Hyenas - The Whole Story 7/13 - Go Wild

so [Music] hello [Music] [Music] oh [Music] this is africa's second largest land carnivore it's probably the most feared and fearless of its scavengers and the best known the hyena [Music] this spotted predator is most famous for its spooky calls and manic cackles it's the animal that's been linked for centuries with africa's witches and wizards a cruncher of bones not quite dog not quite cat it's africa's arch opportunist there was once a time when food was scarce all the animals gathered anxiously together they didn't know what to do [Music] so they decided to ask their king the lion the lion said that guy of the great sky was punishing them for ingratitude if they thanked him before each meal they'd have food in plenty but hyena scoffed at this on his way home he saw an impala his mouth watered ignoring the king's words he pursued it without a thought fungi when guys saw he made the impalas swift and strong she raced ahead of incident hyena led him on a wild goose chase until he was quite worn out [Music] king lyon was furious at hyena's stupidity but that made no difference to hyena he hunted on regardless and in the morning ravenous and exhausted he was forced to rest on looking round he noticed that all the animals who remembered to thank ngai grew fatter and fatter the zebra certainly did and the buffalo and all the antelopes small and large but he just grew hungrier and leaner with every day perhaps he thought he should do like them thank guy so now when you hear hyena call in the night you know he's thanking guy before he has his meal the spotted hyena of that story is the animal everyone knows but there are others the brown hyena resembles a long-haired rug on four legs it has the hyenas typically dog-like face and its sense of smell and hearing are also as well developed as a dog's its main is like a bushy collar the brown hyena can fluff it out aggressively make itself look almost twice as big as it really is it can do the same with its shaggy coat like the rest of its family the brown hyena has a short thick bushy tail it can also fan out it's an expressive part of its anatomy the shyest family member is the rare artwolf twice the size of a fox a strange carnivore which eats nothing but termites its long pink tongue can lap up a quarter of a million a night even though termites are soft and squishy the artwolf still has typical hyena canines and a typical strong hyena stomach which easily neutralizes the chemicals in its prey ears like radar dishes pick up the minute noises termites make ones completely inaudible to humans just like its prey an artwolf lives underground the spotted hyena is anything but a loner it's clannish noisy and outgoing an adult can weigh as much as a grown man and stand nearly a meter at the shoulder spotted hyenas are built at an angle with sloping shoulders and low slung hindquarters their wide skulls anchor super strong throat and jaw muscles which power one of the world's mightiest bites it has a phenomenal crushing pressure of 800 kilos per square centimeter a hyena's spottiness is its id tag every animal's pattern is different unique as a human fingerprint but harder to define since spots fade with age a hunter scavenger's life has given the hyena acute senses so keen they can tell something's wrong with an animal that looks fine to us this yearling senses are still being honed it's thick shaggy coat too that will thin out and get shorter as it gets older a young cubs furry uniform is almost black only a few weeks old yet already getting into the swing of adult life early learning includes knowing how to behave around adults and how to tell which is which their mother like all females has a remarkable external sex organ that resembles a male's a hyena has such acute senses it can pinpoint disturbance in a distant wildebeest heard one a human couldn't even see let alone here satellite dish ears that may help heat loss can capture distant hyena coals well outside the human range and here are the weapons of an expert killer and scavenger the teeth that can split an elephant's bones and rip skin and flesh like silk as they evolved hyena front legs grew longer and longer to be able to eat up the miles at a steady lope a thick bushy tail is a vital part of the vocabulary of body language put to daily use especially at meal times uh hyenas are great opportunists they often shadow other meat eaters to steal a kill or wait for scraps panic in the ranks but the hyenas not to [Music] blame and now the hyena starts to tail the leopard for even a leopard can be scared into dropping its kill but not this time all is not lost pieces of meat may yet fall down it's worth a stakeout under the tree [Music] after dark the leopard sleeps off its meal the hyena has not given up though a successful stakeout takes time and patience a hungry colleague has doubled the watch but there's not a scrap left the leopards eaten the lot time to shadow another killer or kill for itself a hyena scavenges some 40 of its food but kills more than its scavengers here is a hyena's worst nightmare male lions are the most dangerous