In the animal world, the hyena has been censured by more scandalous untruths than even the sloth. Among the four species of hyena, the largest, most widespread and most misconstrued of is the spotted hyena, Crocuta crocuta. With its scrappy fur, hunched back and wide, drooling grin, this so-called laughing hyena may not be the prettiest of animals. Here is an animal that looks and hunts like a dog but is in fact a souped-up member of the mongoose family and therefore more closely related to a cat.
Over the course of several editions of his tome, Systema Naturae , zoologist Carl Linnaeus classified the hyena first as a cat, then later as dog. He never got it right. Even more baffling than what kind of animal the hyena is, was the basic question of its gender. The rumor was rife in African folklore and debated by Aristotle.
But while modern science has identified more than 65, known cross-sexual species, the hyena is not one of them. The clitoris of female spotted hyenas extends almost eight inches, and it can even get an erection. To complete this trans-trickery, the female spotted hyena also appears to sport her very own pair of testicles: Her labia have fused to form a false scrotum and are filled with fatty-tissue swellings, which are quite understandably mistaken for male gonads. Paul A. Racey and Jennifer D.
Instead, she must urinate, copulate and give birth through her multi-tasking pseudo-penis. This last eye-watering feat is like squeezing a cantalope out of a hosepipe, and 10 percent of first-time hyena mothers die in the process. Up to 60 percent of cubs suffocate on their way out. Spotted hyenas are unlike all other mammals in that the females are significantly bigger than the males and much more aggressive.
Every hyena clan is a matriarchy ruled by an alpha female. Itinerant adult males rank last, reduced to submissive outcasts begging for acceptance, food and sex.
A frenzied scrum of hyenas can turn a pound adult zebra into a bloody stain on the grass in under 30 minutes. In a single feeding, an adult can gobble up to one-third of its body weight, or between 33 and 44 pounds of meat. Dominant females have another trick for giving their cubs an aggressive advantage. A recent study by Holekamp has shown that the more powerful the female, the more testosterone her fetuses are exposed to during the final stage of pregnancy.
And they already have the necessary weapons: Unlike most mammals, hyena cubs emerge with eyes open, muscles coordinated and teeth already pierced through their gums and eager to bite.
These belligerent newborns frequently fight to the death over dinner, and siblicide is commonplace. Unlike most animals, where the males duke it out and the winner gets the girl, in spotted hyena clans the females dictate the who, where and when of copulation.
This is pretty handy because, in addition to the dangers lurking in her precarious birth canal, a spotted hyena suffers a few other reproductive challenges. Details and order information at: www.
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