title: "Flat cap" content: Taxicab and bus drivers are often depicted wearing a flat cap, as comedically portrayed by Gareth Hale and Norman Pace's (Hale and Pace) "London cabbies" television sketches. In the BBC show "Peaky Blinders", characters show their membership of the Birmingham gang by sewing razor blades into the peak of their flat caps, supposedly for use as a weapon. AC/DC vocalist Brian Johnson, a native of Newcastle, customarily wears a flat cap on stage and frequently off. The flat cap can also be taken to denote the upper class when affecting casualness. "A toff can be a bit of a chap


title: "Collinsia heterophylla" content: Collinsia heterophylla Collinsia heterophylla (syn. "Collinsia bicolor"), known as purple Chinese houses or innocence, is a flowering plant native to California and the Peninsular Ranges in northern Baja California. "Collinsia heterophylla" is an annual plant growing in shady places, in height. It can be found in most of California (other than desert regions) below about . It blooms from mid spring to early summer. Like other species in the genus "Collinsia", which also includes the blue-eyed Marys, it gets its name from its towers of inflorescences of decreasing diameter, which give the plants in full flower a certain resemblance to


title: "Collinsia heterophylla" content: a pagoda. Dried in air, the seeds weigh about 1 mg each. The species was first described as "Collinsia bicolor" by George Bentham in 1835, but this name proved to be a later homonym of "Collinsia bicolor" Raf. (described in 1824), necessitating the name change to "C. heterophylla". Despite this, the name "C. bicolor" is still sometimes used in references. Collinsia heterophylla Collinsia heterophylla (syn. "Collinsia bicolor"), known as purple Chinese houses or innocence, is a flowering plant native to California and the Peninsular Ranges in northern Baja California. "Collinsia heterophylla" is an annual plant growing in shady places, in


title: "Georges Bonnet" content: April 1944, Bonnet left France for Switzerland, where he was to stay until March 1950. After the war, proceedings were begun against him but eventually dropped, but he was expelled from the Radical Party in 1944. During his time in exile, Bonnet was to write a five-volume set of memoirs. Bonnet throughout his career had been very much concerned with his reputation, and during his time as Foreign Minister had a team of journalists to engage in what is known in France as "Bonnetiste" writing, namely a series of books and pamphlets meant to glorify Bonnet as the defender of


title: "Roland Dumas" content: cabinet as Minister of European Affairs. Five months later, he replaced Foreign Minister Claude Cheysson. He remained in this function until the Socialist defeat in the March 1986 legislative election. Nevertheless, he returned to the Quai d'Orsay after the re-election of Mitterrand in May 1988, until the PS defeat in the March 1993 legislative elections. Indeed, he was the French Foreign Minister during the collapse of the Soviet Block, the Gulf War, and the negotiations of the Maastricht Treaty. Not re-elected to the French National Assembly in 1993, he was nominated President of the Constitutional Council in 1995. This was


title: "Pascual Pérez (boxer)" content: and Jimmy Wilde. Along with Carlos Monzon, he is considered one of the best fighters ever to box. He has been inducted in the International Boxing Hall of Fame. In 2004, the American Boxing Confederation posthumously declared him the South American champion. Pérez was born into a family of winemakers in the Uco Valley, Tupungato district of the Mendoza province, where he was the youngest of nine children. He worked as a laborer for the family since childhood. In 1942, at age 16, Perez started boxing at the Rodeo Deportivo de la Cruz, led by Felipe Segura, Perez showing superb


title: "Battle of Glorieta Pass" content: in the distance, Lt. Col. Manuel Chaves of the 2nd New Mexico Infantry, commander of the New Mexican volunteers, informed Maj. Chivington that his scouts had located the Confederate supply train at Johnson's Ranch. After watching the supply train for an hour, Chivington's force descended the slope and attacked, driving off or capturing the small guard with few casualties on either side. They then looted and burned 80 supply wagons and spiked the cannon, either killing or driving off about 500 horses and mules before returning with their prisoners to Kozlowski's Ranch. With no supplies to sustain his advance, Scurry


title: "Thomas Girtin" content: out his seven-year term, although there are unconfirmed reports of clashes between master and apprentice, and even that Dayes had Girtin imprisoned as a refractory apprentice. Certainly Dayes did not appreciate his pupil's talent, and he was to write dismissively of Girtin after his death. While a youth, Girtin became friends with J. M. W. Turner and the teenagers were employed to colour prints with watercolours. Girtin exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1794. His architectural and topographical sketches and drawings established his reputation, his use of watercolour for landscapes being such as to give him the credit of having


title: "Striped hyena" content: Striped hyena The striped hyena ("Hyaena hyaena") is a species of hyena native to North and East Africa, the Middle East, the Caucasus, Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent. It is listed by the IUCN as near-threatened, as the global population is estimated to be under 10,000 mature individuals which continues to experience deliberate and incidental persecution along with a decrease in its prey base such that it may come close to meeting a continuing decline of 10% over the next three generations. It is the smallest of the true hyenas and retains many primitive viverrid characteristics lost in larger


title: "Striped hyena" content: species, having a smaller and less specialised skull. Though primarily a scavenger, large specimens have been known to kill their own prey, and attacks on humans have occurred on rare instances. The striped hyena is a monogamous animal, with both males and females assisting one another in raising their cubs. A nocturnal animal, the striped hyena typically only emerges in complete darkness, and is quick to return to its lair before sunrise. Although it has a habit of feigning death when attacked, it has been known to stand its ground against larger predators in disputes over food. The striped hyena


title: "Striped hyena" content: features prominently in Middle Eastern and Asian folklore. In some areas, its body parts are considered magical, and are used as charms or talismans. It is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, where it is referred to as "tzebua" or "zevoa", though the species is absent in some Bible translations into English. Ancient Greeks knew it as "γλάνος" (glanos) and "ύαινα" (iena-hyena) and were familiar with it from the Aegean coast of Asia Minor. The species may have evolved from "H. namaquensis" of Pliocene Africa. Striped hyena fossils are common in Africa, with records going back as far as the Middle


title: "Striped hyena" content: Pleistocene and even to the Villafranchian. As fossil striped hyenas are absent from the Mediterranean region, it is likely that the species is a relatively late invader to Eurasia, having likely spread outside Africa only after the extinction of spotted hyenas in Asia at the end of the last glacial period. The striped hyena occurred for some time in Europe during the Pleistocene, having been particularly widespread in France and Germany. It also occurred in Montmaurin, Hollabrunn in Austria, the Furninha Cave in Portugal and the Genista Caves in Gibraltar. The European form was similar in appearance to modern populations,


title: "Striped hyena" content: but was larger, being comparable in size to the brown hyena. The striped hyena has a fairly massive, but short torso set on long legs. The hind legs are significantly shorter than the forelimbs, thus causing the back to slope downwards. The legs are relatively thin and weak, with the forelegs being bent at the carpal region. The neck is thick, long and largely immobile, while the head is heavy and massive with a shortened facial region. The eyes are small, while the sharply pointed ears are very large, broad and set high on the head. Like all hyenas, the


title: "Striped hyena" content: striped hyena has bulky pads on its paws, as well as blunt but powerful claws. The tail is short and the terminal hairs do not descend below the achilles tendon. The striped hyena lacks the enlarged clitoris and false scrotal sack noted in the female genitalia of the spotted hyena. The female has 3 pairs of nipples. Adult weight can range from , averaging at about . Body length can range from , not counting a tail of , and shoulder height is between . The male has a large pouch of naked skin located at the anal opening. Large


title: "Striped hyena" content: anal glands open into it from above the anus. Several sebaceous glands are present between the openings of the anal glands and above them. The anus can be everted up to a length of 5 cm, and is everted during social interaction and mating. When attacked, the striped hyena everts its rectum and sprays a pungent smelling liquid from its anal glands. Its eyesight is acute, though its senses of smell and hearing are weak. The skull is entirely typical of the genus, having a very high sagittal crest, a shortened facial region and an inflated frontal bone. The skull


title: "Striped hyena" content: of the striped hyena differs from that of the brown and spotted hyena by its smaller size and slightly less massive build. It is nonetheless still powerfully structured and well adapted to anchoring exceptionally strong jaw muscles which give it enough bite-force to splinter a camel's thigh bone. Although the dentition is overall smaller than that of the spotted hyena, the upper molar of the striped hyena is far larger. The dental formula is . The winter coat is unusually long and uniform for an animal its size, with a luxuriant mane of tough, long hairs along the back from


title: "Striped hyena" content: the occiput to the base of the tail. The coat is generally coarse and bristly, though this varies according to season. In winter, the coat is fairly dense, soft, and has well-developed underfur. The guard hairs are 50–75 mm long on the flanks, 150–225 mm long on the mane and 150 mm on the tail. In summer, the coat is much shorter and coarser, and lacks underfur, though the mane remains large. In winter, the coat is usually of a dirty-brownish grey or dirty grey colour. The hairs of the mane are light grey or white at the base, and


title: "Striped hyena" content: black or dark brown at the tips. The muzzle is dark, greyish brown, brownish-grey or black, while the top of the head and cheeks are more lightly coloured. The ears are almost black. A large black spot is present on the front of the neck, and is separated from the chin by a light zone. A dark field ascends from the flanks ascending to the rear of the cheeks. The inner and outer surface of the forelegs are covered with small dark spots and transverse stripes. The flanks have four indistinct dark vertical stripes and rows of diffused spots. The


title: "Striped hyena" content: outer surface of the thighs has 3–4 distinct vertical or oblique dark bands which merge into transverse stripes in the lower portion of the legs. The tip of the tail is black with white underfur. It was proposed that there are five subspecies of the striped hyenas in Africa and Asia: , no subspecies are recognised. The striped hyena is nonetheless a geographically varied animal. Hyenas in the Arabian peninsula have an accentuated blackish dorsal mane, with mid-dorsal hairs reaching 20 cm in length. The base colour of Arabian hyenas is grey to whitish grey, with dusky grey muzzles and


title: "Striped hyena" content: buff yellow below the eyes. Hyenas in Israel have a dorsal crest which is mixed grey and black in colour, rather than being predominantly black. The largest striped hyenas come from the Middle East, Asia Minor, Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent, while those of East Africa and the Arabian peninsula are smaller. The striped hyena is a primarily nocturnal animal, which typically only leaves its den at the onset of total darkness, returning before sunrise. Striped hyenas typically live alone or in pairs, though groups of up to seven animals are known in Libya. They are generally not territorial