yet they provide a hyena with many a meal the lions are being unusually tolerant normally they'd react aggressively they may be too full to move [Music] but their proximity makes the hyenas edgy they will gobble their food even faster than usual [Music] there's plenty of meat left and bones good hyena food yet crunching bones does nothing for a hyena's teeth in the long term at just three years old they'll be as worn as a lion's twice its age spotted hyenas seem to have cast iron stomachs they can process meat bone hoof horn and hide hair they usually throw back up again its nutritional value is virtually nil if anything could get blood from a stone a hyena could its acid bath stomach can squeeze nutrients from anything fresh or rotten even a dried up long dead corpse [Music] this female has eaten well but she's taken away a snack for later she's suckling young and needs maximum energy intake to make milk she's not about to hand her loot to some scrawny bird they can dive bomb all they like she won't be scared off [Music] but then for no apparent reason she does abandon it thirst has got the better of her and of course goodbye loot that's life in a world of opportunists win some lose some sometimes hyena enemy number one is the loser a solitary lioness doesn't have the brawn to defend her kill against the clan to state ownership of the kill she marks the ground at a safe distance however this is a total waste of time they hardly even look at her some hyenas are off to chew their buffalo joints in private one has selected a particularly large [Music] takeaway it looks as if he wants to wash it down with a drink but in fact hyenas sometimes do this if they want to save a piece for later stashing a large trophy underwater is an effective way of hiding it though he may be pressing his luck with wild dogs for an audience hyenas are speed eaters together a clan makes short work of a whole carcass 20 hyenas can eat a young wildebeest heavier than a man in 10 minutes flat 30 can demolish a zebra three times that weight in fifteen hyenas are prepared to share a large carcass with other scavengers but not morsels few animals would bother touching [Music] the lioness is still skirting the action if she could just pick off her thieving enemies one by one but no sooner has one made itself scarce then another pops up to take its place and all the while her kill is steadily being whittled away she takes out her frustration on an easier target here's a chance to cater for more than one need the lioness watches her kill melt away like snow in the sun there is still too many for her to take on what can't be eaten on the spot can easily be trucked away by a weight lifter that can tackle parts other animals won't touch even old bones [Music] spotted hyenas are clan animals a clan may have as few as five or as many as 80 members though not all 80 are together at the same time its structure is most unusual it's dominated by the females one of whom rules the roost but all of whom rank higher than all the males at play time barriers of rank may be lowered unless obviously lactating or pregnant it can be hard to tell which is male and which is female partly because they're much the same size but also because females have a clitoris so long it looks just like a penis could this cross-dressing possibly be confusing to the hyenas if it is a quick sniff of the genitals provides an instant answer and it's the safer end to check out the other has teeth this is how hyenas assess rank and how they cement their clan bond lengthy sniffing sessions follow each hunt or separation but one hyena unsure who the other is might face it first with fangs female spotted hyenas can pay a high price for ruling the roost and for their strange sexual apparatus this pregnant female is burdened by her internal cargo of perhaps two cubs it's almost time for their birth and this is where her masculinity may be her downfall most babies have a relatively smooth passage into the world not hyena cubs because their mother has no vaginal opening for them to slip through instead the base of her clitoris tears and they emerge through a gaping wound if they first manage to get around the 90 degree bend in her birth canal giving birth can be fatal for both this mother has survived her ordeal she and her cubs are flourishing she's off to eat to top up her milk tanks in some parts of africa hyena mothers give birth in private in others they use a communal den but once they're a few weeks old cubs everywhere live in the same communal den on open grass plains a cub is visible to enemies the moment it pokes its head out of doors so it's good to have adult bodyguards checking in from time to time [Music] hyenas look after their young and appear to have strong bonds of affection it hardly fits the usual view of this animal males do their share of caring as well it may be polite to bob and bow in hyena society too although this is how cubs show excitement and playfulness there could be a touch of nervousness to this bobbing head the cub wants to get past to its mother and milk her milk is incredibly rich a cub can last on it a week if she's off