Skip to content

Research

Michigan State University

Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies

New Saginaw Valley facility to focus on dry beans and sugar beets

Hyenas often hunt alone

crocuta_yawn_jbtanner_440.jpg
Spotlight Contact: 
Kay Holekamp, professor of zoology, 517-432-3691, holekamp@msu.edu

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/