title: "Striped hyena" content: animals, with home ranges of different groups often overlapping each other. Home ranges in the Serengheti have been recorded to be -, while one in the Negev was calculated at . When marking their territory, striped hyenas use the paste of their anal pouch (hyena butter) to scent mark grass, stalks, stones, tree trunks and other objects. In aggressive encounters, the black patch near the thoracic and lumbar vertebrae is erected. When fighting, striped hyenas will bite at the throat and legs, but avoid the mane, which serves as a signalling device. When greeting each other, they lick the mid-back


title: "Striped hyena" content: region, sniff each other's noses, extrude their anal pouch or paw each other's throats. The species is not as vocal as the spotted hyena, its vocalisations being limited to a chattering laugh and howling. The striped hyena is monogamous, with the male helping the female to establish a den, raise young and feed her when cubs are born. The mating season varies according to location; in Transcaucasia, hyenas breed in January–February, while those in southeast Turkmenia breed in October–November. In captivity, breeding is non-seasonal. Mating can occur at any time of the day, during which the male grips the skin


title: "Striped hyena" content: of the female's neck. The gestation period lasts 90–91 days. Striped hyena cubs are born with adult markings, closed eyes and small ears. This is in marked contrast to newborn spotted hyena cubs which are born almost fully developed, though with black, unmarked coats. Their eyes open after 7–8 days, and the cubs leave their dens after one month. Cubs are weaned at the age of 2 months, and are then fed by both parents. Despite the males' assistance, female hyenas are very protective of their cubs, and will chase their mates away from the cubs if they approach too


title: "Striped hyena" content: closely. By autumn, the cubs are half the size of their parents. In the wild, striped hyenas can live for 12 years, while in captivity they have been known to reach 23. The striped hyena may dig its own dens, but it also establishes its lairs in caves, rock fissures, erosion channels and burrows formerly occupied by porcupines, wolves, warthogs and aardvarks. Hyena dens can be identified by the presence of bones at their entrances. The striped hyena hides in caves, niches, pits, dense thickets, reeds and plume grass during the day to shelter from predators, heat or winter cold.


title: "Striped hyena" content: The size and elaboration of striped hyena dens varies according to location ; dens in the Karakum have entrances 0.67–0.72 m wide and are extended over a distance of 4.15–5 m, with no lateral extensions or special chambers. In contrast, hyena dens in Israel are much more elaborate and large, exceeding 27 m in length. The striped hyena is primarily a scavenger which feeds mainly on ungulate carcasses in different stages of decomposition, fresh bones, cartilages, ligaments and bone marrow. It crushes long bones into fine particles and swallows them, though sometimes entire bones are eaten whole. The striped hyena


title: "Striped hyena" content: is not a fussy eater, though it has an aversion to vulture flesh. It will occasionally attack and kill any animal it can overcome. It hunts prey by running it down, grabbing its flanks or groin and inflicting mortal wounds by tearing out the viscera. In Turkmenistan, the species is recorded to feed on wild boar, kulan, porcupines and tortoises. A seasonal abundance of oil willow fruits is an important food source in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, while in the Caucasus, it is grasshoppers. In Israel, the striped hyena feeds on garbage, carrion and fruits. In eastern Jordan, its main sources


title: "Striped hyena" content: of food are feral horse and water buffalo carcasses and village refuse. It has been suggested that only the large hyenas of the Middle East, Asia minor, central Asia and the Indian subcontinent attack large prey, with no evidence of their smaller Arabian and east African cousins doing so. Because of its scavenging diet, the striped hyena requires more water to survive than most other carnivores. When eating, the striped hyena gorges itself until satisfied, though hyenas with cubs will transport food to their dens. Because of the high content of calcium in its diet, the feces of the striped


title: "Striped hyena" content: hyena becomes white very rapidly, and can be visible from long distances. The striped hyena competes with the gray wolf in the Middle East and central Asia. In the latter area, a great portion of the hyena's diet stems from wolf-killed carcasses. The striped hyena is dominant over the wolf on a one-to-one basis, though wolves in packs can displace single hyenas from carcasses. Both species have been known to share dens on occasion. On rare occasions, Striped Hyenas are also known to travel with and live amongst wolf packs, with each doing the other no harm. Both predators may


title: "Striped hyena" content: benefit from this unusual alliance, as the hyenas have better senses of smell and greater strength, and the wolves may be better at tracking large prey. Red foxes may compete with striped hyenas on large carcasses. Red foxes may give way to hyenas on unopened carcasses, as the latter's stronger jaws can easily tear open flesh which is too tough for foxes. Foxes may harass hyenas, using their smaller size and greater speed to avoid the hyena's attacks. Sometimes, foxes seem to deliberately torment hyenas even when there is no food at stake. Some foxes may mistime their attacks, and


title: "Striped hyena" content: are killed. The species frequently scavenges from the kills of felids such as tigers, leopards, cheetahs and caracals. A caracal can drive a subadult hyena from a carcass. The hyena usually wins in one-to-one disputes over carcasses with leopards, cheetahs and tiger cubs, but is dominated by adult tigers. In addition, the hyena is sympatric with the Asiatic lion in Gir Forest National Park, and the sloth bear in Balaram Ambaji Wildlife Sanctuary, in the Indian State of Gujarat. The striped hyena's historical range encompasses Africa north of and including the Sahel zone, eastern Africa south into Tanzania, the Arabian


title: "Striped hyena" content: Peninsula and the Middle East up to the Mediterranean shores, Turkey, Iraq, the Caucasus (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia), Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan (excluding the higher areas of Hindukush) and the Indian Subcontinent. Today the species' distribution is patchy in most ranges, thus indicating that it occurs in many isolated populations, particularly in most of west Africa, most of the Sahara, parts of the Middle East, the Caucasus and central Asia. It does however have a continuous distribution over large areas of Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania. Its modern distribution in Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan is unknown with some sizable large number


title: "Striped hyena" content: in India in open areas of Deccan Peninsula. During the recent Afghanistan conflict, periodic sightings were reported in Kandahar Province although not definitive. Striped hyenas are frequently referenced in Middle Eastern literature and folklore, typically as symbols of treachery and stupidity. In the Near and Middle East, striped hyenas are generally regarded as physical incarnations of jinns. Zakariya al-Qazwini (1204–1283) wrote in Arabic of a tribe of people called "Hyena People". In his book "Marvels of Creatures and the Strange Things Existing" (), he wrote that should one of this tribe be in a group of 1000 people, a hyena


title: "Striped hyena" content: could pick him out and eat him. A Persian medical treatise written in 1376 tells how to cure cannibalistic people known as "kaftar" who are said to be "half-man, half-hyena". Al-Doumairy in his writings in "Hawayan Al-Koubra" (1406) wrote that striped hyenas were vampiric creatures that attacked people at night and sucked the blood from their necks. He also wrote that hyenas only attacked brave people. Arab folklore tells of how hyenas can mesmerise victims with their eyes or sometimes with their pheromones. Until the end of the 19th century, the Greeks believed that the bodies of werewolves, if not


title: "Striped hyena" content: destroyed, would haunt battlefields as vampiric hyenas which drank the blood of dying soldiers. The image of striped hyenas in Afghanistan, India and Palestine is more varied. Though feared, striped hyenas were also symbolic for love and fertility, leading to numerous varieties of love medicine derived from hyena body parts. Among the Baloch people and in North India, witches or magicians are said to ride striped hyenas at night. The Arabic word for striped hyenas is alluded in a valley in Israel known as Shaqq al-Diba (meaning "cleft of the hyenas") and Wadi Abu Diba (meaning "valley of the hyenas").


title: "Striped hyena" content: Both places have been interpreted by some scholars as being the Biblical Valley of Zeboim mentioned in 1 Samuel 13:18. The Hebrew word for hyena is "tzebua" or "zevoa", which literally means "howling creature". Though the King James Version of the Bible interprets this word (which appears in the Book of Jeremiah 12:9) as referring to a "speckled bird", Henry Baker Tristram argued that it was most likely a hyena being mentioned. In Gnosticism, the Archon Astaphaios is depicted with a hyena face. The striped hyena is sometimes implicated in the killing of livestock, particularly goats, sheep, dogs and poultry.


title: "Striped hyena" content: Larger stock is sometimes reportedly taken, though it is possible that these are cases of scavenging mistaken for actual predation. Although most attacks occur at low densities, a substantial number reputedly occur in Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Iraq, and possibly Morocco. In Turkmenistan, striped hyenas kill dogs, while they also kill sheep and other small animals in the Caucasus, and were event reported to have killed horses and donkeys in Iraq during the mid-twentieth century. Sheep, dogs, horses, and goats are also preyed upon in North Africa, Israel, Iran, Pakistan, and India. Striped hyenas also cause damage on occasion to melon


title: "Striped hyena" content: fields and to date palms in date plantations in Israel and Egypt, and to water and honey melon plantations in Turkmenistan. In ordinary circumstances, striped hyenas are extremely timid around humans, though they may show bold behaviours toward people at night. On rare occasions, striped hyenas have preyed on humans. In the 1880s, a hyena was reported to have attacked humans, especially sleeping children, over a three-year period in the Erivan Governorate, with 25 children and 3 adults being wounded in one year. The attacks provoked local authorities into announcing a reward of 100 rubles for every hyena killed. Further


title: "Striped hyena" content: attacks were reported later in some parts of Transcaucasia, particularly in 1908. Instances are known in Azerbaijan of striped hyenas killing children sleeping in courtyards during the 1930s and 1940s. In 1942, a guard sleeping in his hut was mauled by a hyena in Golyndzhakh. Cases of children being taken by hyenas by night are known in southeast Turkmenia's Bathyz Nature Reserve. A further attack on a child was reported around Serakhs in 1948. Several attacks have occurred in India; in 1962, nine children were thought to have been taken by hyenas in the town of Bhagalpur in the Bihar


title: "Striped hyena" content: State in a six-week period and 19 children up to the age of four were killed by hyenas in Karnataka, Bihar in 1974. A census on wild animal attacks during a five-year period in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh showed that hyenas had only attacked three people, the lowest figure when compared to deaths caused by wolves, gaur, boar, elephants, tigers, leopards and sloth bears. Though attacks on live humans are rare, striped hyenas will scavenge on human corpses. In Turkey, stones are placed on graves to stop hyenas digging the bodies out. In World War I, the Turks


