begin to hunt on their own, obtaining food near the den. Over time, the range of their attacks increases. Females feed their offspring with milk for 10 months, and wean them completely at 15 months. The young continue to return to the den, where they socialize, play, and sometimes receive additional food from the males. Brown hyenas begin to breed at least 2.5 years old.
Coastal hyenas are social animals that can live in clans. Brown hyena population
Brown hyenas are useful animals, as they eat carrion and clear an area of infected remains. Occasionally they harm people by attacking poultry.
The number of brown hyenas in Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Zambia is about 5070-8020 individuals. It is also believed that about 220 brown hyenas live in Lesotho, Angola and Mozambique. As of 1995, 16 brown hyenas were registered in zoos.
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One of the interesting features of hyenas is that it is impossible to distinguish males from females: both have a phallus dangling between their hind legs. For “men” it is real, but for “women” it is false. No one has yet explained this natural quirk. Maybe this is a disguise? Or are they hermaphrodites?
Be that as it may, the ladies, having received the scepter, appropriated social primacy to themselves - they established matriarchy. They have even become physically larger (70 kg or more), which helps them with daily competitive contacts.
Constant observations of the behavior of the clan show that each of the ladies stands on a certain social rung, and at the very top is the “queen”. They receive the amount of life's benefits accordingly. High-ranking individuals are the first to prey, they get the best pieces, few people will risk standing in their way or challenging their right to own something.
It is easier for sisters to achieve success, fighting side by side for power, but still one of them will be “number one”, and someone will be “number two” and so on. It happens that a lonely matron reaches the top of the hierarchy - if she has outstanding abilities. As a rule, this is the best and merciless of fighters, who also knows how to think and lead a team. The males became subordinate in everything. Each of them spends years to infiltrate women's society and gain a foothold there. They try to be useful to the clan - they mark and protect the territory, participate in hunting, fight with other clans or with lions. Among them, the highest rank goes to those who, through long, blameless service, have earned the approval of the leading female elite. But their main role in matriarchy is reduced to participation in reproduction.
Each clan has a fairly extensive hunting territory. She is carefully guarded, marked with the smell of the anal and digital glands, and protected from neighbors. Migrating antelopes, unaware of this distribution of land, enter the possessions of one or another clan, becoming the object of attention and then hunting of the owners. Prey caught at the border can pass from paw to paw up to a dozen times until there is nothing left of it. If, during the chase, the antelope ran into someone else's territory, then the chances of enjoying its taste are slim for the original pursuers - most likely, it will have to be left to the neighboring owners under the pressure of their superior forces.
Hyenas love their little children very much, caressing and licking them constantly. The same tender relationships between young couples, between sisters and brothers. When you look at the furry animals playing and caressing, you can’t believe that these are predators - the threat of the entire savannah.
Children, who appear once a year deep underground, immediately acquire the rank of their mother and very soon begin to behave accordingly: dominants take food from others, mark everything around with their scent, and can punish anyone; The “rabble” behaves modestly, “with its tail between its legs.” Females feed only their own children - strangers will be doomed if their mother died in a skirmish. The grown puppy hurries along with everyone else to the prey.
The main inclinations absorbed with mother's milk are selfishness, individualism, and not collectivism (as, for example, in hyena dogs). The cubs are raised to be individuals who are ready to “grab everyone by the throat” for their piece.
Another feature of hyenas is their fantastic resistance to bacteria and viruses. In 1987, more than four thousand hippos died from anthrax in Luangwa. All of them were eaten by hyenas, thereby stopping the spread of infection. At the same time, the number of “fighters” increased sharply in a short period. I can imagine how difficult it became for them to feed later, when the hippos ended and other forces came into play, regulating the size of the packs.
Another peculiar quality of hyenas is the incredible strength of their jaws. There are no ungnawed, uneaten bones left behind. They can even absorb horns and hooves when they are hungry. It is not for nothing that in the African savannah there are no lying skeletons or horned skulls of fallen antelopes (as, for example, in Central Asia): hyenas “sweep up” everything. Their stomach can hold up to 15 kilograms of meat, bones, and any organic matter at a time. All this is perfectly digested, maximum nutrients are extracted.
Some nomadic peoples have a custom of leaving their dead in the desert, where our heroes find them. Others use hyenas as waste disposers for entire settlements and cities. Still others consider them demons of the night, the embodiment of evil, the dark forces with which sorcerers deal in magical rituals. In any case, the role of hyenas as nature's orderlies is truly priceless. They are indispensable in the savannah and desert.
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