Hyenas: Why the laughing predator is more than meets the eye

On the contrary, there is more to these amazing wild beasts than what first appears.

Tanzania is fortunate to host four distinct species of hyenas, each contributing uniquely to the rich biodiversity of the country’s ecosystem.

The spotted hyenas are the most common and widely seen in Serengeti National Park and the Ngorongoro Crater.

The brown hyena is difficult to find as they like roaming at night, largely nocturnal, but in Tanzania a small population of them can be found in the southwestern regions.

Like the elusive brown hyenas, striped hyenas inhabit rocky regions, primarily in the northern and eastern parts of Tanzania.

In Serengeti National Park, one can find the rarest of Tanzania's hyena species—the aardwolf.

The smallest of the hyena family, the aardwolf stands apart from its more formidable cousins, as it is an insectivore, primarily feeding on termites.

Aardwolves are well-adapted to nocturnal life, with large, rounded ears that enhance their hearing, allowing them to detect both prey and potential predators with ease.

Their eyes are also specially adapted to see clearly in low-light conditions.

In many African folktales passed down through generations, particularly in Tanzania's Manyara and Singida regions, it is commonly believed that hyenas are controlled and ridden by witches.

In Ivory Coast, the Beng tribe considers hyena dung an omen of death. Although none of these superstitions have been substantiated, they have nonetheless contributed to the enduring mistrust and aversion toward these carnivores.

In villages surrounding the national parks, hyenas are often depicted as nocturnal scavengers, sneaking into the darkness to steal livestock from local communities.

While villages would praise the majestic lions and the bravery of the savannah's kings, the hyena, especially the spotted variety, was often spoken of with disdain, associated with cowardice and evil. The conflict between humans and hyenas is longstanding, as is the enmity that has fuelled it.

One of the most despised behaviours of hyenas is their laughter.

However, what human observers interpret as laughter is actually a range of vocalisations that serve critical purposes for the hyena’s survival in the wild.

For instance, a newborn cub makes a sound known as a "squitter" to communicate with its mother, alerting her when it needs to breastfeed or seek her attention.

As they grow older, these highly intelligent creatures use their vocalisations to communicate with other hyenas, signalling the presence of imminent danger and alerting the clan to be on guard.

The sound they make known as a ‘giggle’ that is attributed to the term ‘laughing hyena’ is very crucial; it is used to communicate distress mainly when their arch-rival lions are closing in or when they are fighting over a kill.

Their vocalisations also express excitement, announce the presence of food, and summon other clan members to join in the feast.

As a highly social species, these sounds can serve as calls for help as well as a way to assert dominance within their territory.

Contrary to the popular perception of hyenas as thieving, disordered creatures, these animals have a well-organised clan structure led by a matriarch.

The clan typically consists of 20 to 80 hyenas, who work together during hunts and socialise as they raise their cubs.

The female-led clan is ruled in a strict chain of command and punishment is served to whoever challenges the matriarch.

Hyenas do have inheritance; the first daughter of the alpha female gets to inherit the clan, and all the males have to be submissive to her.

To test their submissiveness, the matriarch would bite and fight the males, who were supposed to remain calm and show they were ready to serve the queen obediently.

Each hyena has a distinct sound that other members would quickly recognise, and if an intruder is spotted, the whole clan would attack to protect its territory.

Hyena's bite is among the strongest of animals, rivalling that of a lion or a tiger compared to its size.

Needless to say, these vicious animals are predators and more than 95 percent of their meals come from their own kills and not lion leftovers, as presumed.

These nocturnal animals not only adapt to the darkness but also during food scarcity, their strong teeth can extract minerals even from old bones, and they can easily costume and digest rotten meat.

Their digestive system can handle even full-size bones, something that other carnivorous animals cannot.

This is one of the key traits that makes hyenas vital to the ecosystem: they help clean up carcasses left behind by other predators.

Additionally, when hyenas make a kill too large to consume immediately, they are known to preserve it by submerging it in floodwaters, ensuring a future food source.

One aspect that has long captivated ethologists is the hyena's unique reproduction process.

Giving birth is often a traumatic experience for the mothers, especially the first-time ones.

The hyena's narrow birth canal is long and pseudo-penis-like, a distinctive feature of their reproductive anatomy.

The cub, born relatively large, must pass through this narrow passage headfirst, requiring an extraordinary effort from the mother to deliver her offspring.

The birthing process is lengthy and risky, with many cubs not surviving the birth or being born with birth defects.

Due to the unique structure and placement of their female reproductive organs, hyenas are among the very few wild animals that do not have male-to-female forced sex.

Once a hyena is born, they have a relatively long life span of 20–30 years in the wilderness, while their arch-rivals lions live for 10–14 years.

Hyena’s long life is attributed to its ability to adapt to its environment and its ease of finding food in the savanna or desert.

Their communal way of life is also a factor, the clan is territorial and would bravely face a pack of lions to protect their territory or fight for a kill.

Though these animals are always seen walking, laughing, or waiting for their turn impatiently as lions feast on a kill, hyenas are fast runners and can run up to 60 kilometres per hour and can travel a long distance of more than 50 kilometres in one night in search of food.

Hyenas are resilient animals raised to be self-reliant and competitive from an early age.

The matriarch allows sibling rivalry, with cubs fighting each other for the mother’s milk and food.

In these play fights, the weaker cubs are often outcompeted, many not surviving.

Those that do grow up strong within the clan, with the female cub eventually rising to become the alpha female and matriarch of the hyena clan.

This cycle of life reinforces the strength and resilience of hyenas, one of the most misunderstood animals in Tanzania.