title: "Striped hyena" content: imposed conscription ("safar barlek") on mount Lebanon; people escaping from the conscription fled north, where many died and were subsequently eaten by hyenas. Striped hyenas were hunted by Ancient Egyptian peasants for duty and amusement along with other animals that were a threat to crops and livestock. Algerian hunters historically considered the killing of striped hyenas as beneath their dignity, due to the animal's reputation for cowardice. A similar attitude was held by British sportsmen in British India. Although striped hyenas are capable of quickly killing a dog with a single bite, they usually feign death when escape from hunting


title: "Striped hyena" content: dogs is impossible, and will remain in this state for long periods, even when badly bitten. On some rare occasions, hyenas were ridden down and speared by men on horseback. Although hyenas were generally not fast enough to outrun horses, they had the habit of doubling and turning frequently during chases, thus ensuring long pursuits. Generally though, hyenas were hunted more as pests than sporting quarries; their scavenging damages skulls, skins and other articles from hunter's camps, which made them unpopular among sportsmen. In the Soviet Union, hyena hunting was not specially organised. Most hyenas were caught incidentally in traps


title: "Striped hyena" content: meant for other animals. Some hunters in southern Punjab, Kandahar and Quetta, catch striped hyenas to use them in hyena-baiting. The hyenas are pitted against specially trained dogs, and are restrained with ropes in order to pull them away from the dogs if necessary. In Kandahar, hunters locally called "payloch" (naked foot) hunt striped hyenas by entering their dens naked with a noose in hand. When the hyena is cornered at the end of its lair, the hunter murmurs the magic formula "turn into dust, turn into stone," which causes the animal to enter a hypnotic state of total submission,


title: "Striped hyena" content: by which point the hunter can slip a noose over its forelegs and, finally, drag it out of the cave. A similar method was once practised by Mesopotamian Arab hunters, who would enter hyena dens and "flatter" the animal, which they believed could understand Arabic. The hunter would murmur "You are very nice and pretty and quite like a lion; indeed, you are a lion". The hyena would then allow the hunter to place a noose around its neck and pose no resistance on being dragged out of its lair. The fur is coarse and sparse pelage, with the few


title: "Striped hyena" content: skins sold by hunters often being marketed as poor quality dog or wolf fur. Hyena skins were however once used in preparing chamois leather. The selling price of hyena pelts in the Soviet Union ranged from 45 kopeks to 1 ruble, 80 kopeks. A mural depicted on Mereruka's tomb in Sakkara indicates that Old Kingdom Egyptians forcefed hyenas in order to fatten them up for food, though certain scholars have argued that the depicted animals were really aardwolves. Striped hyenas are still eaten by Egyptian peasants, Arabian Bedouins, Palestinian laborers, Sinai Bedouins, Tuaregs, and in Somalia. The Bedouins of Arabia,


title: "Striped hyena" content: hyena meat is generally considered more as a medicine than as food. The Ancient Greeks and Romans believed the blood, excrement, rectum, genitalia, eyes, tongue, hair, skin, and fat, as well as the ash of different parts of the striped hyena's body, were effective means to ward off evil and to ensure love and fertility. The Greeks and Romans believed that the genitalia of a hyena "would hold a couple peaceably together" and that a hyena anus worn as an amulet on the upper arm would make its male possessor irresistible to women. In West and South Asia, hyena body


title: "Striped hyena" content: parts apparently play an important role in love magic and in the making of amulets. In Iranian folklore, it is mentioned that a stone found in the hyenas body can serve as a charm of protection for whoever wears it on his upper arm. In the Pakistani province of Sindh, the local Muslims place the tooth of a striped hyena over churns in order not to lose the milk's "baraka". In Iran, a dried striped hyena pelt is considered a potent charm which forces all to succumb to the possessors attraction. In Afghanistan and Pakistan striped hyena hair is used


title: "Striped hyena" content: either in love magic or as a charm in sickness. Hyena blood has been held in high regard in northern India as potent medicine, and the eating of the tongue helps fight tumors. In the Khyber area, burned striped hyena fat is applied to a man's genitals or sometimes taken orally to ensure virility, while in India the fat serves as a cure for rheumatism. In Afghanistan, some mullahs wear the vulva ("kus") of a female striped hyena wrapped in silk under their armpits for a week. If a man peers through the vulva at the woman of his desire,


title: "Striped hyena" content: he will invariably get hold of her. This has led to the proverbial expression in Dari of "kus-e kaftar bay", as well as in Pashto of "kus-e kaftar" which literally mean "it happens as smoothly as if you would look through the vulva of a female striped hyena". In the North-West Frontier Province and Baluchistan, the Pakhtun keep the vulva in vermilion powder, itself having aphrodesic connotations. The rectum of a freshly killed striped hyena is likewise used by homosexuals and bisexuals to attract young men. This has led to the expression "to possess the anus of a [striped] hyena"


title: "Striped hyena" content: which denotes somebody who is attractive and has many lovers. A striped hyena's penis kept in a small box filled with vermilion powder can be used for the same reasons. The striped hyena is easily tamed and can be fully trained, particularly when young. Although the Ancient Egyptians did not consider striped hyenas sacred, they supposedly tamed them for use in hunting. When raised with a firm hand, they may eventually become affectionate and as amenable as well-trained dogs, though they emit a strong odour which no amount of bathing will cover. Although they kill dogs in the wild, striped


title: "Striped hyena" content: hyenas raised in captivity can form bonds with them. Striped hyena The striped hyena ("Hyaena hyaena") is a species of hyena native to North and East Africa, the Middle East, the Caucasus, Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent. It is listed by the IUCN as near-threatened, as the global population is estimated to be under 10,000 mature individuals which continues to experience deliberate and incidental persecution along with a decrease in its prey base such that it may come close to meeting a continuing decline of 10% over the next three generations. It is the smallest of the true hyenas


title: "Brown hyena" content: than 10,000 individuals. They are listed as near threatened in the IUCN Red List. The major threat to brown Hyenas is human persecution based on the mistaken belief that they are harmful to livestock. Farmers will find hyenas scavenging on livestock carcasses and wrongly assume that hyenas have killed their property. Brown hyena body parts are also occasionally used for traditional medicines and rituals, but the species is not as sought after as the spotted hyena. The brown hyena is not in high demand for trophy hunting. The only major predator of hyenas is the African lion. Hyena cubs are


title: "Spotted hyena" content: Spotted hyena The spotted hyena ("Crocuta crocuta"), also known as the laughing hyena, is a hyena species, currently classed as the sole member of the genus "Crocuta", native to Sub-Saharan Africa. It is listed as being of least concern by the IUCN on account of its widespread range and large numbers estimated between 27,000 and 47,000 individuals. The species is, however, experiencing declines outside of protected areas due to habitat loss and poaching. The species may have originated in Asia, and once ranged throughout Europe for at least one million years until the end of the Late Pleistocene. The spotted


title: "Spotted hyena" content: hyena is the largest known member of the Hyaenidae, and is further physically distinguished from other species by its vaguely bear-like build, its rounded ears, its less prominent mane, its spotted pelt, its more dual purposed dentition, its fewer nipples and the presence of a pseudo-penis in the female. It is the only mammalian species to lack an external vaginal opening. The spotted hyena is the most social of the Carnivora in that it has the largest group sizes and most complex social behaviours. Its social organisation is unlike that of any other carnivore, bearing closer resemblance to that of


title: "Spotted hyena" content: cercopithecine primates (baboons and macaques) with respect to group-size, hierarchical structure, and frequency of social interaction among both kin and unrelated group-mates. However, the social system of the spotted hyena is openly competitive rather than cooperative, with access to kills, mating opportunities and the time of dispersal for males depending on the ability to dominate other clan-members. Females provide only for their own cubs rather than assist each other, and males display no paternal care. Spotted hyena society is matriarchal; females are larger than males, and dominate them. The spotted hyena is a highly successful animal, being the most common


title: "Spotted hyena" content: large carnivore in Africa. Its success is due in part to its adaptability and opportunism; it is primarily a hunter but may also scavenge, with the capacity to eat and digest skin, bone and other animal waste. In functional terms, the spotted hyena makes the most efficient use of animal matter of all African carnivores. The spotted hyena displays greater plasticity in its hunting and foraging behaviour than other African carnivores; it hunts alone, in small parties of 2–5 individuals or in large groups. During a hunt, spotted hyenas often run through ungulate herds in order to select an individual


title: "Spotted hyena" content: to attack. Once selected, their prey is chased over a long distance, often several kilometres, at speeds of up to 60 km/h. The spotted hyena has a long history of interaction with humanity; depictions of the species exist from the Upper Paleolithic period, with carvings and paintings from the Lascaux and Chauvet Caves. The species has a largely negative reputation in both Western culture and African folklore. In the former, the species is mostly regarded as ugly and cowardly, while in the latter, it is viewed as greedy, gluttonous, stupid, and foolish, yet powerful and potentially dangerous. The majority of


title: "Spotted hyena" content: Western perceptions on the species can be found in the writings of Aristotle and Pliny the Elder, though in relatively unjudgemental form. Explicit, negative judgements occur in the "Physiologus", where the animal is depicted as a hermaphrodite and grave-robber. The IUCN's hyena specialist group identifies the spotted hyena's negative reputation as detrimental to the species' continued survival, both in captivity and the wild. The spotted hyena's scientific name "Crocuta", was once widely thought to be derived from the Latin loanword "crocutus", which translates as "saffron-coloured one", in reference to the animal's fur colour. This was proven to be incorrect, as


title: "Spotted hyena" content: the correct spelling of the loanword would have been "Crocāta", and the word was never used in that sense by Graeco-Roman sources. "Crocuta" actually comes from the Ancient Greek word Κροκόττας ("Krokottas"), which is derived from the Sanskrit "koṭṭhâraka", which in turn originates from "kroshṭuka" (both of which were originally meant to signify the golden jackal). The earliest recorded mention of Κροκόττας is from Strabo's "Geographica", where the animal is described as a mix of wolf and dog native to Ethiopia. From Classical antiquity until the Renaissance, the spotted and striped hyena were either assumed to be the same species,


