Hyenas
Just been reading through the current issue (6th October) of the South African Farmers weekly.
In the game section, there is an article entitled “Hyenas: man made predators”, which claims to be based on an article in the net based African Indaba Magazine, by Steve Pope.
I've not had a chance to read Pope's original yet, but have some serious issues with the FW article by Roelof Bezuidenhout.
The thesis of the article is that the left behind carcasses of hunted or culled animals, the un buried carcasses of dead farm animals and scraps or bait put out to attract predators for tourists, have lead to Hyena numbers increasing so rapidly that they are no longer a scavenger, but “by adopting the tactics of African wild dogs, they could now hunt for themselves and could drive a pride of lions off a fresh kill. Hyena cubs, raised in dens, were protected from lions, whereas the greater number of hyenas made it more difficult for lionesses to protect and feed their cubs”
It then goes on to blame the increase of hyena numbers for the decline in Lion, zebra and other game, and ends with:
“how long is it going to be before Logic prevails and effective conservation of Africa's true predators begins”...
“- but only if Hyenas are returned to their original scavenging role through controlled hunting or culling”
First I'll put in my one point of agreement: that leaving carrion around is not a good idea, however my thinking is based on the principle that I don't want predators to associate humans or livestock with food.
I disagree totally with the idea that a hyena was originally a scavenger. Yes it scavenges very efficiently, but:
Define a true scavenger and a true predator; simple, you can't. the roles overlap so much as to be meaningless. Apart from a few precarious specialist niches (such as an ant eater that's toothless jaws form a tube, limiting it to a diet of termites), most animals are opportunist.
The Shetland pony that we were bought as children and was such an evil little bastard that we soon lost interest, took to killing lambs and chewing off the parts it was able to.
Sea birds on the Farne islands off the Northumbrian coast, took to dive bombing the resident bunnies, because the bunnies had started eating chicks.
Take a look at humans for the ultimate in opportunism (we refer to our rival opportunists such as cockroaches, rats mice and foxes as vermin, I think that says something).
Now to the role of the hyena.
Our collective evidence prior to the 1950's is largely from the daytime observations of hunters and the traditional knowledge and mythology of their trackers and porters, some of whom came from cultures that traditionally put out their dead and dying for animals to take.
It is hardly surprising therefore that the hyena was dismissed as the taker of the dead and dying, or a lowly scavenger.
By contrast, the lion was regarded as the king of beasts, and yielded a much more impressive and macho trophy than a hyena's scruffy pelt.
This preconception appears to have continued into the writings of George and Joy Adamson and the writing and films of Armund & Michaella Dennis, and later.
None of this explained why a lowly scavenger should have such a massive cardiovascular system a pack social system, and jaws to rival or exceed those of any predator. true it doesn't have the retractable claws of most cats, but then neither does a cheeter.
It is only since the 1980's that starlight cameras have been used for research, and that appears to show hyenas accounting for a majority of kills, and the noble king of beasts as a bullying thief of carcasses.
To summarise my argument: prior to the 1980's we did not know what went on after lights out, we may have been mis attributing hyena kills to lions.
The hyena is fantastically equipped for life both as a predator (with amazing endurance) and as an opportunist scavenger, and so are lions.
Lion social structures are male dominated, and a new male taking over a pride will kill all the cubs that it can find, to bring the females into heat. The possibility of infanticide within the lion population reducing lion reproductive success does not appear in the reasoning presented in the FW article.
I do not think we have the evidence base to assign the role of predator or scavenger to either, they are both opportunists which are well capable of either role.
I don't think that the scant evidence put forward in the Farmers weekly article does the magazine, hyenas or conservation any favours.
Just as a sideline, spotted hyena social structures are female dominated (all males are subordinate to any female), and, like the spitting image portrayal of Margaret Thatcher, taking a leak standing up, a female spotted hyenas' clitoris forms an erectile tube, of similar size to a male's penis, which it urinates through! I don't know what else it gets up to with it after lights out.
