Why It Sucks to Be a Male Hyena

Summary:

Male spotted hyenas, like Scarface, endure a harsh and challenging life due to their rigid social hierarchy. As cubs, both males and females rank just below their mothers, who dominate the clan. This grants young males temporary privileges, including better access to food and shelter. However, their privileged position is short-lived. Around the age of two, male hyenas must leave their birth clan to avoid inbreeding, embarking on a dangerous search for a new group.

Unlike in many other mammal species, joining a new clan does not provide an opportunity for social advancement. Instead, male hyenas face aggressive hazing before even being accepted. Once they join, they automatically assume the lowest rank in the social order. There is no way for them to climb the hierarchy except by waiting for new males to arrive beneath them or for higher-ranking males to die. No male ever outranks a female, as spotted hyenas have an unusual female-dominated society.

This dominance is likely due to the larger size and greater aggression of female hyenas, traits that help them protect their offspring during intense feeding frenzies. The rigid nature of their social structure makes them unique among social mammals, where strength and social skills typically influence rank. Scientists still do not fully understand why hyenas have evolved this way.

The consequences for males like Scarface are severe. They suffer frequent injuries from harassment, wear down their teeth prematurely from consuming bones, and have significantly shorter lifespans than females—often only living half as long. Despite their hardships, their best hope is to reproduce before their difficult lives come to an end.

Hi, this is thanvir

And this is Scarface, one of the hyenas I studied in Kenya; and like all male spotted

hyenas, his life sucks.

Babyhood is actually the pinnacle of a male hyena’s life.

Itty-bitty cubs of both sexes rank just below their moms, who make up the entire top of

the clan's social hierarchy – more on that later.

So cubs have decent access to food, sleeping spots, and everything else.

But male cubs’ glory days are short.

Females generally don’t like mating with males from the clan they grew up in - it’s

probably nature’s way of avoiding inbreeding.

So once males turn two or so, they leave their clan and strike out on a lonely, dangerous

search for a clan with better mating prospects.

Lots of other mammalian males do the same thing, but for them, the transition to a new

group is an opportunity to challenge high-ranking individuals and increase their social standing.

Not so for male hyenas.

They endure aggressive hazing by the new clan before even being allowed to join, and once

a male does gain acceptance, he becomes the very lowest-ranking hyena in the pecking...er...bone-cracking

order.

The tastiest food rarely makes its way down to him, and there’s no way to move up the

social hierarchy besides simply waiting: either for new males to join the clan below him or

for males ahead of him to die.

No adult male will ever top a single female, resulting in a female-dominated hierarchy.

This is all...weird; unlike most mammals, male hyenas are subordinate to females.

Which is probably because, unlike most mammals, female hyenas are bigger and meaner than males,

which is probably thanks to their need to stand up for their offspring in this kind

of crazy feeding frenzy.

And unlike pretty much all mammals, physically fit or socially capable individuals can’t

make their way to the top of hyena society to do most of the decision- and baby-making.

They’re the only social mammals we know of with such a rigid hierarchy, and we don’t

yet know why.

We do know the outcome, though.

Male hyenas like Scarface end up plagued with injuries from harassment & hazing, endure

prematurely worn-down teeth from eating too many bones, and on average, only live as half

as long females do.

The best they can hope for is that, at the end of the day, they’ll have left behind