Must Be Evil Cause It's Different - Spotted Hyena

Masai Mara National Reserve

Unfamiliarity is associated with risk by all. Risk is associated to possible danger similarly. So if something encompasses those things, the minds of all animals will throw up caution for self preservation. Then it’s flight or fight. So if I met an unfamiliar creature, my mind in no time assesses if I can take on the danger and my gut instinct is to either squash that bug or run from that bear. Now, add to that, if that creature’s ways of doing things differ drastically from what I have grown accustomed to, my mind will see it as an ungodly abomination that is against everything I stand for. Well, that’s not just a human reaction; even your pet reacts that way. Every creature reacts that way. It’s basic self preservation that has been programmed into us all genetically. Animals go to conflict because of “differences” in appearance, politics, resources and for food all the time. It’s just the scale and scope that change.

Now, talking monkeys are animals all the same no matter how much they consider themselves different. Unless it’s using its liver for a spleen, it’s an animal as far as I’m concerned. I just wonder when all of us will see that the reason for us finding “evil” in a “different” system or person is only just that we are reacting to how we are hard wired to assess “differences”.

So, if it’s firstly uncommon, ugly by our standards, ingests things we’d never, lives differently, loves differently, is unlike anything in our vicinity what does that make it? Generally it’s an easy target for the role of villain for the guys over at Disney and specifically, The Spotted Hyena. So easy to be scared of and hate. Cause, “it’s different” and it’s easiest to hate different.

Hyenas are very “different”. That’s why they have their own species called Hyaenidae. Their placentas contain a testosterone-producing enzyme, which means that fetuses are bathed in male hormones for most of their development. Female spotted hyenas are larger and heavier than the males. It’s the females that lead the pack. For the longest time, we thought that they were hermaphrodites because the females have a pseudopenis which is an elongated clitoris. The labia fuse, to form a pseudoscrotum. Females have to retract the pseudopenis to have heterosexual sex giving her, full control on sexual activity.

We now know that Spotted Hyena society is the most social of all carnivores. They live competitively and not co-operatively, with feeding and mating rights being won over with force. Young females in Spotted Hyena society have to network and develop complex relationships within the clan. The males on the other hand start disconnecting from social interactions as they drift to other clans to mate, thus becoming lowest ranked individuals there. It makes sense for the males to be following stricter rules to stay alive as they move between clans.

Hyenas have been said to be scavengers forever but in actuality, they are more successful at hunting than lions. Lions scavenge all the time too. It’s just that Hyenas are better as that as well. Their sense of smell and willingness and capability to eat any part of a carcass had us confused for the longest time. Hyenas have stronger bite force and will chew down even bone and a clan will leave nothing to waste behind by the time they’re done. They eat so much bone that their feces is often chalky white. Interestingly, the most successful hunters in Africa are actually the wild dogs. They almost never miss.

It’s taken us all this time to understand the Spotted Hyena because it evolved differently and does what seems unconceivable to us. But this journey of understanding the Spotted Hyena is also a journey of understanding ourselves. Why we did what we did instinctively or on suggestion while trying to understand it, is just as important as why it does what it do. The writing is on the wall. Mother Nature has shown us our nature yet again. Sadly, most of us won’t pay it any heed till the stakes keep piling up and Mother is forced to change the rules because of our actions.