Large Female Hyenas Call the Shots in a Clan Love Nature
Category
🐳
AnimalsTranscript
00:00 (cows mooing)
00:02 Meet the North Clan,
00:05 an extended family of 12 spotted hyenas.
00:11 This is the first meal they've had in almost a week.
00:16 They're hungry, and it's only a tiny antelope.
00:26 They need a decent meal at least every three days.
00:30 There isn't enough to go around, and tensions rise.
00:35 (cows mooing)
00:38 (cows mooing)
00:40 The clan is struggling.
01:03 Their queen has two cubs to feed.
01:08 A prince and princess, six weeks old,
01:13 and they'll rely almost entirely on her milk
01:16 for up to a year and a half.
01:18 Keeping them alive is her top priority.
01:23 Their home is an underground den
01:36 in the north of an area of wilderness
01:39 known as the Lua Plains.
01:41 The queen and her clan rule over a huge patch of the plains
01:47 extending 20 miles in every direction from their den.
01:51 Located in the far west of Zambia,
01:59 Lua Plains National Park is 1,400 square miles
02:04 of open grassland.
02:06 (birds chirping)
02:08 There are only a handful of lions here,
02:11 and the queen and her clan have risen
02:15 to the top of the food chain.
02:17 Here, they are hunters, not scavengers.
02:22 In good years, there's plenty for the clan to eat.
02:28 Herds of zebra,
02:34 small antelopes called oribi,
02:37 and the clan's favorite prey, wildebeest,
02:43 and their calves.
02:46 In the rainy season,
02:57 thousands of wildebeests normally converge on the plains.
03:03 In the center of the hyena's territory.
03:05 But this year, the rains are more than a month late.
03:23 Not a single drop has fallen for more than six months.
03:29 (dramatic music)
03:32 And Lua Plains is suffering a severe drought.
03:38 Without fresh green grass to attract them,
03:52 there are no wildebeest herds
03:54 anywhere near the North Clan's territory.
03:57 (dramatic music)
04:00 The herds are now scattered far to the North,
04:05 and the clan has to travel vast distances to find them.
04:09 Several weeks ago,
04:16 a hunting party from the clan went North and never returned.
04:21 Leaving this small yearling
04:27 and orphan.
04:28 The clan has a strict hierarchy,
04:34 and the yearling's been pushed to the bottom
04:36 of the social pile.
04:38 Even the two young cubs take turns to boss her around.
04:46 (yelping)
04:48 Born to a queen, they have high ranking in the clan.
05:03 For the orphan, without a mother to protect her
05:10 and give her status, life is a daily struggle.
05:15 (yelping)
05:17 She needs to grow up fast and gain respect.
05:24 She is barely old enough to eat solid food
05:36 and has no mother to provide milk.
05:39 Now she has little choice.
05:42 She must fight, even for a tiny scrap of the kill,
05:46 to keep herself alive.
05:48 And when the clan goes out hunting, she must follow,
05:54 otherwise she won't survive.
05:57 Like all hyenas, this clan is matriarchal.
06:04 Females are in charge.
06:10 They're as big and strong as male hyenas.
06:14 All of the adult females can potentially have cubs,
06:24 but they will usually only tolerate one adult male
06:28 at the den, and they use him for one purpose only.
06:33 Mating.
06:36 (yelping)
06:38 The clan females have unusually high levels of testosterone,
06:45 and this results in the growth of external genitalia,
06:49 a pseudo-penis that looks almost identical
06:54 to a male phallus.
06:56 It's very hard to tell them apart.
07:02 In a few years, when the prince and princess grow up,
07:06 she'll stay with the clan, but he'll be pushed
07:10 out of the den to fend for himself.
07:13 He might become a satellite male,
07:17 guarding the den from a distance,
07:19 or he will leave his home and travel far to find a new clan.
07:25 (chickens clucking)
07:32 For now, though, he's indulged.
07:35 All the clan helps out with the cubs.
07:39 There's even a babysitter to watch over them
07:44 when the queen goes out hunting,
07:46 or when she just needs to take a break.
07:52 (chickens clucking)
07:59 (upbeat music)
08:01 When the cubs are around 18 months old,
08:08 they will start to eat solid food.
08:10 But for now, their mother's milk
08:14 gives them everything they need.
08:16 Hyena milk is some of the richest in the animal kingdom,
08:22 with the highest level of protein and fat
08:25 of any African carnivore.
08:27 (birds chirping)
08:29 It's so rich, one feed can keep the cubs going
08:33 for days at a time.
08:35 But when their mother goes hunting,
08:38 she can't be gone too long.
08:40 If left for more than a week, the cubs would die.
08:44 For the queen, producing such nutritious milk
08:50 requires a lot of energy,
08:54 and she hasn't had a decent meal in over a week.
08:59 (birds chirping)
09:02 (upbeat music)
09:07 (upbeat music)
09:09 (upbeat music)