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redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online Trying many different solutions is required for solving innovative problems. That’s true for humans and now researchers from Michigan State University show that it is also true for hyenas Steel puzzle boxes with raw meat inside were presented to wild spotted hyenas in Kenya. The hyenas had to slide open a bolt latch to get the meat. Only nine out of 62 hyenas succeeded even though most of the animals had many opportunities to...
Many Christians give up certain foods for Lent, however ecologists have discovered these changes in human diet have a dramatic impact on the diet of wild animals. In Ethiopia, members of the Orthodox Tewahedo Church stop eating meat and dairy products during a 55-day fast before Easter. As a result, spotted hyenas too change their eating habits – from scavenging waste from butchers and households to hunting – new research in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Animal Ecology has...
As large, carnivorous mammals, spotted hyenas are well known for their competitive nature; however, recent work suggests that their clan structure has similarities to some primate social systems such as those of the baboon and macaque. San Diego Zoo Global researchers have documented relatedness between individuals and how this factor appears to influence their social behaviors. "Understanding how animal social systems work is an important part of learning what we need to know to conserve...
When it comes to producing more offspring, larger female hyenas outdo their smaller counterparts.A new study by Michigan State University researchers, which appears in Proceedings of the Royal Society, revealed this as well as defined a new way to measure spotted hyenas' size."This is the first study of its kind that provides an estimate of lifetime selection on a large carnivore," said MSU graduate student Eli Swanson, who published the paper with MSU faculty members Ian Dworkin and Kay...
Acoustic analysis of the 'giggle' sound made by spotted hyenas has revealed that the animals' laughter encodes information about age, dominance and identity. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Ecology recorded the calls of 26 hyenas in captivity and found that variations in the giggles' pitch and timbre may help hyenas to establish social hierarchies.Frédéric Theunissen, from the University of California at Berkeley, USA, and Nicolas Mathevon, from the Université Jean...
On Wednesday, Kenyan gamers started to round up thousands of zebras to move to a reserve where lions are attacking livestock due to a lack of prey. The nationwide operation is due to last until the end of the month in what will go down as one of Africa's biggest animal translocations so far. The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) launched the operation in Soysambu conservancy. Rangers in helicopters started rounding up galloping zebras into a large V-shaped tarpaulin enclosure after daybreak....
U.S. evolutionary anthropologists say they've discovered spotted hyenas outperform primates on cooperative problem-solving tests. Duke University scientists led by Associate Professor Christine Drea said captive pairs of spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) that needed to tug two ropes in unison to earn a food reward cooperated successfully and learned the maneuvers quickly with no training. And the researchers discovered experienced hyenas even helped inexperienced partners do the trick. When...
Spotted hyenas may not be smarter than chimpanzees, but a new study shows that they outperform the primates on cooperative problem-solving tests.Captive pairs of spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) that needed to tug two ropes in unison to earn a food reward cooperated successfully and learned the maneuvers quickly with no training. Experienced hyenas even helped inexperienced partners do the trick.When confronted with a similar task, chimpanzees and other primates often require extensive...
Recent research by Michigan State University doctoral student Jennifer Smith has shed new light on the way spotted hyenas live together and "“ more importantly "“ hunt for their food alone.In a paper recently published in the journal Animal Behavior, Smith, a student in MSU's Department of Zoology, shows that while spotted hyenas know the value of living together in large, cooperative societies, they also realize that venturing on their own now and then to hunt for food is often the key...
LONDON (Reuters) - Dominant female spotted hyenas give their young a head start in life by passing on hormones that make their cubs more aggressive and likely to survive, researchers said on Wednesday. They have shown that alpha hyena mothers have higher than normal levels of the male hormone androgen late in pregnancy which they pass on to their cubs, enabling them to become top dogs. Androgen is linked to male characteristics such as muscle development, aggression and sexual...
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The striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena) is closely related to the brown hyena. It lives in northern Africa, the Middle East, Pakistan and western India. It is extinct in Europe, but can occasionally be spotted in Anatolia, Turkey. Striped hyenas are largely scavengers, but will also eat small animals, fruit and insects. They are nomadic, moving from water hole to water hole, but never straying more than 6 miles from one. Striped hyenas hunt in solitude but do congregate in small family groups. Like...
The brown hyena (Parahyaena brunnea, formerly Hyaena brunnea) lives mainly in the Kalahari and Namib deserts of southern Africa. It is smaller than the spotted hyena, and unlike its spotted cousin, is largely a scavenger. It is the largest land animal to derive most of its diet from scavenging. Because of the scarcity of food in the desert, the brown hyena supplements its diet with fruit and vegetables. Along the Namib coastline they are known to snatch seal pups. Also unlike the spotted...
The spotted hyena, or laughing hyena, (Crocuta crocuta) is the largest and best-known member of the hyena family. The spotted hyena ranges in size from 3.1 to 5 ft (95 to 150 cm) long along the head-and-body and stands from 2.5 to 3 ft (75 to 90 cm) at the shoulder. The normal weight range for the male is 100 to 132 lb (45 to 60 kg). The females normally weigh from 121 to 165 lb (55 to 75 kg). Some exceptionally large females have been in the ballpark of 200 lb (90 kg). Behavior The...
The lion (Panthera leo) is a mammal of the family Felidae and one of four "big cats" in the genus Panthera. The lion is the second largest cat, after the tiger. The male lion, easily recognized by his mane, weighs between 330 to 550 lb (150 to 250 kg). Females range 260 to 330 lb (120 to 150 kg). In the wild, lions live for around 10 to 14 years, while in captivity they can live over 20 years. Though they were once found throughout much of Africa, Asia and Europe, lions presently exist in the...
