Why do I dislike hyenas so much?
The hyena may be the most unfairly judged animal there is. Nearly everything people hold against it turns out to be wrong, which makes the strength of the dislike more interesting.
The reputation
Most of us met the hyena in a cartoon, as the villain’s helpers. The picture stuck.
- It steals what braver animals have killed.
- It is a coward that only attacks in a gang.
- It laughs, and the laugh sounds like mockery.
- It looks wrong: the sloping back, the heavy neck, the loping walk.
What hyenas are actually like
- Spotted hyenas are hunters. In the long field study in Kenya led by the biologist Kay Holekamp, they killed about 95 percent of what they ate.Source: Smithsonian Magazine, “Who’s Laughing Now?”
- The laugh is not laughter. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley found that hyenas giggle when they are not getting what they want, for example when lions chase them off a kill or two hyenas tussle over a carcass. The giggle tells the others how old the animal is and where it stands.Source: UC Berkeley News, on a study in BMC Ecology, 2010
- Females are in charge. In a spotted hyena clan the females outrank the males, and there is a strict order among all the animals in it.Source: UC Berkeley News, 2010
What the dislike can point to
Since the facts do not support the reputation, the reputation must be doing some other job for us. Try these on and keep only what fits.
Take the charge of stealing first. People who are hard on scroungers are often people who have never let themselves take anything they had not earned twice over. If the idea of the hyena helping itself makes you indignant, ask who taught you to keep such careful accounts, and whether you would like to put them down.
Then the laugh. It bothers people most if they have been laughed at, and remember it. It also bothers people who laugh when they are nervous or cornered and dislike that about themselves. The hyena’s giggle is exactly that: a sound made under pressure by an animal that is losing.
There is also the plain fact that the hyena is not pretty and does not try to be. An animal that is run by its females and looks the way it looks has never suited the stories we like. If you have spent a lot of effort on being liked, something that does well without being likeable can be an irritant.
Three questions to ask yourself
- Have you been laughed at in a way you still remember? Who was laughing?
- What do you think of people who take what is going without having earned it, and where did you learn to think it?
- Do you ever laugh when you are actually nervous or cornered?
Questions people ask
Are hyenas really scavengers?
Much less than people think. Spotted hyenas do scavenge when they can, but in the long Kenyan study by Kay Holekamp they killed about 95 percent of their own food.
Why do hyenas laugh?
The giggle is a sound of frustration or stress, made when a hyena is not getting what it wants. Its pitch and steadiness tell other hyenas the animal’s age and rank. It has nothing to do with finding something funny.
Why are hyenas always the villains?
They are active at night, they look unusual to us and their call sounds like a human laugh. Storytellers have used that for a long time, and films carried it on.
What can disliking hyenas say about me?
Possibly only that you have seen the same films as everyone else. It can also point to how you feel about people who take without earning, about being laughed at, or about anyone who does well without trying to be liked.