title: "Spotted hyena" content: or distinguished purely on geographical, rather than physical grounds. Hiob Ludolf, in his "Historia aethiopica", was the first to clearly distinguish the "Crocuta" from "Hyaena" on account of physical, as well as geographical grounds, though he never had any first hand experience of the species, having gotten his accounts from an Ethiopian intermediary. Confusion still persisted over the exact taxonomic nature of the hyena family in general, with most European travelers in Ethiopia referring to hyenas as "wolves". This partly stems from the Amharic word for hyena, ("jɨbb"), which is linked to the Arabic word ("dhiʾb") "wolf". The first detailed


title: "Spotted hyena" content: first-hand descriptions of the spotted hyena by Europeans come from Willem Bosman and Peter Kolbe. Bosman, a Dutch tradesman who worked for the Dutch West India Company at the Gold Coast (modern day Ghana) from 1688–1701, wrote of ""Jakhals, of Boshond"" (jackals or woodland dogs) whose physical descriptions match the spotted hyena. Kolben, a German mathematician and astronomer who worked for the Dutch East India Company in the Cape of Good Hope from 1705–1713, described the spotted hyena in great detail, but referred to it as a "tigerwolf", because the settlers in southern Africa did not know of hyenas, and


title: "Spotted hyena" content: thus labelled them as "wolves". Bosman and Kolben's descriptions went largely unnoticed until 1771, when the Welsh naturalist Thomas Pennant, in his "Synopsis of Quadrupeds", used the descriptions, as well as his personal experience with a captive specimen, as a basis for consistently differentiating the spotted hyena from the striped. The description given by Pennant was precise enough to be included by Johann Erxleben in his "Systema regni animalis" by simply translating Pennant's text into Latin. "Crocuta" was finally recognised as a separate genus from "Hyaena" in 1828. Several languages of Africa lack species specific names for hyenas: for example,


title: "Spotted hyena" content: the spotted and striped species have identical names in Dyula, Swahili, Mandinka, Mossi, Ngambaye, Wolof and Fulani. In other languages, other species may simply be termed "small spotted hyena", such as in Swahili, where the spotted hyena is termed "fisi" and the aardwolf "fisi ndogo". Unlike the striped hyena, for which a number of subspecies were proposed in light of its extensive modern range, the spotted hyena is a genuinely variable species, both temporally and spatially. Its range once encompassed almost all of Africa and Eurasia, and displayed a large degree of morphological geographic variation, which led to an equally


title: "Spotted hyena" content: extensive set of specific and subspecific epithets. It was gradually realised that all of this variation could be applied to individual differences in a single subspecies. In 1939, biologist L. Harrison Matthews demonstrated through comparisons between a large selection of spotted hyena skulls from Tanzania that all the variation seen in the then recognised subspecies could also be found in a single population, with the only set of characters standing out being pelage (which is subject to a high degree of individual variation) and size (which is subject to Bergmann's Rule). When fossils are taken into consideration, the species displayed


title: "Spotted hyena" content: even greater variation than it does in modern times, and a number of these named fossil species have since been classed as synonymous with "Crocuta crocuta", with firm evidence of there being more than one species within the genus "Crocuta" still lacking. Both Björn Kurtén and Camille Arambourg promoted an Asiatic origin for the species; Kurtén focussed his arguments on the Plio-Pleistocene taxon "Crocuta sivalensis" from the Siwaliks, a view defended by Arambourg, who nonetheless allowed the possibility of an Indo-Ethiopian origin. This stance was contested by Ficarelli and Torre, who referred to evidence of the spotted hyena's presence from


title: "Spotted hyena" content: African deposists dating from the early Pleistocene, a similar age to the Asian "C. sivalensis". Studies on the phylogeographic distribution of mtDNA haplotypes indicates three migration events from Africa to Eurasia, though neither the topology of the phylogenetic tree or the fossil record exclude the possibility of an Asian origin. The earliest migration of spotted hyenas from Africa to Eurasia began less than 3.5 million years ago, most probably from the area where the first spotted hyena fossils were discovered, reaching East Asia and most likely also Pakistan. The second migration of spotted hyenas occurred less than 1.3–1.5 million years


title: "Spotted hyena" content: ago and resulted in the first arrival of hyenas in Europe and a separation of African spotted hyenas into a southern and a northern population. The third spotted hyena migration took place 0.36 million years ago, starting from the northern African population and reaching both Europe and Asia. Unlike other African carnivores, with the exception of the leopard, there is no evidence to suggest that spotted hyenas underwent a genetic bottleneck during the Pleistocene. The ancestors of the genus "Crocuta" diverged from "Hyaena" (the genus of striped and brown hyenas) 10 million years ago. The ancestors of the spotted hyena


title: "Spotted hyena" content: probably developed social behaviours in response to increased pressure from other predators on carcasses, which forced them to operate in teams. At one point in their evolution, spotted hyenas developed sharp carnassials behind their crushing premolars; this rendered waiting for their prey to die no longer a necessity, as is the case for brown and striped hyenas, and thus became pack hunters as well as scavengers. They began forming increasingly larger territories, necessitated by the fact that their prey was often migratory, and long chases in a small territory would have caused them to encroach into another clan's land. It


title: "Spotted hyena" content: has been theorised that female dominance in spotted hyena clans could be an adaptation in order to successfully compete with males on kills, and thus ensure that enough milk is produced for their cubs. Another theory is that it is an adaptation to the length of time it takes for cubs to develop their massive skulls and jaws, thus necessitating greater attention and dominating behaviours from females. Its appearance in Europe and China during the Cromerian period coincided with the decline and eventual extinction of "Pachycrocuta brevirostris", the giant short-faced hyena. As there is no evidence of environmental change being


title: "Spotted hyena" content: responsible, it is likely that the giant short-faced hyena became extinct due to competition with the spotted hyena. The spotted hyena has a strong and well developed neck and forequarters, but relatively underdeveloped hindquarters. The rump is rounded rather than angular, which prevents attackers coming from behind from getting a firm grip on it. The head is wide and flat with a blunt muzzle and broad rhinarium. In contrast to the striped hyena, the ears of the spotted hyena are rounded rather than pointed. Each foot has four digits, which are webbed and armed with short, stout and blunt claws.


title: "Spotted hyena" content: The paw-pads are broad and very flat, with the whole undersurface of the foot around them being naked. The tail is relatively short, being long, and resembles a pompom in appearance. Unusually among hyaenids, and mammals in general, the female spotted hyena is considerably larger than the male. Both sexes have a pair of anal glands which open into the rectum just inside the anal opening. These glands produce a white, creamy secretion which is pasted onto grass stalks by everting the rectum. The odour of this secretion is very strong, smelling of boiling cheap soap or burning, and can


title: "Spotted hyena" content: be detected by humans several metres downwind. The spotted hyena has a proportionately large heart, constituting close to 1% of its body weight, thus giving it great endurance in long chases. In contrast, a lion's heart makes up only 0.45–0.57 percent of its body weight. The now extinct Eurasian populations were distinguished from the modern African populations by their shorter distal extremities and longer humerus and femur. The skull of the spotted hyena differs from that of the striped hyena by its much greater size and narrower sagittal crest. For its size, the spotted hyena has one of the most


title: "Spotted hyena" content: powerfully built skulls among the Carnivora. The dentition is more dual purposed than that of other modern hyena species, which are mostly scavengers; the upper and lower third premolars are conical bone-crushers, with a third bone-holding cone jutting from the lower fourth premolar. The spotted hyena also has its carnassials situated behind its bone-crushing premolars, the position of which allows it to crush bone with its premolars without blunting the carnassials. Combined with large jaw muscles and a special vaulting to protect the skull against large forces, these characteristics give the spotted hyena a powerful bite which can exert a


title: "Spotted hyena" content: pressure of 80 kgf/cm2 (1140 lbf/in²), which is 40% more force than a leopard can generate. The jaws of the spotted hyena outmatch those of the brown bear in bonecrushing ability, and free ranging hyenas have been observed to crack open the long bones of giraffes measuring 7 cm in diameter. A spotted hyena is estimated to have a bite force of 565.7 newtons at the canine tip and 985.5 newtons at the carnassial eocone. One individual in a study was found to exert a bite force of 4,500 newtons on the measuring instruments. The spotted hyena is the largest


title: "Spotted hyena" content: extant member of the Hyaenidae. Adults measure in body length, and have a shoulder height of . Adult male spotted hyenas in the Serengeti weigh , while females weigh . Spotted hyenas in Zambia tend to be heavier, with males weighing on average , and females . Exceptionally large weights of and are known. It has been estimated that adult members of the now extinct Eurasian populations weighed . Fur colour varies greatly and changes with age. Unlike the fur of the striped and brown hyena, that of the spotted hyena consists of spots rather than stripes and is much


title: "Spotted hyena" content: shorter, lacking the well defined spinal mane of the former two species. The base colour generally is a pale greyish-brown or yellowish-grey on which an irregular pattern of roundish spots is superimposed on the back and hind quarters. The spots, which are of variable distinction, may be reddish, deep brown or almost blackish. The spots vary in size, even on single individuals, but are commonly in diameter. A less distinct spot pattern is present on the legs and belly but not on the throat and chest. A set of five, pale and barely distinct bands replace the spots on the


title: "Spotted hyena" content: back and sides of the neck. A broad, medial band is present on the back of the neck, and is lengthened into a forward facing crest. The crest is mostly reddish-brown in colour. The crown and upper part of the face is brownish, save for a white band above both eyes, though the front of the eyes, the area around the rhinarium, the lips and the back portion of the chin are all blackish. The limbs are spotted, though the feet vary in colour, from light brown to blackish. The fur is relatively sparse and consists of two hair types;


title: "Spotted hyena" content: moderately fine underfur (measuring ) and long, stout bristle hairs (). European Paleolithic rock art depicting the species indicates that the Eurasian populations retained the spots of their modern-day African counterparts. The genitalia of the female closely resembles that of the male; the clitoris is shaped and positioned like a penis, a pseudo-penis, and is capable of erection. The female also possesses no external vagina (vaginal opening), as the labia are fused to form a pseudo-scrotum. The pseudo-penis is traversed to its tip by a central urogenital canal, through which the female urinates, copulates and gives birth. The pseudo-penis can


title: "Spotted hyena" content: be distinguished from the males' genitalia by its somewhat shorter length, greater thickness, and more rounded glans. In both males and females, the base of the glans is covered with penile spines. The formation of the pseudo-penis appears largely androgen independent, as the pseudo-penis appears in the female fetus before differentiation of the fetal ovary and adrenal gland. When flaccid, the pseudo-penis is retracted into the abdomen, and only the prepuce is visible. After giving birth, the pseudo-penis is stretched, and loses many of its original aspects; it becomes a slack-walled and reduced prepuce with an enlarged orifice with split


