Lead
In the eyes of many people, the spotted hyena is a well-deserved "second brother in Africa" in the animal world, but the "first brother in Africa" lion blames them: they only know how to deal with other animals, and they don't know the tools to feed their dogs.
Having said that, what kind of "secrets" are hidden in this seemingly simple animal group behind the obviously inferior language of the spotted hyena?
As the saying goes, people's hearts are not enough to swallow elephants, let alone animals, and the story of the dog on the construction site is also one of the most miserable groups in the animal kingdom.
So today, let's follow the editor to take a look at the weakest members of the group!
Matrilineal clans.
First of all, we need to understand the living habits of spotted hyenas, whose habitat is mainly distributed in Africa, from the border of South Africa to the Sahara Desert in North Africa.
This gives the spotted hyena one of the simplest and most straightforward names in the animal kingdom, the "African wolf", a name given to them by the researchers who first discovered the spotted hyena.
The spotted hyena looks a bit like a wolf, but it is not as strong as a wolf, because although the lion is called the "king of the jungle", it is lazy, and they mainly hunt large prey, and the number of small groups is relatively rare.
This also creates a misconception among other animals that there are no predators in the jungle, so they are more "friendly" when encountering spotted hyenas, which are not a big threat to them.
After all, these animals don't know that wolves are more "playful" than lions, because spotted hyenas usually form groups of more than a dozen, and they usually choose to roost in dry and hot places.
They also tend to roost in open grasslands, and spotted hyenas are similar in size to wolves, but are fatter, with relatively short limbs and a long belly, and a slender tail with large hair.
This is a great way to survive, as most of their prey is fast runners, so they are shorter and stockier with a longer belly, which gives the spotted hyena more strength to support its body while running.
At the same time, the spotted hyena's shorter limbs also allow it to waste more energy while running, and the spotted hyena even has a larger, fluffy tail so that it can maintain its balance while running.
Spotted hyenas are born with alternating shades of markings, each of which is unique to help them conceal themselves in their habitat.
As long as they have such a camouflage, they can be well camouflaged in the environment, and the wild animals that are the prey will not be able to recognize the presence of the camouflaged hyena, and it will be difficult for them to escape the pursuit of the spotted hyena.
When hunting, the body of the spotted hyena is vertically downward, so that it looks like it is lying upside down, and it is easy for the less intelligent prey to take lightly.
When the prey approaches, the spotted hyena will suddenly raise its head and rush to hunt it, and it is also with this relatively simple hunting method that the spotted hyena can quickly gain a foothold at the bottom of the African food chain.
Spotted hyenas are very cunning and usually choose injured animals to hunt in their food choices, and groups of spotted hyenas with multiple members can beat their prey to death.
After hunting, the spotted hyenas will divide the food evenly among all members, but when there is not enough food, the spotted hyena will divide the meat of the corners of the prey to the lower members, and in this meat there will be more bones and other parts, and sometimes even rotten meat.
Obviously, male members can only eat the lowest food when distributing food, and sometimes even none of these foods are eaten, which also leads to male members not growing strong and being much smaller than female members.
So in the group of spotted hyenas, females tend to be stronger than males.
Females are mainly "tool dogs".
Although spotted hyenas are actually very intelligent in the animal kingdom, and can even be compared to primates in terms of brain capacity, their social hierarchy is very backward.
In the social hierarchy of spotted hyenas, females occupy the most important position, with female members acting as "chiefs" in the community and male members as "tool dogs" in the community.
In spotted hyenas, females are not the same as males, females are mainly responsible for breeding offspring and are also the main predators in the community, while male members are mainly responsible for keeping the community safe.
Such a social division of labor is not only reflected in work, but also in life, where female members have a high status and are relatively superior in life, while male members have to bow down and live a "dog life".
When it comes to breeding offspring, females are very selective, and they usually choose docile males as mates, because they know that docile males will obey their words, so that when they breed offspring, they will be able to make their offspring better.
During the breeding season of spotted hyenas, the females rise to the highest social level in the community, and the docile males respectfully defend the females of the community.
When breeding, the highest-ranking females in the community will choose one or two relatively high-ranking males to mate, and after mating, the females will choose to give birth to offspring in the cave.
One of the interesting habits of spotted hyenas is that when they give birth to offspring, females will only give birth to one or two litters, and even two litters are born one day apart, and there is a significant difference in the size of the cubs in the two litters.
Normally, the larger pups in two litters will kill the smaller pups in the first month of life, probably because the spotted hyena has no way to ensure that there is enough food for all the cubs to survive, so the female of the spotted hyena selectively kills the weakest of the cubs.
However, in the first month after the birth of the cubs, they do not have enough physical strength to go out to forage for food, and the female, as the mother, also needs to go hunting, and the cubs are also unable to eat.
As a result, the female of the spotted hyena will take her cubs to a nearby community and place them in the pups of other females in the community, so that the other females' pups will be mixed up with their own cubs.
After breeding, the females in the community will alternate with the females to feed the cubs, so that there is no need to worry about food, and when the cubs are two months old, they will alternately bring the cubs back, and the females' reproductive efficiency will be improved a lot.
When the cubs are six months old, they are taken to the community for hunting training, and at the age of nine months, they can officially participate in the hunting and predation of the community.
Spotted hyenas pay great attention to the cooperation between teams when hunting, they can show a strong sense of teamwork when hunting, and then distribute the prey after the hunt is successful, like a team.
Suspected partnership.
When hunting, spotted hyenas will besiege their prey to death, and females will even choose to eat their own cubs if they are not well fed.
When food is plentiful, males will help females hunt, but even if the hunt is successful, males will usually only be able to eat leftovers.
Snatching food is a common practice in groups of spotted hyenas, so when the hunt is successful, the dominant female members will bring the food back to the community for distribution, and will also give the offcuts to the males.
In cases where food is scarce, female members will even eat their own pups to replenish their energy, while when food is plentiful, both females and their own pups can eat food.
This further highlights the characteristics of the male as a "tool dog" in the group, and even sometimes after a successful hunt, the female member goes back with food, and the male has no way to enjoy the main meal, so he can only eat the leftovers.
The male members of the spotted hyena are large enough to be comparable to the size of the lion, but they are not as arrogant as the lion males, because in the group of spotted hyenas, the males do not have a voice.
During the breeding season, male members alternate between females and cubs to bring them back to the community, a loyalty that is a rare trait in the spotted hyena pack.
Although the male members of the spotted hyena have no status, they also have a strong sense of competition between them, and females will choose to mate with male members who are docile to themselves, so in the process of selection, generally higher-ranking males will also choose lower-ranking males to mate.
Therefore, males with higher status generally cannot choose females to mate, and the competition between males is mainly reflected in status, which makes males unable to rise to a higher rank to a certain extent.
Although the male members of the spotted hyena have the status of "tool dogs", they are not qualified to mate after the birth of the cubs, which is generally only the lower rank males will find mating females when participating in the hunt, so in the process of changing generations of spotted hyenas, the higher status males often do not have the right to mate.
Although spotted hyenas are social animals, they mate between females and males during estrus, and after mating, males transfer females and cubs to females in their colonies.
This maintains the equilibrium between the spotted hyena community and also gives males less chance of rising competition.
epilogue
The social hierarchy of spotted hyenas is very strict, and although there is competition between males, it is often difficult for males to improve their status.
Although the males of the spotted hyena do seem to us to be "tool dogs", such a balanced relationship in animal societies may contribute to greater balance, after all, the more adaptable species survive better as the environment changes.