210 



MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE. 



[HYiENAS 



We are led from the Canine family, through the 

 Lycaon, or Hunting-Dog of the Cape, to the true 

 Hyaenas, which form a section of the family Viver- 

 ridae, comprising the Civets, the Genets, the Ich- 

 neumons, and the Paradoxures. Destined for a life 

 of rapine, the Viverridae are active and vigorous ; 

 in general, the body is rather elongated, the head 

 somewhat "conical, the muzzle often acute, the eyes 

 oblique, and the tongue rough, with retroverted 

 horny papillae. In most groups, the feet are digiti- 

 grade ; in some, semi-plantigrade. Many are remark- 

 able for a strongly scented musky secretion, pre- 

 pared in certain glandular sacs. Nocturnal or 

 crepuscular in their habits, they emerge from their 

 retreats with the close of day, and begin their prowl 

 in quest of food. Of restless, wild, and savage tem- 

 per, they are by no means destitute of intelligence, 

 and are even capable of being domesticated. The 

 Viverridae approach, through the hyaena, on one part, 

 lo the Canine race; they are through other links 

 allied to the Ursidae, the Felidae, and the Mustelidae. 



Genus Hyaena. — Dentition : — Incisors, - ; Canines, 



I i 3 3 



■ False Molars, — ; Carnassieres, or Laniary 



i_r 3—3' 



Molars, l — ; Tubercular Molars, -H - = 34. 



' 1 - 1 0—0 



Fig. 928 shows the dentition of the hyaena: a, teeth 

 of the upper jaw in two views ; &, those of the lower 

 in two views ; c, the teeth of both jaws together. 

 Fig. 929 represents the skull of the Spotted Hyaena 

 in profile ; Fig. 930, the skull of the same animal 

 viewed from above ; Fig. 931 , the skull of the Striped 

 Hyaena in profile. The skull of the hyaena is re- 

 markable for its solidity : the muzzle is short ; the 

 zygomatic arch of vast strength and thickness ; and 

 the sides of the cranium are compressed, and sweep 

 up to a high longitudinal ridge, which projects far 

 back from the occiput, affording space for an im- 

 mense mass of the temporal muscles, which, with 

 those of the neck, are greatly developed. Accord- 

 ing to Cuvier, the vertebrae of the neck are sometimes 

 found to be anchylosed, or soldered together, in 

 consequence of the violent and continual strain to 

 which they are subject, and hence probably arose 

 the belief that these vertebrae in the hyaena were one 

 solid piece. 



In the port and figure of the hyaena there is 

 something very remarkable. The neck, chest, and 

 shoulders are amazingly robust, but the hind-quar- 

 ters are low, from the crouching posture of the hind- 

 legs, which may be termed knock-kneed, the heel- 

 joints approaching each other. The movements of' 

 these limbs are of a dragging character, influencing 

 the pace of the animal, which, though rapid, is a sort 

 of awkward shuffle. The toes are four on each foot, 

 furnished with blunt, stout, unretractile claws. The 

 ears are large and erect; a full mane runs down 

 the spine ; there is a deep glandular subcaudal 

 pouch; the pupil is somewhat oblong; the tongue 

 rough ; the habits are. nocturnal. 



The hyaenas were not separated by Linnaeus from 

 the genus Canis, but subsequent naturalists have 

 placed them in various groups according to their 

 views of affinity. We believe them to form a group 

 of the Viverridae. 



Three distinct species are known. 



932, 933, 934.— The Striped Hy^na 



(Hycena vulgaris, Desm.). Hyaena striata, Zim- 

 merman; H. orientalis, Tiedem. ; H. Antiquorum, 

 Terara. ; Canis Hyaena, Linn. This species is a na- 

 tive of Asia, and of northern and central Africa. It 

 is found in the Caucasian and Altaic mountains, in 

 Asiatic Turkey, in Syria, Turkey, Persia, India : and 

 in Barbary, Arabia, Egypt, Nubia, Abyssinia, Sou- 

 dan, Senegambia, &c. 



