Hyenas often hunt alone

Spotted hyenas live in groups but hunt alone, practicing fission-fusion dynamics like humans leaving home in the morning and returning in the evening. Graduate student Jennifer Smith, working in Kenya with Kay Holekamp, concluded that hena social hierarchy - which allows higher status animals to eat first at a group kill - prompts solo hunting most of the time. The group cooperates to guard turf and during about a quarter of all hunts.

HoleKamp's homepage: http://www.hyenas.zoology.msu.edu/

Department of Zoology: http://www.zoology.msu.edu/