BUSINESS WORLD METAPHORS IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM

HYENAS: Why are we talking about ‘hyenas’? Well it has been put to Zebra Australia that Hyenas behave somewhat like some of the builders etc. that the growing Zebra Community/Network is confronting. Do any of the observations below sound any alarms for you?

Hyenas forms social groups called clans and the males disperse upon reaching sexual maturity. Hyena clans may be made up of 3 to 80 members. Larger clans generally occur in prime territory with large prey concentrations – how are we going so far.

Once a Hyena joins a clan, it enters a dominance queue that others respect. As more enter the queue and older ones die off, a Hyena simply moves up through the social ranks – are you still with us.

Hyenas spend a long time developing relationships with others in the clan. They follow various individuals for days or even weeks and eventually gain favor through this behavior. Although Hyenas live in clans, the members of a clan are only observed all together in three circumstances:

• At kills,
• When defending the territory, and
• At a communal den.

Does this set of behaviors sound at all familiar?

Most often, Hyenas forage alone or in small groups. Higher ranking animals have been shown to associate more with kin than low ranking scavengers. This behavior is beneficial because when they forage together and engage in coalitionary attacks against unrelated Hyenas when competing for food at a kill. Thus, Hyenas who associate with their kin are able to gather larger amounts of food more efficiently. Does this sound familiar?

In addition to allowing individual ‘groupings’ to defend rank and status, close associations with kin allows some of these kin groups to displace higher ranking individuals, and groupings, under certain conditions.

Also, low ranking Hyenas preferentially associate with higher ranking animals. It is hypothesized that these low ranking individuals receive benefits from the high ranking animals through reciprocal cooperation. Does this sound like anything you already know about?

Hyenas have a reputation for being mostly scavengers but this is not so. Studies have found that 70 % of a Hyena’s diet are direct kills. Typically, clans split up into hunting groups of 2 to 5 individuals, albeit that Zebras are hunted in much larger groups but overall Hyenas prey on a rather large range of species (people?). How does this match your experience?

In one study some Hyena ‘clans’ were found to prey on very large animals. In addition, Hyenas have been known to prey on the very young in these large species animal groupings. Hyenas uses their keen senses of sight, hearing and smell to hunt live prey and to detect carrion from afar and they often chase their prey long distances and at high speed. Does this sound familiar?

Hyena clans typically go on hunting trips to the nearest concentrations of prey. The average round trip for these trips is about 80 km and individual hyenas typically make 40 to 50 trips per year for a total of 2800 to 3600 km per year. It is also of interest to note that Hyenas are ‘attended’ by a relatively broad spectrum of carrion eaters – vultures, buzzards, wild dogs, foxes, jackals. Are you still with us?

Zebra Australia is not driven by zoology but hey this stuff seems to ring awfully true, and by the minute, when the growing ‘victim list’ is filed and collated. BUT hey, here some new fact to think about. American scientists wanted to see if zebras were white with black stripes or the opposite. They had moved with the genetic combination of some animals and had finished cleaning the dark spots. So, everything indicates, Zebras are white. The black color comes superficially.

You see, the stripes are unique and distinguish each animal from the other, and at night, they confuse the predators joining bands of light and shade– the mystery is unmasked.

NOW, other than man, which animal laughs? Monkeys, mainly the chimpanzees, use face expressions that can be compared with the human laugh. But the objective is to demonstrate tranquility – not joy. However, the ‘laugh’ attributed to Hyenas is not quite 'a smile' and its absolutely nothing to do with friendship – it is all about intimidation at one level or another.