Nature
PUBLISHED
If you’re a hungry hyena, you need to be prepared.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.Hyenas are widely regarded as solitary, scavenger animals, though they actually primarily hunt together as packs. When food is scarce, hunting and scavenging with smart tactics can reap great rewards for a pack, as the video below from New Scientist shows.
Proving that there are safety and sustenance in numbers, these hyenas speedily fend off a pair of dining lions to enjoy a tasty meal.
Nora Lewin and her colleagues from Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, observed this communal behavior at the Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya. Presenting their research at the annual meeting of the Animal Behavior Society in Anchorage, Alaska, they are now looking into how hyenas “talk” to each other and how they decide when to challenge a bigger animal and when to retreat.
[H/T: New Scientist]
