BellaOnline Forums News and Politics Animal Life Hyenas - Creepy or Really Cool?

You be the judge - here is my article about them:

Hermaphrodite Hyenas

Hmmm. I vote creepy. Sorry. But anything that chews his way out of the birthing canal (ow!) as well as chewing to death his sibling while still in the womb gets little sympathy from me!

Wow (as said like Joey in 'Blossom') Hyenas rock! How cool are they??? I love unique animals like that plus they're a member of the cat family, and I love all cats. Really great article BTW - I'll be entertaining friends with this info - I've found a whole new respect for them. I thought they were cool before, I like their laugh and the patterns on them - but the other info is incredible. Really incredible animals. I love it. Harley Quinn (the Jokers g/f) in the Batman comics has pet Hyenas BTW - I think they get a bad rep from movies such as the lion king etc. Great article!

yay, a vote for the "cool" side! One thing I have noticed about movies and TV - in a horror movie, whenever someone refers to a "jackal", the animal that they show is almost always a hyena! (jackals are small and quite cute - they look like foxes.) So not only do they get a bad rap, it's for being the wrong animal!

BTW, hyenas are not cats. There was a big back-and-forth for a long time on if they were cats or dogs, but now with DNA and other tools, we have found that they belong to their very own family, neither cats nor dogs. There are technically four species - the striped hyena, the brown hyena, the spotted hyena, and the aardwolf. The aardwolf is in a different genera, though - it's a small animal that eats termites.

The striped hyenas, I think, are quite pretty - they have long silky striped fur and black faces.

Oh, now I feel bad for my vote.

I know they're being what they were designed to be, but I can't help but see their eating each other as creepy. I'd feel that way about any animal with cannibalistic tendencies!

It's especially creepy that it's the babies, I agree. But many animals have really awful habits about infants. Lions will kill cubs that are not their own, and they also kill cheetah and hyena cubs. Hyenas, at least, do not kill their cubs - the cubs kill each other.

But yeah, it's kind of icky. My feelings on hyenas are that I can respect them for what they are and what they do and how well they are adapted to their environment... but they are really hard to love. I try to love all nature's creatures, but hyenas... it's hard to get past their yuckier tendencies. I do try, though.

And it is *really* amazing to be camping in Africa and hear them at night - there is no other noise that even compares to how they sound! It's like a combination of all other animal noises you have ever heard - yips and howls and barks and chirps and squeaks and gurgles... it's eerie, but it's so beautiful, too.

I didn't think they were creepy until I read your article - which is fascinating.
The babies killing each other in the womb and after birth and chewing their way out of the birth canal is way too creepy for me.

Yes, I agree with Lynne. Great article, Mary Ellen! I love nature.

And how did you sleep through a night filled with wild animal calls? I went to a zoo and got very close to a lioness. My little toddler was next to me and that lioness tracked her with her eyes and then got in a predator stance. I tell you, my primal instincts kicked in like nothing else. All the hairs on my body stood up and--I never felt this before in my entire life--the fight or flight instinct flushed through my system.

It was electric. My husband noticed and came over to stand in between the lioness and my daughter. The lioness backed down.

It is not good to be lower on the food chain. I know what it feels like to be prey. Not good at all.

I love nature and I love animals. And I believe that they should enjoy the fullness of their lives in the wild. But I'm not one to go skipping off into the savanna to observe them so I'm grateful to those who do and share their knowledge--like you.

Great stuff.

They kind of remind me of the 'Alien' movies - eating their way out of the mother LOL. The killing each other is just in their nature, I think it's admirable in a way (not that I'd do it LOL) - well for ages I heard they were in the dog family and then the feline, although I never felt like they belonged in the feline group. I've seen spotted Hyenas and thought they were cute

I always felt hyenas were evil looking and pretty creepy/scary. I never saw anything cute about them.