In the game section, there is an article entitled “Hyenas: man made predators”, which claims to be based on an article in the net based African Indaba Magazine, by Steve Pope.
I've not had a chance to read Pope's original yet, but have some serious issues with the FW article by Roelof Bezuidenhout.
The thesis of the article is that the left behind carcasses of hunted or culled animals, the un buried carcasses of dead farm animals and scraps or bait put out to attract predators for tourists, have lead to Hyena numbers increasing so rapidly that they are no longer a scavenger, but “by adopting the tactics of African wild dogs, they could now hunt for themselves and could drive a pride of lions off a fresh kill. Hyena cubs, raised in dens, were protected from lions, whereas the greater number of hyenas made it more difficult for lionesses to protect and feed their cubs”
It then goes on to blame the increase of hyena numbers for the decline in Lion, zebra and other game, and ends with:
“how long is it going to be before Logic prevails and effective conservation of Africa's true predators begins”...
“- but only if Hyenas are returned to their original scavenging role through controlled hunting or culling”
First I'll put in my one point of agreement: that leaving carrion around is not a good idea, however my thinking is based on the principle that I don't want predators to associate humans or livestock with food.
I disagree totally with the idea that a hyena was originally a scavenger. Yes it scavenges very efficiently, but:
Define a true scavenger and a true predator; simple, you can't. the roles overlap so much as to be meaningless. Apart from a few precarious specialist niches (such as an ant eater that's toothless jaws form a tube, limiting it to a diet of termites), most animals are opportunist.
The Shetland pony that we were bought as children and was such an evil little bastard that we soon lost interest, took to killing lambs and chewing off the parts it was able to.
Sea birds on the Farne islands off the Northumbrian coast, took to dive bombing the resident bunnies, because the bunnies had started eating chicks.
Take a look at humans for the ultimate in opportunism (we refer to our rival opportunists such as cockroaches, rats mice and foxes as vermin, I think that says something).
Now to the role of the hyena.
Our collective evidence prior to the 1950's is largely from the daytime observations of hunters and the traditional knowledge and mythology of their trackers and porters, some of whom came from cultures that traditionally put out their dead and dying for animals to take.
It is hardly surprising therefore that the hyena was dismissed as the taker of the dead and dying, or a lowly scavenger.
By contrast, the lion was regarded as the king of beasts, and yielded a much more impressive and macho trophy than a hyena's scruffy pelt.
This preconception appears to have continued into the writings of George and Joy Adamson and the writing and films of Armund & Michaella Dennis, and later.
None of this explained why a lowly scavenger should have such a massive cardiovascular system a pack social system, and jaws to rival or exceed those of any predator. true it doesn't have the retractable claws of most cats, but then neither does a cheeter.
It is only since the 1980's that starlight cameras have been used for research, and that appears to show hyenas accounting for a majority of kills, and the noble king of beasts as a bullying thief of carcasses.
To summarise my argument: prior to the 1980's we did not know what went on after lights out, we may have been mis attributing hyena kills to lions.
The hyena is fantastically equipped for life both as a predator (with amazing endurance) and as an opportunist scavenger, and so are lions.
Lion social structures are male dominated, and a new male taking over a pride will kill all the cubs that it can find, to bring the females into heat. The possibility of infanticide within the lion population reducing lion reproductive success does not appear in the reasoning presented in the FW article.
I do not think we have the evidence base to assign the role of predator or scavenger to either, they are both opportunists which are well capable of either role.
I don't think that the scant evidence put forward in the Farmers weekly article does the magazine, hyenas or conservation any favours.
Just as a sideline, spotted hyena social structures are female dominated (all males are subordinate to any female), and, like the spitting image portrayal of Margaret Thatcher, taking a leak standing up, a female spotted hyenas' clitoris forms an erectile tube, of similar size to a male's penis, which it urinates through! I don't know what else it gets up to with it after lights out.
posted by Keith at 2:08 p.m.
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