title: "Spotted hyena" content: lips. Spotted hyenas are social animals which live in large communities (referred to as "clans") which can consist of at most 80 individuals. Group-size varies geographically; in the Serengeti, where prey is migratory, clans are smaller than those in the Ngorongoro Crater, where prey is sedentary. Spotted hyena clans are more compact and unified than wolf packs, but are not as closely knit as those of African wild dogs. Females dominate males, with even the lowest ranking females being dominant over the highest ranking males. It is typical for females to remain with their natal clan, thus large clans usually


title: "Spotted hyena" content: contain several matrilines, whereas males typically disperse from their natal clan at the age of 2½ years. The clan is a fission-fusion society, in which clan-members do not often remain together, but may forage alone or in small groups. High-ranking hyenas maintain their position through aggression directed against lower-ranking clan-members. Spotted hyena hierarchy is nepotistic; the offspring of dominant females automatically outrank adult females subordinate to their mother. However, rank in spotted hyena cubs is greatly dependent on the presence of the mother; low-ranking adults may act aggressively toward higher-ranking cubs when the mother is absent. Although individual spotted hyenas


title: "Spotted hyena" content: only care for their own young, and males take no part in raising their young, cubs are able to identify relatives as distantly related as great-aunts. Also, males associate more closely with their own daughters rather than unrelated cubs, and the latter favour their fathers by acting less aggressively toward them. Spotted hyena societies are more complex than those of other carnivorous mammals, and are remarkably similar to those of cercopithecine primates in respect to group size, structure, competition and cooperation. Like cercopithecine primates, spotted hyenas use multiple sensory modalities, recognise individual conspecifics, are conscious that some clan-mates may be


title: "Spotted hyena" content: more reliable than others, recognise third-party kin and rank relationships among clan-mates, and adaptively use this knowledge during social decision making. Also, like cercopithecine primates, dominance ranks in hyena societies are not correlated with size or aggression, but with ally networks. In this latter trait, the spotted hyena further show parallels with primates by acquiring rank through coalition. However, rank reversals and overthrows in spotted hyena clans are very rare. The social network dynamics of spotted hyenas are determined by multiple factors. Environmental factors include rainfall and prey abundance; individual factors include preference to bond with females and with kin;


title: "Spotted hyena" content: and topological effects include the tendency to close triads in the network. Female hyenas are more flexible than males in their social bonding preferences. Higher ranking adult spotted hyenas tend to have higher telomere length, and therefore are healthier, naturally live longer, and reproduce more. Territory size is highly variable, ranging from less than 40 km in the Ngorongoro Crater to over 1,000 km in the Kalahari. Home ranges are defended through vocal displays, scent marking and boundary patrols. Clans mark their territories by either pasting or pawing in special latrines located on clan range boundaries. Clan boundaries are usually


title: "Spotted hyena" content: respected; hyenas chasing prey have been observed to stop dead in their tracks once their prey crosses into another clan's range. Hyenas will however ignore clan boundaries in times of food shortage. Males are more likely to enter another clan's territory than females are, as they are less attached to their natal group and will leave it when in search of a mate. Hyenas travelling in another clan's home range typically exhibit bodily postures associated with fear, particularly when meeting other hyenas. An intruder can be accepted into another clan after a long period of time if it persists in


title: "Spotted hyena" content: wandering into the clan's territory, dens or kills. The spotted hyena is a non-seasonal breeder, though a birth peak does occur during the wet season. Females are polyestrus, with an estrus period lasting two weeks. Like many felid species, the spotted hyena is promiscuous, and no enduring pair bonds are formed. Members of both sexes may copulate with several mates over the course of several years. Males will show submissive behaviour when approaching females in heat, even if the male outweighs his partner. Females usually favour younger males born or joined into the clan after they were born. Older females


title: "Spotted hyena" content: show a similar preference, with the addition of preferring males with whom they have had long and friendly prior relationships. Passive males tend to have greater success in courting females than aggressive ones. Copulation in spotted hyenas is a relatively short affair, lasting 4–12 minutes, and typically only occurs at night with no other hyenas present. The mating process is complicated, as the male's penis enters and exits the female's reproductive tract through her pseudo-penis rather than directly through the vagina, which is blocked by the false scrotum and testes. These unusual traits make mating more laborious for the male


title: "Spotted hyena" content: than in other mammals, while also ensuring that rape is physically impossible. Once the female retracts her clitoris, the male enters the female by sliding beneath her, an operation facilitated by the penis's upward angle. Once this is accomplished, a typical mammalian mating posture is adopted. Copulation may be repeated multiple times during a period of several hours. Both partners usually lick their genitals for several minutes after mating. The length of the gestation period tends to vary greatly, though 110 days is the average length of time. In the final stages of pregnancy, dominant females provide their developing offspring


title: "Spotted hyena" content: with higher androgen levels than lower-ranking mothers do. The higher androgen levels the result of high concentrations of ovarian androstenedione are thought to be responsible for the extreme masculinization of female behavior and morphology. This has the effect of rendering the cubs of dominant females more aggressive and sexually active than those of lower ranking hyenas; high ranking male cubs will attempt to mount females earlier than lower ranking males. The average litter consists of two cubs, with three occasionally being reported. Males take no part in the raising of young. Giving birth is difficult for female hyenas, as the


title: "Spotted hyena" content: females give birth through their narrow clitoris, and spotted hyena cubs are the largest carnivoran young relative to their mothers' weight. During parturition, the clitoris ruptures in order to facilitate the passage of the young, and may take weeks to heal. Cubs are born with soft, brownish black hair, and weigh 1.5 kg on average. Unique among carnivorous mammals, spotted hyenas are also born with their eyes open and with 6–7 mm long canine teeth and 4 mm long incisors. Also, cubs will attack each other shortly after birth. This is particularly apparent in same sexed litters, and can result


title: "Spotted hyena" content: in the death of the weaker cub. This neonatal siblicide kills an estimated 25% of all hyenas in their first month. Male cubs which survive grow faster and are likelier to achieve reproductive dominance, while female survivors eliminate rivals for dominance in their natal clan. Lactating females can carry of milk in their udders. Spotted hyena milk has the highest protein and fat content of any terrestrial carnivore. Cubs will nurse from their mother for 12–16 months, though they can process solid food as early as three months. Mothers do not regurgitate food for their young. Females are very protective


title: "Spotted hyena" content: of their cubs, and will not tolerate other adults, particularly males, approaching them. Spotted hyenas exhibit adult behaviours very early in life; cubs have been observed to ritually sniff each other and mark their living space before the age of one month. Within ten days of birth, they are able to move at considerable speed. Cubs begin to lose the black coat and develop the spotted, lighter coloured pelage of the adults at 2–3 months. They begin to exhibit hunting behaviours at the age of eight months, and will begin fully participating in group hunts after their first year. Spotted


title: "Spotted hyena" content: hyenas reach sexual maturity at the age of three years. The average lifespan in zoos is 12 years, with a maximum of 25 years. The clan's social life revolves around a communal den. While some clans may use particular den sites for years, others may use several different dens within a year or several den sites simultaneously. Spotted hyena dens can have more than a dozen entrances, and are mostly located on flat ground. The tunnels are usually oval in section, being wider than they are high, and narrow down from an entrance width of ½–1 metre (1.6–7.7 ft) to


title: "Spotted hyena" content: as small as . In the rocky areas of East Africa and Congo, spotted hyenas use caves as dens, while those in the Serengeti use kopjes as resting areas in daylight hours. Dens have large bare patches around their entrances, where hyenas move or lie down on. Because of their size, adult hyenas are incapable of using the full extent of their burrows, as most tunnels are dug by cubs or smaller animals. The structure of the den, consisting of small underground channels, is likely an effective anti-predator device which protects cubs from predation during the absence of the mother.


title: "Spotted hyena" content: Spotted hyenas rarely dig their own dens, having been observed for the most part to use the abandoned burrows of warthogs, springhares and jackals. Faeces are usually deposited away from the den, though they urinate wherever they happen to be. Dens are used mostly by several females at once, and it is not uncommon to see up to 20 cubs at a single site. The general form of a spotted hyena den is tunnel-shaped, with a spacious end chamber used for sleeping or breeding. This chamber measures up to in width, the height being rather less. Females generally give birth


title: "Spotted hyena" content: at the communal den or a private birth den. The latter is primarily used by low status females in order to maintain continual access to their cubs, as well as ensure that they become acquainted with their cubs before transferral to the communal den. Compared to other hyenas, the spotted hyena shows a greater relative amount of frontal cortex which is involved in the mediation of social behavior. Studies strongly suggest convergent evolution in spotted hyena and primate intelligence. A study done by evolutionary anthropologists demonstrated that spotted hyenas outperform chimpanzees on cooperative problem-solving tests; captive pairs of spotted hyenas


title: "Spotted hyena" content: were challenged to tug two ropes in unison to earn a food reward, successfully cooperating and learning the maneuvers quickly without prior training. Experienced hyenas even helped inexperienced clan-mates to solve the problem. In contrast, chimps and other primates often require extensive training, and cooperation between individuals is not always as easy for them. The intelligence of the spotted hyena was attested to by Dutch colonists in 19th-century South Africa, who noted that hyenas were exceedingly cunning and suspicious, particularly after successfully escaping from traps. Spotted hyenas seem to plan on hunting specific species in advance; hyenas have been observed


title: "Spotted hyena" content: to indulge in activities such as scent marking before setting off to hunt zebras, a behaviour which does not occur when they target other prey species. Also, spotted hyenas have been recorded to utilise deceptive behaviour, including giving alarm calls during feeding when no enemies are present, thus frightening off other hyenas and allowing them to temporarily eat in peace. Similarly, mothers will emit alarm calls in attempting to interrupt attacks on their cubs by other hyenas. Unlike other large African carnivores, spotted hyenas do not preferentially prey on any species, and only African buffalo and giraffe are significantly avoided.


