A Conversation for Colours of Wildlife: Spotted Hyena

Let's cheer for gender-bending mammals

Post 1

Elektragheorgheni -Please read 'The Post'

Great painting---you always amaze me how well you suggest the thickness and richness of their pelts. They have interesting lives as well. Thanks for sharing the lives of these guys, really interesting. I had the false idea that hyenas were more scavangers than true predators but with pack hunting that is obviously wrong.


Let's cheer for gender-bending mammals

Post 2

SashaQ - happysad

Great painting indeed! Superb colouring and texture.

That is really interesting about the hormones. I wonder if the pseudo-penis is an actual tube, or whether it is just folded to resemble a tube, but with the ability to flatten if necessary... (if not, then giving birth must be an ordeal indeed...)

I'm amazed by the strength of the hyenas' digestive systems!

I hadn't appreciated the size of them, either - I visualised them as like a small dog, but the adult female bodyweight is considerably bigger than me...


Let's cheer for gender-bending mammals

Post 3

Willem

Glad you like this Elektra and Sasha! As for your question Sasha ... here is a page on it with a vid as well (the commentary is a bit prurient ...) but it gives the idea. As they put it, the female can 'roll it up like a shirt sleeve' to give the male access...

https://curiouscox.wordpress.com/2012/01/11/the-spotted-hyenas-she-penis/


Let's cheer for gender-bending mammals

Post 4

Dmitri Gheorgheni, Post Editor

Once again, h2g2 gets racy...smiley - rofl


Let's cheer for gender-bending mammals

Post 5

Dmitri Gheorgheni, Post Editor

This has been tweeted by me:

Learn the shocking truth about the spotted hyena's sex life at #h2g2Post. The public has a right to know! http://h2g2.com/entry/A87896245

With pictures. smiley - yikes

The Guide retweet says something about 'not all of us are British'. smiley - evilgrin


Let's cheer for gender-bending mammals

Post 6

SashaQ - happysad

smiley - oksmiley - laugh

Thanks for the extra information, Willem - very interesting...

I had thought that hormones on their own wouldn't be sufficient to make a tube, and the Y chromosome would be needed as well, but no... Survival of the species is an ordeal for the hyenas indeed...

Also shows that these things are complex in nature, and blends of hormones and chromosomes come in many varieties - fascinating smiley - ok


Let's cheer for gender-bending mammals

Post 7

Willem

What really fascinates me in nature is all of the different 'ways of life' that different species have tried out. And it 'belongs' to us humans, too, in that we can appreciate it and understand there are so many ways to live - not just for animals, but for us also, it's all part of the diversity of life. And in other species we can see how different social arrangements work ... in the hyenas we can see 'female empowerment' pushed to an extreme, with benefits for the females but also profound drawbacks such as giving birth! But we can also ask to what degree dominance and power are related to hormones ... could humans for instance 'engineer' more equality by manipulating hormone levels, and how would that benefit or burden either? Of course we're not going to be frivolously experiment on humans ... but the thing is, wild nature is performing her own experiments all around us, and if we let her, she'll come up with so many other 'ways of life' because evolution is ongoing ... and certainly we could learn from it all and expand our own horizons.


Let's cheer for gender-bending mammals

Post 8

Dmitri Gheorgheni, Post Editor

I like that assessment. smiley - smiley


Key: Complain about this post

More Conversations for Colours of Wildlife: Spotted Hyena

Write an Entry

"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a wholly remarkable book. It has been compiled and recompiled many times and under many different editorships. It contains contributions from countless numbers of travellers and researchers."

Write an entry
Read more