Hyenas: the most severe matriarchy

In families where the female is predominant, order often reigns. True, it is worth noting that this is also a dictatorship.

In the wild, matriarchy is quite common: from insects, for example, bees to the largest land mammals - elephants. I am familiar with insects only in the experience of a bitten one, and macro photography is not mine at all, so I don’t know anything about them. Since I am a wildlife photographer, my observations are mostly related to large mammals, mainly African predators. For many years I have been shooting wild cats and their distant relatives - hyenas. I want to tell you that the longer I watch the life of these cat-like ones, the more I am amazed and surprised.

Yes, of course, it’s purely aesthetically pleasing to look at the lion's pride, but believe me, the arrangement of the family life of hyenas is much more interesting.

The dominant female hyena controls absolutely all the processes in the clan. In addition to the birth and upbringing of children, she determines the purpose for hunting and is the coordinator during the attack. It determines the order of eating, monitors the order and can literally punish the one who violates it, although this happens extremely rarely.

A very developed and diverse language of communication helps to maintain such a stable social system for hyenas. Hyenas communicate among themselves not only with sounds that are extremely unpleasant for the human ear and resemble a mixture of howling, roar and laughter, but also with smells. The hyena smell is very pungent and each individual is unique. Depending on the reproductive cycle, the smell changes and serves as an important regulator of intraclan relations. The smell of the dominant female causes humility not only in males, but also in other females standing at the lowest level in the hierarchy.

When photographing hyenas, I have repeatedly noticed that the male often shows his excited genitals to the female. And often he literally shakes his dignity in front of the female's face.

I thought he was trying to flirt so, showing her his desire to mate. As you know, males are excited by the smell of the current female, but once I noticed a similar behavior of the male in the presence of the just-born female. There was no talk of heat at this moment, therefore, the male should not have shown interest in it. I was surprised by this, and I began to study the issue. As it turned out, with such behavior the male shows his humility and complete submission! The female at this moment begins to growl and grin. We must pay tribute to the courage of the male, because shaking his dignity in front of the strongest jaws among all mammals is a serious matter! For reference: the jaws of a hyena create a pressure of 70 kg / cm2.

In the hyena clans, males are so low that even the cubs are one step higher. There are many males in the pack, but some are expelled over time. The decision to exile is also made by the dominant female. Despite being tough on males in general, female hyenas often show indulgence to their fathers.

Who decides which female is more important? Most often, the daughters of the dominant female fight for the "throne". The struggle for power begins in childhood - young females often engage in mortal battles.

In this photo, the dominant female, the raised tail, is a demonstration of her high position in the pack.