Parties and immigrant males.

Happy zebra had a party last night but we were not invited. Not many hyenas at Rumpy Culvert where they’ve been hanging out but we did find Higgs at what looks like a den complex with his mom. Hopefully they keep hanging out here and we can make it a den landmark! It was in the middle of a flat smooth plain with very very short grass in what was a burned area last year, perfect den for doing obs. Later when we were chilling with Clay (daughter of the alpha Pike and my favorite cub), Ando, and Dara and just as it was getting too dark to see they loped off into the distance but not before Clay left us a poop present to pick up. By the time were finished collecting poop they were out of sight. We drove in the direction they ran for a little ways but hit a rock field. As we were driving back to the road we saw another FOUR hyenas all loping off that way. Damn! Something fun happening past the rock field, always frustrating to be driving back to camp when you know the hyenas are doing something cool.

On another note the unIDmale I saw in HZ the other day is definitely an immigrant. Can’t decide whether or not to give him an interaction tick (we give them three ticks before counting them as part of the clan since so many males just pass through) since he only loped by these hyenas and didn’t really chill out at all except when he was at 200m. But, turns out he’s not actually an unID. He’s Siracha, one of Clovis’ (south clan’s retired matriarch) cubs that hasn’t been seen since December of last year. Missing for ten months! In south’s book his ID photos are of him as a young fluffy 2 year old subadult. Now he looks completely adult and full grown- crazy! When we see a new male to a clan we have to go through all the photos of missing and dead animals to make sure it’s not just someone we haven’t seen in a while. Next we go through the photos of hyenas in the other two clans to make sure it’s not someone that’s been missing in those clans. Finally when we don’t match spots with anyone we give them an alien number and write them on the board under an alien males list for each clan where we keep track of their number of interactions. Usually it’s a quick flip through the books, when young males immigrate we usually never see them again. I was expecting to give this guy an alien number when I was flipping through south subs not really expecting to even pause but I’d never seen Sriracha before so I stopped to double check spots on him (most of the other south subs I could rule out right away from memory). Crazily enough the spots starting matching- every single one. Often while flipping through the books there will be one or two hyenas with a few similar spots but by the time I pulled up the photo of this hyena’s other side and BOTH sides starting matching I started to feel excited! This was a hyena we knew!! Could it really be?? I had Emily double check my spot matching job and it was confirmed, this immigrant male in Happy Zebra was Clovis’ kid Sriracha.

The life of a male hyena must be so crazy. To grow up in your mother’s clan and spend two to five years there, and while there to have a rank above and below other animals, to visit the den and play with your little brothers and sisters until the day comes that you can’t stay in that clan anymore. Something drives you to leave and then you’re out all alone in the world for over a year or many years or your whole life not belonging to any clan and having no friends or family. It’s so sad to think about this hyena standing, still alert watching some cubs playing out in the distance, cubs that are a part of some family that you’re not. And you’re not bold enough to go and join the play because you’d be attacked. Instead you just and watch, standing and watching, waiting and hoping. I’m super anthropomorphizing here I know but still… it just seems so lonely to be a male hyena trying to immigrate to a new clan.

But then I think about Jazz, the highest ranking male hyena in HZ and the level of acceptance he has gained. Jazz sticks his head into den holes and groans and plays and greets with cubs and sacks out within 5m of the alpha and doesn’t get aggressed on. Some day Sriracha may have that. I hope I get to see Sriracha again and that he immigrates successfully to HZ.