finding food and if they live in the serengeti she may trek well over three thousand kilometers a year to do that all those bones she's eaten load her milk with calcium it has more proteins than the milk of any other land carnivore and is full of fats and nutrients her cubs may suckle for up to 18 months that's a long time all in all she invests an enormous amount of energy in her young more than almost any other carnival a female is gentle with her cubs but can be very aggressive to adults all that testosterone in the system perhaps amazingly the lead female has levels close to those of a male so she can easily dominate the clan and claim the privileges of her rank like taking the lion's share of a kill that helps her milk production and therefore her cubs her cubs are privileged too by birth they're higher up the ladder than other females cubs higher even than some adults bonds between mother and daughters last for life as daughters stay in the clan but sons have to go and find a life elsewhere time to do some housework sweep out the communal den but there's plenty of time off to just sit around and relax until the cubs are old enough to get their own food it's still someone else's problem to keep it coming when several females are lactating at the same time there may be intense infighting over food as their testosterone levels have risen over time females have turned increasingly aggressive this has led inexorably to their dominating the group to their male mimic genitalia and their difficulties giving birth so spotted hyena females may be in a class of their own in the animal world this cub was born in a highly unusual and unorthodox manner it's probably lucky to have reached the outside world at all female bat-eared foxes like most female animals everywhere don't experience a spotted hyenas birthing traumas it suggests female hyena genitalia have acquired their unusual shape relatively recently in evolutionary terms maybe in the distant future females will be even more male than the males and for a cub entering the world will be even more challenging in the meantime these clan members have only one short-term problem keeping a cool bottom many people think hyenas are related to dogs they might look a little like them but they're rather closer to cats along with janet's and sivids they and the cats branched off from a larger carnivore family [Music] that split happened about 55 million years ago like hyenas janet still share some of their characteristics with their distant cat cousins [Music] as if they couldn't decide which way to jump the early hyenas lived in hunting packs and behaved more like dogs those first hyenas filled the niche that jackals and wild dogs filled today and they were hunters not scavengers some of the smaller early hyenas were physically like modern jackals they probably had a similar lifestyle and went round in pairs not in groups like hyenas today [Music] wild dogs are often thought to be part of the hyena family they're not they're percent dog in those early times big cats were numerous their killing fields were littered with the uneaten bones of their prey this left a gap for something that could eat bones it's believed hyenas evolved to fill the niche [Music] [Music] 38 thousand spotted hyenas inhabit africa's wild places the greatest population is in the serengeti ecosystem part of this is the ngorogoro crater a long dead volcano that holds vast herds of grazing animals in its lush green bowl [Music] the hyenas that live off them form the largest groups of carnivores anywhere in the world here there's so much food females raise bigger litters than outside the crater's rim spotted hyenas can live in almost any african habitat except rain forests but the crater is the best even with intense competition from an army of other carnivores and other hyenas a dead elephant it may have died of natural causes now it's scavenger food enough for an entire hyena clan one of the many food perks enjoyed by crater hyenas by contrast namibia wouldn't seem to offer many perks it looks empty definitely an animal-free zone and though life in namibia's etosha can be challenging in the extreme there are precious water holes and animals here a hyena can slake its thirst fill its stomach so can something as large as a giraffe in the heat of midday life slows right down a little drink a little necking general relaxation all round the predators are not in hunting mode for of course there are predators when they're open for business lions mean trouble all round it pays a hyena to be alert [Applause] both these hyenas are aware of how close their enemy is this one's had enough she seems to sense impending trouble she's off [Music] the other hyena is hot and thirsty enough to risk a quick dip but this is a possible hot spot right in the line of fire living near lions is always a juggling act for hyenas the danger factor may outweigh the benefit of free meals no danger this time the lion drew a blank not a free meal in sight for any hyena sunrise in the matusa donna in zimbabwe and the elephants are on the move [Music] the hyenas are on the move too returning from a night's