title: "Spotted hyena" content: Spotted hyenas prefer prey with a body mass range of , with a mode of . When hunting medium to large sized prey, spotted hyenas tend to select certain categories of animal; young animals are frequently targeted, as are old ones, though the latter category is not so significant when hunting zebras, due to their aggressive anti-predator behaviours. The spotted hyena tracks live prey by sight, hearing and smell. Carrion is detected by smell and the sound of other predators feeding. During daylight hours, they watch vultures descending upon carcasses. Their auditory perception is powerful enough to detect sounds of


title: "Spotted hyena" content: predators killing prey or feeding on carcasses over distances of up to . Unlike the grey wolf, the spotted hyena relies more on sight than smell when hunting, and does not follow its prey's prints or travel in single file. Small prey is killed by being shaken in the mouth, while large prey is eaten alive. Spotted hyenas usually hunt wildebeest either singly, or in groups of two or three. They catch adult wildebeest usually after chases at speeds of up to 60 km/h (37 mi/h). Chases are usually initiated by one hyena and, with the exception of cows with


title: "Spotted hyena" content: calves, there is little active defence from the wildebeest herd. Wildebeest will sometimes attempt to escape hyenas by taking to water although, in such cases, the hyenas almost invariably catch them. Zebras require different hunting methods to those used for wildebeest, due to their habit of running in tight groups and aggressive defence from stallions. Typical zebra hunting groups consist of 10–25 hyenas, though there is one record of a hyena killing an adult zebra unaided. During a chase, zebras typically move in tight bunches, with the hyenas pursuing behind in a crescent formation. Chases are usually relatively slow, with


title: "Spotted hyena" content: an average speed of 15–30 km/h. A stallion will attempt to place himself between the hyenas and the herd, though once a zebra falls behind the protective formation it is immediately set upon, usually after a chase of . Though hyenas may harass the stallion, they usually only concentrate on the herd and attempt to dodge the stallion's assaults. Unlike stallions, mares typically only react aggressively to hyenas when their foals are threatened. Unlike wildebeest, zebras rarely take to water when escaping hyenas. When hunting Thomson's gazelles, spotted hyenas usually operate alone, and prey primarily on young fawns. Chases against


title: "Spotted hyena" content: both adult and young gazelles can cover distances of with speeds of 60 km/h (37 mi/h). Female gazelles do not defend their fawns, though they may attempt to distract hyenas by feigning weakness. The spotted hyena is the most carnivorous member of the Hyaenidae. Unlike its brown and striped cousins, the spotted hyena is a predator, not a scavenger; this has been shown since the 1960s. One of the earliest studies to demonstrate their hunting abilities was done by Hans Kruuk, an African wildlife ecologist, and he showed through a 7-year study of hyena populations in Africa that spotted hyenas


title: "Spotted hyena" content: hunt as much as lions, and with later studies this has been shown to be the average in all areas of Africa. However spotted hyenas remain being mislabeled as scavengers, often even by ecologists and wildlife documentary channels. The spotted hyena is very efficient at eating its prey; not only is it able to splinter and eat the largest ungulate bones, it is also able to digest them completely. Spotted hyenas can digest all organic components in bones, not just the marrow. Any inorganic material is excreted with the faeces, which consist almost entirely of a white powder with few


title: "Spotted hyena" content: hairs. They react to alighting vultures more readily than other African carnivores, and are more likely to stay in the vicinity of lion kills or human settlements. Wildebeest are the most commonly taken medium-sized ungulate prey item in both Ngorongoro and the Serengeti, with zebra and Thomson's gazelles coming close behind. Cape buffalo are rarely attacked due to differences in habitat preference, though adult bulls have been recorded to be taken on occasion. In Kruger National Park, blue wildebeest, cape buffalo, Burchell's zebra, greater kudu and impala are the spotted hyena's most important prey, while giraffe, impala, wildebeest and zebra


title: "Spotted hyena" content: are its major food sources in the nearby Timbavati area. Springbok and kudu are the main prey in Namibia's Etosha National Park, and springbok in the Namib. In the southern Kalahari, gemsbok, wildebeest and springbok are the principal prey. In Chobe, the spotted hyena's primary prey consists of migratory zebra and resident impala. In Kenya's Masai Mara, 80% of the spotted hyena's prey consists of topi and Thomson's gazelle, save for during the four-month period when zebra and wildebeest herds migrate to the area. Bushbuck, suni and buffalo are the dominant prey items in the Aberdare Mountains, while Grant's gazelle,


title: "Spotted hyena" content: gerenuk, sheep, goats and cattle are likely preyed upon in northern Kenya. In west Africa, it is thought that the spotted hyena is primarily a scavenger, but will occasionally attack domestic stock and medium-size antelopes in some areas. In Cameroon, it is common for spotted hyenas to feed on small antelopes like kob, but may also scavenge on reedbuck, kongoni, buffalo, giraffe, African elephant, topi and roan antelope carcasses. Records indicate that spotted hyenas in Malawi feed on medium to large-sized ungulates such as waterbuck and impala. In Tanzania's Selous Game Reserve, spotted hyenas primarily prey on wildebeest, followed by


title: "Spotted hyena" content: buffalo, zebra, impala, giraffe, reedbuck and kongoni. In Uganda, it is thought that the species primarily preys on birds and reptiles, while in Zambia it is primarily a scavenger. Spotted hyenas have also been found to catch fish, tortoises, humans, black rhino, hippo calves, young African elephants, pangolins and pythons. There is at least one record of four hyenas killing an adult or subadult hippopotamus in Kruger National Park. The fossil record indicates that the now extinct European spotted hyenas primarily fed on Przewalski's horses, Irish elk, reindeer, red deer, roe deer, fallow deer, wild boar, ibex, steppe wisent, aurochs,


title: "Spotted hyena" content: and woolly rhinoceros. Spotted hyenas are thought to be responsible for the dis-articulation and destruction of some cave bear skeletons. Such large carcasses were an optimal food resource for hyenas, especially at the end of winter, when food was scarce. Spotted hyenas may consume leather articles such as boots and belts around campsites. Jane Goodall recorded spotted hyenas attacking or savagely playing with the exterior and interior fittings of cars, and the species is thought to be responsible for eating car tyres. A single spotted hyena can eat at least 14.5 kg of meat per meal. Although spotted hyenas act


title: "Spotted hyena" content: aggressively toward each other when feeding, they compete with each other mostly through speed of eating, rather than by fighting as lions do. When feeding on an intact carcass, spotted hyenas will first consume the meat around the loins and anal region, then open the abdominal cavity and pull out the soft organs. Once the stomach, its wall and contents are consumed, the hyenas will eat the lungs and abdominal and leg muscles. Once the muscles have been eaten, the carcass is disassembled and the hyenas carry off pieces to eat in peace. Spotted hyenas are adept at eating their


title: "Spotted hyena" content: prey in water: they have been observed to dive under floating carcasses to take bites, then resurface to swallow. A single hyena can take less than two minutes in eating a gazelle fawn, while a group of 35 hyenas can completely consume an adult zebra in 36 minutes. Spotted hyenas do not require much water, and typically only spend 30 seconds drinking. Where spotted hyenas and lions occupy the same geographic area, the two species occupy the same ecological niche, and are thus in direct competition with one another. In some cases, the extent of dietary overlap can be as


title: "Spotted hyena" content: high as 68.8%. Lions typically ignore spotted hyenas, unless they are on a kill or are being harassed by them. There exists a common misconception that hyenas steal kills from lions, but most often it is the other way around. Lions will readily steal the kills of spotted hyenas; in the Ngorongoro Crater, it is common for lions to subsist largely on kills stolen from hyenas. Lions are quick to follow the calls of hyenas feeding, a fact demonstrated by field experiments, during which lions repeatedly approached whenever the tape-recorded calls of hyenas feeding were played. When confronted on a


title: "Spotted hyena" content: kill by lions, spotted hyenas will either leave or wait patiently at a distance of 30–100 metres until the lions have finished eating. In some cases, spotted hyenas are bold enough to feed alongside lions, and may occasionally force lions off a kill. This mostly occurs during the nighttime, when hyenas are bolder. Spotted hyenas usually prevail against groups of lionesses unaccompanied by males if they outnumber them 4:1. In some instances they were seen to have taken on and routed two pride males while outnumbering them 5:1. The two species may act aggressively toward one another even when there


title: "Spotted hyena" content: is no food at stake. Lions may charge at hyenas and maul them for no apparent reason; one male lion was filmed killing two hyenas on separate occasions without eating them, and lion predation can account for up to 71% of hyena deaths in Etosha. Spotted hyenas have adapted to this pressure by frequently mobbing lions which enter their territories. Experiments on captive spotted hyenas revealed that specimens with no prior experience with lions act indifferently to the sight of them, but will react fearfully to the scent. Although cheetahs and leopards preferentially prey on smaller animals than those hunted


title: "Spotted hyena" content: by spotted hyenas, hyenas will steal their kills when the opportunity presents itself. Cheetahs are usually easily intimidated by hyenas, and put up little resistance, while leopards, particularly males, may stand up to hyenas. There are records of some male leopards preying on hyenas. Hyenas are nonetheless dangerous opponents for leopards; there is at least one record of a young adult male leopard dying from a septicemia infection caused by wounds inflicted by a spotted hyena. There is also a case of two spotted hyenas killing and eating a young leopard in Timbavati Game Reserve, after a young hyena was


title: "Spotted hyena" content: killed by the leopard. Spotted hyenas will follow packs of African wild dogs in order to appropriate their kills. They will typically inspect areas where wild dogs have rested and eat any food remains they find. When approaching wild dogs at a kill, solitary hyenas will approach cautiously and attempt to take off with a piece of meat unnoticed, though they may be mobbed by the dogs in the attempt. When operating in groups, spotted hyenas are more successful in pirating dog kills, though the dog's greater tendency to assist each other puts them at an advantage against spotted hyenas,


title: "Spotted hyena" content: who rarely work in unison. Cases of dogs scavenging from spotted hyenas are rare. Although wild dog packs can easily repel solitary hyenas, on the whole, the relationship between the two species is a one sided benefit for the hyenas, with wild dog densities being negatively correlated with high hyena populations. Spotted hyenas dominate other hyena species wherever their ranges overlap. Brown hyenas encounter spotted hyenas in the Kalahari, where the brown species outnumbers the spotted. The two species typically encounter each other on carcasses, which the larger spotted species usually appropriate. Sometimes, brown hyenas will stand their ground and


title: "Spotted hyena" content: raise their manes while emitting growls. This usually has the effect of seemingly confusing spotted hyenas, which will act bewildered, though they will occasionally attack and maul their smaller cousins. Similar interactions have been recorded between spotted and striped hyenas in the Serengeti. Black-backed and side-striped jackals, and African golden wolves will feed alongside hyenas, though they will be chased if they approach too closely. Spotted hyenas will sometimes follow jackals and wolves during the gazelle fawning season, as jackals and wolves are effective at tracking and catching young animals. Hyenas do not take to eating wolf flesh readily; four


title: "Spotted hyena" content: hyenas were reported to take half an hour in eating a golden wolf. Overall, the two animals typically ignore each other when there is no food or young at stake. Spotted hyenas usually keep a safe distance from Nile crocodiles. Though they readily take to water to catch and store prey, hyenas will avoid crocodile-infested waters. Recent observations shows that African rock pythons can hunt adult spotted hyenas. Spotted hyenas have a complex set of postures in communication. When afraid, the ears are folded flat, and are often combined with baring of the teeth and a flattening of the mane.


