The spotted hyena from Aristotle to the Lion King: reputation is everything - In the Company of Animals

As several distinguished authors of the present age have undertaken to reconcile the world to the Great Man-Killer of Modern times; as Aaron Burr has found an apologist, and almost a eulogist; and as learned commentators have recently discovered that even Judas Iscariot was a true disciple, we are rather surprised to find that some one has not undertaken to render the family of Hyenas popular and amiable in the eyes of mankind. Certain it is, that few marked characters in history have suffered more from the malign inventions of prejudice (Goodrich and Winchell, 1885, p. 283).

Hyenas: To Know Them as to Love Them

THE situation that Goodrich and Winchell described in 1885 did not improve during the next century. Hyenas have a terrible reputation in Western culture. However, scientists who study these animals at close range have a different view. Hans Kruuk (1972), whose field studies of the 1960s completely changed our understanding of the life of the spotted hyena, has written:

. . . there is a magic about hyaenas which can only be understood by those of us who have watched them, for some time. There is now a growing band of us, who came to the African bush with all our prejudices, with all that 'common knowledge' about hyaenas which proved so totally wrong, and who just fell for the spell of animals which were so totally different" (Kruuk, 1990, p. xiii).

This chapter had its origins in an effort to understand this discrepancy: why. she positive attitudes and feelings about hyenas, held by the scientists who knew them best, were so at odds with the general culture? This, in turn, led to other questions. First, what are the essential elements of the hyena reputation in contemporary Anglo-American culture? Second, has that reputation changed across time or from one cultural setting to the next? And, finally, how do reputations relate to biological realities?

The family Hyenidae contains four extant species: striped hyenas (Hyaena hyaena), brown hyenas (Parahyaena brunnea), spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta), and a small, termite-eating animal, the aardwolf (Proteles cristatus). As we shall see, the public image of hyenas has largely been created on the basis of real, exaggerated, or imagined traits of striped and spotted hyenas. It is the latter species, the "laughing hyena" of popular lore, which forms a primary focus of this article, although we shall also be drawn to its somewhat smaller relative, the striped hyena.

By virtue of their size and abundance, spotted hyenas are among the most significant predators on the African Savannah.(1) In terms of tonnage of meat consumed, they are, perhaps, the most significant terrestrial carnivore on the planet. Often living in large female-dominated social groups, or "clans," they display intriguing behavioral complexities that parallel those of many venerated old-world primates. Every adult female spotted hyena breeds and the clan is organized in terms of subgroups of mothers, daughters, and their offspring. Long-lasting dominance hierarchies exist among these clan families. Adult males appear in the group as immigrants from other clans. They are totally subservient to the resident females and their older offspring. Spotted hyenas defend their kills against much larger marauding lions and their hunting territories against other clans. They are remarkable animals. However, spotted hyenas, or their immediate relatives, the brown and striped hyenas, are rarely found in zoological parks in this country, despite a self-conscious shift among contemporary zoos from functioning as entertainment parks to institutions dedicated to public education and preservation of endangered species. According to one recent count, spotted hyenas were to be found in but 11 of 164 North American zoological parks.(2) One major American zoo that I visited several years ago had Asiatic tigers housed within the boundries of an African savannah exhibit but no spotted hyenas.

I believe that this serious miscarraige of biological justice can be traced to the poor public reputation of the hyena. There are no "save-the-hyenas" committees, and their persistent public relations problems could have very serious consequences for the preservation of hyena habitats and the long-term prospects for these species. This has been an issue of concern to the scientists who study these animals. Mills concludes his monograph: "If this book has helped in any way to convince people that hyaenas are worth conserving, not only because of their intrinsic value, but because of their beauty and fascinating behaviour, it will have been worth the many hours of toil that it has taken me to try to convert the wonderful experiences of watching them, into some sort of coherent and scientifically meaningful form" (Mills, 1990, p. 273).

We may begin with a brief survey of the portrayal of hyenas in twentieth-century American culture and then consider the shaping of the hyena image over a span of several thousand years, contrasting European views with those of contemporary Africans. Along the way, I will occasionally digress to compare views of the hyena with those of other animals, particularly the lion. It is one of the great ironies of spotted hyena existence that, over a span of several million years, they have held their own in direct competition with lions, only to lose (what may be their most critical battle) in the court of public esteem.