Hyaenidae

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in biology, Hyaenidae (Alias:Hyenas or Hyaenas) It is the collective name for the hyenas of the order Carnivora. The appearance of a hyena is like a dog, with a shorter and rounder head than a dog's head, a big head, a thick skull, a long head and a short snout; large and round ears, a short tail, long front legs, short hind legs, and brown or tan hair. There are many irregular dark brown spots; each of its limbs has 4 toes, with large claws that cannot be retracted; the tail hair is very long, and the body hair is sparse and rough, with spots or stripes; the canine teeth and cleft teeth are well developed and the bite force is strong, making it the only animal that can chew. Bone-eating mammals . The hyena family, together with the cat family and the civet family, is a cat-shaped carnivore, and its image is similar to a dog, so it is named hyena .

Hyenas are distributed in Africa and southern Asia , and mostly grow in tropical or subtropical areas. Hyenas have very keen senses, especially smell and hearing. Their large ears pick up many high-frequency sounds and are very sensitive to many ultrasonic waves. Hyenas usually hunt large and medium-sized herbivores such as gazelles, zebras, and wildebeests in groups. They can even kill huge African buffaloes, and sometimes they also pick up dead animals . The gestation period of hyenas is about 84 days, they give birth to 2 to 4 pups per litter, and their life span is about 12 years .

In India, hyena oil is believed to cure rheumatism and reduce swelling of the tongue; in Africa, it is believed that eating hyena can increase courage . Hyenas sweep up the remaining meat, bones, skins, etc. from other beasts, clear away the rotting corpses on the grassland, and keep the grassland clean, so some people call hyenas "prairie scavengers" .

The main trunk of evolution is in the Palearctic and Africa. In the middle Miocene, there was an early specialized hyena species; in the late Miocene, hyenas flourished; in the Neocene, extant genera appeared, and one of the leopard hyenas entered North America through the Bering Land Bridge.

New hyena fossils from Periya more than 4 million years ago have been discovered in the Zanda Basin in the Ngari region of Tibet, China. After years of fossil research, experts said that this discovery is the first appearance of a large bone-crushing hyena on the Tibetan Plateau, and is of great significance for studying the origin, diversity and paleogeographic distribution of hyenas.

Hyaenidae are a group of carnivores that look like dogs and are medium to large in size. Among them, hyenas have stronger upper and lower jaws and sharper teeth than dogs, and can easily crush the hard bones of prey. Therefore, Known as the "Bone Crusher".

Li Qiang, an associate researcher at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, introduced that the new hyena fossil site on Perrier in the Zada Basin is located in a yellow sandstone lens on the steep cliff east of the Zada Valley, with an altitude of 4,195 meters. It was first discovered by Gansu Provincial Museum researcher Jie Guangpu discovered it in 2012. After dry sifting, several pieces of fossil material were obtained, including some broken lower jaws and scattered teeth.

Research results show that the new hyena on Perrier may have originated in northern China, and its origin was at the end of the late Miocene. During the early Pleistocene, this type of "bone crusher" had successfully spread to the Tibetan Plateau and far western Europe. From the Pliocene to the early Pleistocene, it was widely distributed in Eurasia and disappeared in China around 2.2 million years ago.

The appearance of a hyena is like a dog, with a shorter and rounder head than a dog's head, a big head, a thick skull, a long head and a short snout, large and round ears, a short tail, long front legs, short hind legs, and brown or tan hair. There are many irregular dark brown spots; each of its limbs has 4 toes, with large claws that cannot be retracted; the tail hair is very long, and the body hair is sparse and rough, with spots or stripes; the canine teeth and cleft teeth are well developed and the bite force is strong, making it the only animal that can chew. Bone-eating mammals . Because its hindquarters are lower than its forequarters, its walking and running postures are not very graceful, but it runs very quickly and with endurance. They can run at speeds of 50-60 kilometers per hour and can run long distances without getting tired. African spotted hyenas have an average bite force of 460 kilograms. For comparison, the bite force of the African king of lions is "only 360 kilograms."

Hyenas (striped hyenas) are small and covered with stripes. They mostly live alone and rely on their well-developed sense of smell to forage for carrion. Brown hyenas (Hyaena brunnea) are larger and are found on the coast of southwestern Africa. They often go to the beach to hunt for crabs, fish, etc. Spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) are only found in Africa. They are larger and hunt in groups. In addition to eating carrion, they can hunt antelopes. The coyote (Proteles cristatus) is a specialized anteater.

Distributed in Afghanistan, Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Georgia, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Sri Lanka Westland, United Republic of Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. India, Islamic Republic of Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Western Sahara, Yemen .

Lives in tropical and subtropical savanna grasslands and desert areas. Others live near the coast, hiding during the day in dense bush, taller grass, and rock crevices.

ethnic group

Hyenas live in groups and hunt in a matrilineal social system, relying on their developed sense of smell and strong jaws and teeth to forage for carrion. Females are about 10% heavier than males and are the stronger and more dominant of the sexes. Female hyenas with a lower status will give birth to the next generation with a lower status. Other females must be responsible for helping to take care of the puppies. Each hunting distance is up to 100 kilometers away. It is inevitable that dogs will be injured during the hunting. The injured ones will stay in the cave to guard the territory and take care of the puppies. After the hunting group returns to the cave, they will spit out food to feed other dogs.

Hyenas live in groups. A group can be as large as dozens or as small as a dozen. The leader of each group is a strong female hyena. The social organization of hyenas is very hierarchical. When foraging, the "mother leader" always gets the largest piece of meat with the best parts, and this is a matter of course.