title: "Spotted hyena" content: When attacked by other hyenas or by wild dogs, the hyena lowers its hindquarters. Before and during an assertive attack, the head is held high with the ears cocked, mouth closed, mane erect and the hindquarters high. The tail usually hangs down when neutral, though it will change position according to the situation. When a high tendency to flee an attacker is apparent, the tail is curled below the belly. During an attack, or when excited, the tail is carried forward on the back. An erect tail does not always accompany a hostile encounter, as it has also been observed


title: "Spotted hyena" content: to occur when a harmless social interaction occurs. Although they do not wag their tails, spotted hyenas will flick their tails when approaching dominant animals or when there is a slight tendency to flee. When approaching a dominant animal, subordinate spotted hyenas will walk on the knees of their forelegs in submission. Greeting ceremonies among clan-members consist of two individuals standing parallel to each other and facing opposite directions. Both individuals raise their hind legs and lick each other's anogenital area. During these greeting ceremonies, the penis or pseudo-penis often becomes erect, in both males and females. Erection is usually


title: "Spotted hyena" content: a sign of submission, rather than dominance, and is more common in males than in females. The spotted hyena has an extensive vocal range, with sounds ranging from whoops, fast whoops, grunts, groans, lows, giggles, yells, growls, soft grunt-laughs, loud grunt-laughs, whines and soft squeals. The loud "who-oop" call, along with the maniacal laughter, are among the most recognisable sounds of Africa. Typically, very high-pitched calls indicate fear or submission, while loud, lower-pitched calls express aggression. The pitch of the laugh indicates the hyena's age, while variations in the frequency of notes used when hyenas make noises convey information about


title: "Spotted hyena" content: the animal's social rank. Dr. Hans Kruuk compiled the following table on spotted hyena calls in 1972; Spotted hyenas may contract brucellosis, rinderpest and anaplasmosis. They are vulnerable to "Trypanosoma congolense", which is contracted by consuming already infected herbivores, rather than through direct infection from tsetse flies. It is known that adult spotted hyenas in the Serengeti have antibodies against rabies, canine herpes, canine brucellosis, canine parvovirus, feline calicivirus, leptospirosis, bovine brucellosis, rinderpest and anaplasmosis. During the canine distemper outbreak of 1993–94, molecular studies indicated that the viruses isolated from hyenas and lions were more closely related to each other


title: "Spotted hyena" content: than to the closest canine distemper virus in dogs. Evidence of canine distemper in spotted hyenas has also been recorded in the Masai Mara. Exposure to rabies does not cause clinical symptoms or affect individual survival or longevity. Analyses of several hyena saliva samples showed that the species is unlikely to be a rabies vector, thus indicating that the species catches the disease from other animals rather than from intraspecifics. The microfilaria of "Dipetalonema dracuneuloides" have been recorded in spotted hyenas in northern Kenya. The species is known to carry at least three cestode species of the genus "Taenia", none


title: "Spotted hyena" content: of which are harmful to humans. It also carries protozoan parasites of the genus "Hepatozoon" in the Serengeti, Kenya and South Africa. Spotted hyenas may act as hosts in the life-cycles of various parasites which start life in herbivores; "Taenia hyaenae" and "T. olnogojinae" occur in hyenas in their adult phase. "Trichinella spiralis" are found as cysts in hyena muscles. The spotted hyena's distribution once ranged in Europe from the Iberian Peninsula to the Urals, where it remained for at least one million years. Remains have also been found in the Russian Far East, and it has been theorised that


title: "Spotted hyena" content: the presence of hyenas there may have delayed the colonisation of North America. The causes of the species' extinction in Eurasia are still largely unknown. In Western Europe at least, the spotted hyena's extinction coincided with a decline in grasslands 12,500 years ago. Europe experienced a massive loss of lowland habitats favoured by spotted hyenas, and a corresponding increase in mixed woodlands. Spotted hyenas, under these circumstances, would have been outcompeted by wolves and humans which were as much at home in forests as in open lands, and in highlands as in lowlands. Spotted hyena populations began to shrink roughly


title: "Spotted hyena" content: 20,000 years ago, completely disappearing from Western Europe between 14–11,000 years ago, and earlier in some areas. Historically, the spotted hyena was widespread throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. It is present in all habitats save for the most extreme desert conditions, tropical rainforests and the top of alpine mountains. Its current distribution is patchy in many places, especially in West Africa. Populations are concentrated in protected areas and surrounding land. There is a continuous distribution over large areas of Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana, Namibia and the Transvaal Lowveld areas of South Africa. During the 1770s and 1780s the species was still widespread


title: "Spotted hyena" content: in southern and western South Africa, being recorded i.a. on the Cape Peninsula and Cape Flats, and near present-day Somerset West, Riviersonderend, Mossel Bay, George, Joubertina, Gamtoos River, Jansenville, Cannon Rocks, Alice, Onseepkans and Augrabies Falls. The species dwells in semi-deserts, savannah, open woodland, dense dry woodland, and mountainous forests up to 4,000 m in altitude. It is scarce or absent in tropical rainforests and coastal areas. Its preferred habitats in west Africa include the Guinea and Sudan savannahs, and is absent in the belt of dense coastal forest. In the Namib Desert, it occurs in riverine growth along seasonal


title: "Spotted hyena" content: rivers, the sub-desertic pro-Namib and the adjoining inland plateau. In ideal habitats, the spotted hyena outnumbers other large carnivores, including other hyena species. However, the striped and brown hyena occur at greater densities than the spotted species in desert and semi-desert regions. Population densities based on systematic censuses vary substantially, from 0.006 to 1.7 individuals per km. The spotted hyena (cave hyena subspecies) is depicted in a few examples of Upper Palaeolithic rock art in France. A painting from the Chauvet Cave depicts a hyena outlined and represented in profile, with two legs, with its head and front part with


title: "Spotted hyena" content: well distinguishable spotted coloration pattern. Because of the specimen's steeped profile, it is thought that the painting was originally meant to represent a cave bear, but was modified as a hyena. In Lascaux, a red and black rock painting of a hyena is present in the part of the cave known as the Diverticule axial, and is depicted in profile, with four limbs, showing an animal with a steep back. The body and the long neck have spots, including the flanks. An image on a cave in Ariège shows an incompletely outlined and deeply engraved figure, representing a part of


title: "Spotted hyena" content: an elongated neck, smoothly passing into part of the animal’s forelimb on the proximal side. Its head is in profile, with a possibly re-engraved muzzle. The ear is typical of the spotted hyena, as it is rounded. An image in the Le Gabillou Cave in Dordogne shows a deeply engraved zoomorphic figure with a head in frontal view and an elongated neck with part of the forelimb in profile. It has large round eyes and short, rounded ears which are set far from each other. It has a broad, line-like mouth that evokes a smile. Though originally thought to represent


title: "Spotted hyena" content: a composite or zoomorphic hybrid, it is probable it is a spotted hyena based on its broad muzzle and long neck. The relative scarcity of hyena depictions in Paleolithic rock art has been theorised to be due to the animal's lower rank in the animal worship hierarchy; the spotted hyena's appearance was likely unappealing to Ice Age hunters, and it was not sought after as prey. Also, it was not a serious rival like the cave lion or cave bear, and it lacked the impressiveness of the mammoth or woolly rhino. In Africa, the spotted hyena is usually portrayed as


title: "Spotted hyena" content: an abnormal and ambivalent animal, considered to be sly, brutish, necrophagous and dangerous. It further embodies physical power, excessivity, ugliness, stupidity, as well as sacredness. Spotted hyenas vary in their folkloric and mythological depictions, depending on the ethnic group from which the tales originate. It is often difficult to know whether or not spotted hyenas are the specific hyena species featured in such stories, particularly in West Africa, as both spotted and striped hyenas are often given the same names. In west African tales, spotted hyenas symbolise immorality, dirty habits, the reversal of normal activities, and other negative traits, and


title: "Spotted hyena" content: are sometimes depicted as bad Muslims who challenge the local animism that exists among the Beng in Côte d’Ivoire. In East Africa, Tabwa mythology portrays the spotted hyena as a solar animal that first brought the sun to warm the cold earth. In the culture of the Mbugwe in Tanzania, the spotted hyena is linked to witchcraft. According to Mbugwe folklore, every witch possesses one or more hyenas, which are referred to as "night cattle" and are branded with an invisible mark. It is said that all hyenas are owned by witches, and that truly wild hyenas are non-existent. Lactating


title: "Spotted hyena" content: female spotted hyenas are said to be milked by their owners every night to make hyena butter, and are further used as mounts. When a witch acquires a hyena mount, he rides it to distant lands in order to bewitch victims and return safely home before morning. The Mbugwe consider killing hyenas to be dangerous, as the bond between the hyena and its owner is very strong, and will likely result in the witch seeking retribution. In order to obviate this danger, a killed hyena usually has its ears, tail and front legs cut off and buried, as these are


title: "Spotted hyena" content: the parts which are supposed to be marked by the witches' brand. In the Mtwara Region of Tanzania, it is believed that a child born at night while a hyena is crying will likely grow up to be a thief. In the same area, hyena faeces are believed to enable a child to walk at an early age, thus it is not uncommon in that area to see children with hyena dung wrapped in their clothes. The Kaguru of Tanzania and the Kujamaat of Southern Senegal view hyenas as inedible and greedy hermaphrodites. A mythical African tribe called the "Bouda"