hunt some well-fed lions prepare to shut down for the day [Music] no tension in this encounter it's a temporary dawn truce [Music] this part of zimbabwe is rich in wildlife of all kinds it's a great place for a hyena to set up home raise a family a good home is good for years this cub has probably inherited its great great grandmother's den which has an interesting view of the local waterhole it's a fine place to watch the neighbors see what they get up to who might or might not be edible for future reference but even the best home is evacuated from time to time hyenas regularly up sticks and go mostly for security reasons but also because the booming bug population bites too much for comfort distinctive hyena calls fill the dying african night [Music] oh in the early light a solitary hyena whoops to its distant clan [Music] a whoop can carry seven kilometers like a shout reaching from the top of the empire state building further than central park clan members squeal as they squabble a squeal is one of a range of 14 different hyena calls hyena body language is also distinctive stuff when meeting friend or relative a hyena presents its backside ritual sniffing of genitalia is an important clan ceremony a way of sharing a bond and it seems to excite and arouse to roll over and put vulnerable zones within easy biting range signals submission and a degree of trust perhaps there's no lower age limit to the ceremony just four weeks old and tucking their tails under submissively as dogs do [Music] a hyena's tail is very vocal depending on how it's held a ray's tale speaks of dominance and aggression it's the same language a dog's tale speaks the strange slightly manic giggling at greeting ceremonies is a signal of submission and when a high-ranking hyena yawns and shows its weaponry it's indicating superiority every hyena produces a strong smelling paste in a well-developed anal gland it turns this gland inside out and smears a distinctive scent trail on grasses this rings a territory with an unmistakable odor even heavy rain won't wash away all trace of pundant scent the sent message may be underlined by paul marking every single clan member respects the pecking order especially at meal times fresh from a mud bath this hyena is careful to observe the proper rituals please around even a well-chewed and ancient corpse high rank takes precedence here the full range of hyena communication skills may be deployed this female has decided to monopolize the skeleton she's elbowed out the rest but that's merely left the door open for other competitors it was easier to get the message across to her own kind who after all speak her language the hyenas strange slouch comes of having longer front legs than back and a sloping spine this makes it the marathon runner of the animal world prey animals that don't put on a good burst of speed when the chase starts will never outrun it over distance that casual lope is very deceptive marathon runner can keep it up for miles and for hours even water won't stop it once it's got the wind up it can counter like this until its prey is exhausted but this is the one that got away lechoes are more at home in water than hyenas are not that a hyena exactly feels out of place here the spotted hyenas of botswana's ocavango have proved that their species can take to water with ease one solitary male lion one carcass several hyenas equals a tense situation hyenas have the numbers but the lion the size fangs stripping a zebra skull could easily strip a hyenas so why don't they leave because they have been the victims of theft it's their kill in the lion's jaws lions steal more often from hyenas than the reverse [Music] they might possibly be considering a counter-attack but not for long and here's what can easily happen when a hyena gets it wrong a salutary lesson for others don't run risks with the chief foe [Music] a solitary hyena carrying food can invite trouble a pack of wild dogs has picked up the scent of meat [Music] a hyena is about twice as large as a wild dog and much stronger on a one-to-one basis it wins hands down but now it has the odds against it it's right to look over its shoulder this united front is strong and dangerous [Music] every dog has his day and this is not the hyenas today the tables were turned usually hyenas hound dogs and steal their food and dogs almost always avoid them ruthless monster or yet another misunderstood carnivore that's had a bad press perhaps a hyena's only fault is to have a face and habits not everyone likes like everything else hyenas are just trying to make a living if they're linked with the supernatural maybe it's because they're out at night whooping it up with eerie spine tingling cackles but africa without this familiar animal we seem to love to hate would not be the same i am i am [Music] i [Music] i am thank you

Channel: Go Wild

Views: 724,815

Keywords: orf universum, documentary, blue chip, natural history, secrets of nature, planet earth, natura, naturaleza, documentales, wildlife, grandes documentales

Id: JXJ9HtoPD50

Length: 51min 3sec (3063 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 15 2020