Laughing's No Joke For Spotted Hyenas
Spotted Hyena - The spotted hyena, known for its distinctive laughing sound, is a highly social animal. (Dan Kitwood / Getty Images)
Spotted hyenas, the social, carnivorous creatures often referred to as "laughing hyenas," live across Africa and east to India. Their laughing sound, however, "has nothing to do with hyenas having a good time," says Sarah Benson-Amram, a zoology student from Michigan State University, who spent two years in Kenya studying the hyenas and recording their sounds. "In fact, they're usually pretty stressed out. Often they giggle once they've been attacked."
The hyenas live in groups of up to 90 animals called "clans," says Benson-Amram, and it's a female-dominated society.
"You'll often have just a whole mess of hyenas trying to get food, trying to get access to a carcass," she says. "So often you'll have some aggression at that carcass. You'll have one hyena biting another or displacing another, so when that happens, the hyena that has been bitten or displaced will often giggle. So you hear a lot of giggles at carcasses."
(Dan Kitwood / Getty Images)
Benson-Amram says she was watching Pan, one of the top-ranking hyenas in her study clan. "She had, on her shoulder, lion paw scratch marks. There was also a carcass about 300 meters from the scene, so my guess is that they had an interaction with lions earlier that morning that I hadn't seen and gotten pretty beat up."
"I love them. They just have personality," Benson-Amram says. "As a scientist, you're not supposed to anthropomorphize, but there are some that are just really aggressive, there are some that are more playful, there are some that are really curious — it's like a soap opera. You follow their lives and you get really involved."
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STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
One animal that, so far as we know, has not appeared on Nigella's menu yet is the latest subject of our series, Sounds Wild. Student zoologist Sarah Benson-Amram from Michigan State University lived in a tent in Kenya for two years studying spotted hyenas, and she tells MORNING EDITION how she recorded their sounds.
(Soundbite of hyenas)
Ms. SARAH BENSON-AMRAM (Student Zooloist, Michigan State University): I had been driving around for a couple hours just looking for different hyenas, and it was near a river. The hyena was actually hidden in a hole in the ground. Whooping pretty - it was a pretty distressed-sounding whoop. Her name is Pan, one of the top-ranking hyenas in our study clan. She had, on her shoulder, a lion paw scratch marks. There was also a carcass around 300 meters from this scene, so my guess is that they had had an interaction with lions earlier that morning that I hadn't seen, and that they had gotten pretty beat up. Spotted hyenas are really interesting. They live in social groups called clans of up to 90 individuals, and it's a female-dominated society.
(Soundbite of hyenas)
Ms. BENSON-AMRAM: Spotted hyenas, in particular, are often called laughing hyenas because of this vocalization; they giggle. And it actually has nothing to do with hyenas having a good time. In fact, they're usually pretty stressed out. Often they giggle when they've been attacked. You'll often have just a whole mess of hyenas trying to get access to a carcass, so you'll have one hyena biting another, and when that happens, the hyena that's been bitten will often giggle. So you hear a lot of giggles at carcasses.
(Soundbite of hyenas)
Ms. BENSON-AMRAM: I love them. They just have personality. You know, there are some that are just really aggressive. There are some that are more playful, some that are really curious. It's like a soap opera. You follow their lives, and you get really involved.
(Soundbite of music)
INSKEEP: Thanks to NPR science correspondent Christopher Joyce and the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology for tracking down these sounds. And you can hear more of them at npr.org. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.