title: "Spotted hyena" content: is reputed to house members able to transform into hyenas. A similar myth occurs in Mansôa, Guinea-Bissau. These "werehyenas" are executed when discovered, but do not revert to their human form when killed. In Khoikhoi mythology, the spotted hyena is often the butt of the jackal's tricks. Gogo folklore links the spotted hyena to the origin of death; in one tale, the hyena prevents humanity from achieving immortality, thus ensuring it can continue to eat corpses. A similar tale is present among the Meru. In their narrative, the supreme god Murungu sent a mole to inform humanity that they would


title: "Spotted hyena" content: be reborn after death. Fearing this would deprive it of corpses to eat, the hyena prevents the mole from ever delivering the message. Madi and Nuer mythology links the spotted hyena to the separation between heaven and earth; at one time, humanity kept in contact with the Creator in the sky via a cowhide rope, which was subsequently severed by a hungry hyena. The spotted hyena is a sacred totem animal for some Pedi tribes, with the skin often being used as robes by chieftains and their bones as divining instruments. According to the doctrine of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo


title: "Spotted hyena" content: Church, hyenas are unclean animals which represent sexual deviancy and lawlessness. The Egyptian Saint "abba" (Father) Matewos of Asfoni was associated with hyenas; one fable tells of how he rescued a cub trapped in a pit, and had his feet licked in gratitude by its mother. In Ethiopian folklore, an albino hyena called the "King of Hyenas" is ascribed great power. Some ethnic groups in Ethiopia associate themselves with hyenas; the Gurage traditionally believe that their ancestors migrated from Arabia to Ethiopia using hyenas as mounts. In Dorze tradition, the highest Demuṣa-priests have the ability to control hyenas, and will


title: "Spotted hyena" content: send them to punish defaulting debtors. Spotted hyenas feature prominently in the rituals of certain African cultures. In the Gelede cult of the Yoruba people of Benin and Southwest Nigeria, a spotted hyena mask is used at dawn to signal the end of the "èfè" ceremony. As the spotted hyena usually finishes the meals of other carnivores, the animal is associated with the conclusion of all things. Among the Korè cult of the Bambara people in Mali, the belief that spotted hyenas are hermaphrodites appears as an ideal in-between in the ritual domain. The role of the spotted hyena mask


title: "Spotted hyena" content: in their rituals is often to turn the neophyte into a complete moral being by integrating his male principles with femininity. The Beng people believe that upon finding a freshly killed hyena with its anus inverted, one must plug it back in, for fear of being struck down with perpetual laughter. They also view spotted hyena faeces as contaminating, and will evacuate a village if a hyena relieves itself within village boundaries. In Harar, Ethiopia, spotted hyenas are regularly fed by the city's inhabitants, who believe the hyenas' presence keeps devils at bay, and associate mystical properties such as fortune


title: "Spotted hyena" content: telling to them. Traditional Western beliefs about the spotted hyena can be traced back to Aristotle's "Historia Animalium", which described the species as a necrophagous, cowardly and potentially dangerous animal. He further described how the hyena uses retching noises to attract dogs. In "On the Generation of Animals", Aristotle criticised the erroneous belief that the spotted hyena is a hermaphrodite (which likely originated from the confusion caused by the masculinised genitalia of the female), though his physical descriptions are more consistent with the striped hyena. Pliny the Elder supported Aristotle's depiction, though he further elaborated that the hyena can imitate


title: "Spotted hyena" content: human voices. Additionally, he wrote how the hyena was held in high regard among the Magi, and that hyena body parts could cure different diseases, give protection and stimulate sexual desire in people. The author of the "Physiologus", who infused pagan tales with the spirit of Christian moral and mystical teaching, reactivated the myth that the hyena is a hermaphrodite. The author compared the species to "double-minded men" who are neither "man nor woman, that is, neither faithful nor unfaithful". He further states that "The sons of Israel are like this animal since in the beginning they served the living


title: "Spotted hyena" content: God but later, given over to pleasure and lust, they adored idols." The bestiaries of the Middle Ages embraced the "Physiologus"'s descriptions, but further elaborated on the animal's necrophagous habits. These bestiaries almost invariably depict hyenas feeding on human corpses. These illustrations were largely based on the descriptions given by Aristotle and Pliny, though the animals have no spots or other bodily markings, thus making it unlikely that the authors had ever seen hyenas first-hand. During the 15th and 16th centuries, travellers to Africa provided further descriptions of the species. Leo Africanus repeated some of the old concepts on the


title: "Spotted hyena" content: hyena, with the addition of describing its legs and feet as similar to those of men. In 1551, Swiss naturalist Conrad Gesner rejected the belief of the hyena's hermaphroditism, and theorised that it originated from confusion over an androgynous fish bearing the same name. He adds three other animals within the category of hyenas, including an Ethiopian quadruped named "Crocotta", which was thought to be a hybrid between a hyena and a lioness. Sir Thomas Browne also argued against the hyena's supposed hermaphroditism, stating that all animals follow their own "Law of Coition", and that a hermaphrodite would transgress this.


title: "Spotted hyena" content: Sir Walter Raleigh, in an attempt to rationalise how Noah's Ark could have fitted all extant species of animal, wrote that hyenas were hybrids between foxes and wolves which originated after the Great Flood. References to the spotted hyena's vocalisations are referenced in numerous contemporary examples of English literature, including Shakespeare's "As You Like It" and George Chapman's "Eastward Ho". John Milton, in his "Samson Agonistes", compares the species to Delila. Natural historians of the 18th and 19th centuries rejected stories of hermaphroditism in hyenas, and recognised the differences between the spotted and striped hyena. However, they continued to focus


title: "Spotted hyena" content: on the species' scavenging habits, their potential to rob graves and their perceived cowardice. During the 20th century, Western and African stereotypes of the spotted hyena converged; in both Ernest Hemingway's "Green Hills of Africa" and Disney's "The Lion King", the traits of gluttony and comical stupidity, common in African depictions of hyenas, are added to the Western perception of hyenas being cowardly and ugly. After the release of "The Lion King", hyena biologists protested against the animal's portrayal: one hyena researcher sued Disney studios for defamation of character, and another who had organized the animators' visit to the University


title: "Spotted hyena" content: of California's Field Station for Behavioural Research, where they would observe and sketch captive hyenas suggested boycotting the film. When targeting livestock, the spotted hyena primarily preys upon cattle, sheep and goats, though hyenas in the southern parts of Ethiopia's Tigray region preferentially target donkeys. Reports of livestock damage are often not substantiated, and hyenas observed scavenging on a carcass may be mistaken for having killed the animal. The rate at which the species targets livestock may depend on a number of factors, including stock keeping practices, the availability of wild prey and human-associated sources of organic material, such as


title: "Spotted hyena" content: rubbish. Surplus killing has been recorded in South Africa's eastern Cape Province. Attacks on stock tend to be fewer in areas where livestock is corralled by thorn fences and where domestic dogs are present. One study in northern Kenya revealed that 90% of all cases of livestock predation by hyenas occurred in areas outside the protection of thorn fences. Like most mammalian predators, the spotted hyena is typically shy in the presence of humans, and has the highest flight distance (up to 300 metres) among African carnivores. However, this distance is reduced during the night, when hyenas are known to


title: "Spotted hyena" content: follow people closely. Although spotted hyenas do prey on humans in modern times, such incidents are rare. However, attacks on humans by spotted hyenas are likely to be underreported. Man-eating spotted hyenas tend to be very large specimens; a pair of man-eating hyenas, responsible for killing 27 people in Mlanje, Malawi, in 1962, were weighed at after being shot. Victims of spotted hyenas tend to be women, children and sick or infirm men, and there are numerous cases of biologists in Africa being forced up trees in order to escape them. Attacks occur most commonly in September, when many people


title: "Spotted hyena" content: sleep outdoors, and bush fires make the hunting of wild game difficult for hyenas. In 1903, Hector Duff wrote of how spotted hyenas in the Mzimba district of Angoniland would wait at dawn outside people's huts and attack them when they opened their doors. In 1908–09 in Uganda, spotted hyenas regularly killed sufferers of African sleeping sickness as they slept outside in camps. Spotted hyenas are widely feared in Malawi, where they have been known to occasionally attack people at night, particularly during the hot season when people sleep outside. Hyena attacks were widely reported in Malawi's Phalombe plain, to


title: "Spotted hyena" content: the north of Michesi Mountain. Five deaths were recorded in 1956, five in 1957 and six in 1958. This pattern continued until 1961 when eight people were killed. During the 1960s, Flying Doctors received over two dozen cases of hyena attacks on humans in Kenya. An anecdotal 2004 news report from the World Wide Fund for Nature indicates that 35 people were killed by spotted hyenas during a 12-month period in Mozambique along a 20 km stretch of road near the Tanzanian border. Although attacks against living humans are rare, the spotted hyena readily feeds on human corpses. In the


title: "Spotted hyena" content: tradition of the Maasai and the Hadza, corpses are left in the open for spotted hyenas to eat. A corpse rejected by hyenas is seen as having something wrong with it, and liable to cause social disgrace, therefore it is not uncommon for bodies to be covered in fat and blood from a slaughtered ox. In Ethiopia, hyenas were reported to feed extensively on the corpses of victims of the 1960 attempted coup and the Red Terror. Hyenas habituated to scavenging on human corpses may develop bold behaviours towards living people; hyena attacks on people in southern Sudan increased during


title: "Spotted hyena" content: the Second Sudanese Civil War, when human corpses were readily available to them. In some parts of Africa, spotted hyenas have begun to frequent metropolitan areas, where groups or "clans" of the animals have become a menace. The Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa is estimated to have up to a thousand resident hyenas which survive by scavenging rubbish tips and preying on feral dogs and cats. There have also been attacks on humans who are homeless. In 2013, a baby boy was killed by hyenas after being snatched from his mother as she camped near the Hilton Hotel. Some 40 of


title: "Spotted hyena" content: the animals were reportedly seen alongside a fence bordering the British Embassy compound. In December 2013, a cull was organised and marksmen killed ten hyenas which had occupied wasteland near the city centre. The spotted hyena has been hunted for its body parts for use in traditional medicine, for amusement, and for sport, though this is rare, as the species is generally not considered attractive. There is fossil evidence of humans in Middle Pleistocene Europe butchering and presumably consuming spotted hyenas. Such incidences are rare in modern Africa, where most tribes, even those known to eat unusual kinds of meat,