There are some new residents at the Bronx Zoo: spotted hyenas! I had never seen a live spotted hyena before, and I was quite surprised to find them in what had previously been the cheetah enclosure near the giraffe house. For more on spotted hyenas, see Sci's excellent post on hyena mating or my short essay on the "predatory intelligence" of hyenas in the online journal Antennae (p. 23-25).
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Hyenas are fascinating in many ways, such as the way female spotted hyenas are equipped with a penis of sorts (
The WWF reports that researchers in T
I find it intriguing that the evolution of pack behavior in hyenas (in turn causing the development of shearing carnassial teeth that allowed them to move from scavengers to live hunters) may in turn have influenced the ancestors of lions into first forming prides in order to defend their own kills.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xI8G3UefIkU
Additionally, supported by some of the content in the Neurotopia hyena mating blog you referenced above, it would seem that female hyenas have it all: matriarchal power, voting rights when it comes to sexual partners, and the prestige of having bigger genitalia! (I am sure exploring the evolution of the mammalian "bigger is better" paradigm would make an interesting doctoral dissertation!)
I saw live spotted hyenas this past summer! Beautiful animals, in their own way.
Aww, he's so fluffy and cute! While I'll miss the cheetahs, I'm excited that there's such a nice hyena exhibit now. Do you know how many are in the enclosure?
There's a small pack of spotted hyena at the Night Safari in Singapore, but they're usually just lying around and sleeping. One time though, I was eating a hotdog and one of them turned to look straight at me with great interest. I felt very vulnerable indeed. And when one of them started whooping while out of view, I truly began to understand just how scary life could have been for a puny little hominid on the savanna.
David; Yes, the co-evolution of large predators is very interesting. I am always in awe of how many different kinds of large predators were present in the prehistoric past (including different forms of hyenas) than are present today.
Erin; I only saw two, a male and a female. It would be good to see more, but it is a relatively small enclosure. I just wonder where the cheetahs went.