Hyenas have considerable freedom under the premise of living in groups. They often travel alone, hunt alone, and eat by themselves. Members of a group tend not to stay together for long periods of time. Once they meet again, they act as a member of the group as a matter of course, thus reflecting their social gregariousness. When two spotted hyenas of different genders meet, the male always lets the female walk in front. If there is only a piece of meat, the male will leave it to the female.

sound

Hyenas have very keen senses, especially smell and hearing . In the African savannah, creepy howling sounds can be heard from deep in the grassland after dark. It is hyenas hunting prey or fighting each other. They can make more than ten kinds of calls, which is very important for its survival because it is often active at night and must rely on different calls to strengthen the bond between group members. But these calls are almost always very strange, often making people feel creepy. Especially when they are looking for food or when they are in heat, the strong cry they make is even more frightening. Because hyenas often give people a very annoying and lazy image, there are absurd legends circulating in some places that as long as they appear in human settlements, they will bring death. Their large ears can receive many high-frequency sounds and are very sensitive to many ultrasonic waves .

When hyenas are together, they are like a group of playing children, noisy and extremely lively. They use their ears and tails to transmit information to each other, and they constantly use calls to communicate with each other. Sometimes they roar loudly, sometimes they laugh heartily, sometimes they hum in a low voice, sometimes they chuckle in a low voice, and their sounds can be transmitted thousands of meters away.

prey

Hyenas like to hunt at night. Hyenas can chase herds of zebras or wildebeests running at speeds of up to 40 kilometers per hour at a speed of 65 kilometers per hour. Spotted hyenas can hunt alone, in pairs, or in groups of three, or in packs. Hunting alone often yields little, and one success out of five times is considered good; however, when hunting in groups, there may be gains eight out of 11 times. Documentaries show that when hunting alone, hyenas will howl to summon the group if they find food, and can even drive away larger and more powerful leopards.

Hyenas are powerful medium-sized beasts that hunt gazelles, zebras, wildebeests and other large and medium-sized herbivores in groups. They can even kill a half-ton African wild buffalo. They do not rely on the remains and bones of lions to satisfy their hunger. The weaker ones in life, on the contrary, lions often prey on spotted hyenas.

Hyenas are well-known "opportunists" in the animal world. In addition to hunting themselves, they often snatch prey captured by other carnivores, such as leopards and even lions. Their bite force is actually very average, slightly inferior to that of leopards. Only when the number ratio is greater than 10:1 can they snatch prey from the leopard's mouth.

When hyenas capture prey collectively, they swarm up and bite the prey on its belly, neck, limbs and all over the body. In order to prevent lions from plundering their food, the entire group of spotted hyenas wolfed down the meal together. Hyenas are extremely efficient carnivores that can kill only the bones of their prey in just tens of minutes.

territory

Each spotted hyena group has its own den. The entrance to the cave is overgrown with weeds, and the cave extends in all directions. Each group of spotted hyenas has its own sphere of influence, which is generally about 20 square kilometers. They strictly guard their sphere of influence and do not allow other spotted hyena groups to infringe. If there is a cross-border phenomenon, the two sides will confront each other or even conflict, but there are not many such fights. When a group of hyenas chases prey to the territory of another group of spotted hyenas, if the other group has a larger number, the hyenas will give the prey to the other group. Once hyenas move more than 1,000 meters away from their territory, they lose their sense of security.

In a group, adult spotted hyenas, whether male or female, will mark their territory by opening their anuses and expelling anal gland secretions when stimulated.

Hyenas have no fixed breeding season and live in groups and hunt in a matrilineal social system. Females are usually 12% heavier than males. They are the stronger and more dominant of the two sexes. There is only one female hyena in the entire group. Only the alpha female has the right to give birth to the next generation, and other female hyenas must be responsible for helping to take care of the offspring. Each hunting distance is up to 100 kilometers away. It is inevitable that dogs will be injured during the hunting. The injured ones will stay in the cave to guard the territory and take care of the puppies. After the hunting group returns to the cave, they will spit out food to feed other dogs.

Male animals often woo females by wagging their tails. The gestation period of female animals is 3-3.5 months, and each litter gives birth to 1-4 cubs. The cubs' eyes are open as soon as they are born, weighing about 1.5 kilograms, and they spend about 11 months in a cave abandoned by the aardvark. During this period, the female often needs to go out to hunt in order to keep her cubs alive. Get enough milk and food. For the first four months after birth, the cubs rely entirely on milk, and even after their teeth have grown in, they barely eat meat. When it grows to 3-4 weeks, it can often go to the ground for activities. Like all young animals, they are very curious about everything, sniffing here and there, and soon learn to understand the outside world through their noses, ears and eyes. The female beast is very vigilant, and even the male beast is not allowed to get close to the nest and the cubs it raises, because sometimes some hungry male beasts will eat the cubs. After the cubs are 10 months old, they can follow the female to play everywhere. Especially when a group of brown dogs are eating nearby, they prefer to follow behind. Pups become sexually mature at about 3 years of age. The lifespan is about 14 years.

Coyote males reach sexual maturity at 2 years of age and females at 3 years of age. The gestation period of hyenas is about 84 days , and they can breed throughout the year, but the peak period for calving is during the rainy season. Each litter gives birth to 2 to 4 cubs , and both male and female animals nurse them together.

In India, hyena oil is believed to cure rheumatism and reduce swelling of the tongue .