Hyenas-Friends or Foes?

The hot afternoon erupts into giggles and splashing water.  The pond calls young and old.  Friends splash and dunk each other.  Others race around the pond before plunging in.  Sounds like an ordinary summer at the swimming hole, doesn't it?  But can you imagine hyenas, the dirty scavengers of the African plain, romping so playfully?

Not long ago, many people linked hyenas with garbage cans, corpses, and bad smells.  Hyenas were even accused of digging up graves to eat dead humans.  Do you think of hyenas as scruffy, garbage eating wild dogs?  Actually, they are cousins of the mongoose.  Hyenas are essential in conserving the earth.  Their strong, thick-set teeth enable them to eat what other carnivores can't.  The shyer, striped species in East Africa are invited by some villages to be the local garbage disposals.  Tail lights from cars, wood, grass, termites are samples of their tastes.  Imagine the cleaning job they could do on your room.

Socially, hyenas are much like you and me.  They love to play, especially the cubs.  If not romping in the nearest pond, cubs play tug of war with a stick or provoke their parents to a chase.  Hyenas band together in clans, often consisting of 80 animals or more.  Each hyena has a distinctive whoop that other family members recognize.  Hyenas are also very affectionate animals.  They sniff and lick each others' head, neck, even inside their mouth in greeting.

As the sun sets, play turns to the serious task of dinner.  Since hyena females are larger than the males, they lead the hunt.  Tonight, they'll feast on fresh wildebeest.  The cubs are left at home, since they nurse milk until two years old.  After that, they too, join the hunt.

The adults head for the nearby wildebeest herd.  Once on the open plain, a lone female stakes out the herd.  Her beady eyes calculate the best time to attack.  Her well-developed neck and shoulders tense under her spotted coat.  Her bushy, black tail raises in a horizontal attack position.  Suddenly, she dashes into the herd, scattering them.  As she zig-zags through the herd, the wildebeest stampede.

Head up, her ears cocked forward, the hyena stops in mid-tracks to inspect the animals.  Where are the young, sick or old?  Hyenas prey on the weak.  This serves to strengthen the species as a whole, allowing only the fittest and healthiest to survive.  She chooses her victim, an old male wildebeest racing behind the rest of the herd.  The other hyenas, watching from the sidelines, join in the chase.  Loud, low-pitched whoops hurl them forward to speeds reaching 37 mph.  The hyenas are in luck.  Dinner is served.

As you can see, hyenas are powerful predators designed to stabilize our earth's ecology.  These animals are definitely not cute or cuddly, but we have much to thank them for, our friends, the hyenas.