We may here premise, that much of what relates 

 to the striped hyaena, so extensively spread, applies 

 equally to the other species, which appear to be 

 confined exclusively to South Africa. They are 

 all destined to fill up an important station in the 

 economy of nature. It is their part, with vultures 

 and other foul-feeding creatines, to cleanse the 

 earth of putrescent, animal matters, and especially 

 of the decaying carcasses of the larger beasts, whose 

 remains, if "not speedily removed, would infect the 

 atmosphere with pestilential effluvia. They are 

 Nature' s scavengers, and assiduously do they la- 

 bour in their vocation : they clear the battle- 

 field of the victims of barbarous warfare, gorging 

 on the bodies of the slain ; they disinter the dead 

 from the lightly-covered grave: they ransack towns 

 and villages in search of offal ; they prowl about 

 the fields, and around the enclosures of human 

 dwellings. The carrion which chance throws in 

 their way furnishes a luxurious meal, nor are .the 

 strongest bones unacceptable— such is the power of 

 their jaws, that they crunch the thigh-bone of an 

 ox, for the sake of the marrow it encloses. 



Carrion and dead bodies, however, are not their 

 only food ; they prey upon horses, sheep, and cattle, 



often committing extensive depredations ; nor are 

 human beings safe from their murderous assaults. 

 They seldom, indeed, attack man openly, and usually 

 avoid a contest with him ; but when driven to self- 

 defence, they turn furiously upon their assailant, 

 and combat with determined obstinacy. On the 

 contrary, the sleeping man, woman, or child, which 

 they chance to discover in their nightly prowl, 

 almost certainly falls a victim. Their haunts by 

 day are dens and caves, gloomy rocks, and the ruins 

 of towns and sepulchral monuments of antiquity ; 

 there the "fell hyaena" rears her brood. As 

 darkness sets in, these fierce beasts emerge from 

 their lair, and menacing, with teeth displayed and 

 glaring eyes, warn the intruder to a timely retreat. 



In some districts the striped hyaena is fearfully 

 numerous. Bruce records that, in Abyssinia they 

 were the scourge of the country "both in the city 

 and the field, and appeared to surpass the sheep in 

 number. From evening till dawn of day the town 

 of Gondar was full of them; here they sought the 

 different pieces of slaughtered carcasses which were 

 exposed in the streets without burial. Many a time 

 in the night, when kept late in the palace, on going 

 across the square from the king's house, I have 

 been apprehensive lest they should bite me in the 

 leg. They grunted in great numbers around me, 

 although I was surrounded by several armed men, 

 who seldom passed a night without wounding or 

 slaughtering some of them. One night I went out 

 of my tent, and returning immediately, I perceived 

 two blue eyes glaring at me hi the dark ; I called 

 my servant to bring a light, and we found a hyaena 

 standing near the head of the bed, with two or three 

 large bunches of candles in his mouth, by keeping 

 which, he seemed to wish at that time no other 

 prey. I was not afraid of him, but with a pike 

 struck as near the heart as I could. It was not 

 until I had done this, that he showed any signs of 

 fierceness : but upon feeling his wound he dropped 

 the candles, and endeavoured to run upon the shaft 

 of the spear to arrive at me ; so that I was obliged to 

 draw a pistol from my girdle and shoot, him, and 

 nearly at. the same time my servant cleft his skull 

 with a battle-axe. In a word, the hyaenas were the 

 plague of our lives, the terror of our midnight walks, 

 and the destruction of our mules and asses, which 

 are their favourite food." Major Denham gives a 

 similar account. At Kauka, he says, the hyaenas are 

 " everywhere in legions, and grew now so extremely 

 ravenous, that a good large village where I some- 

 times procured a draught of sour milk on my duck- 

 shooting excursions, had been attacked the night 

 before my last visit, and the town absolutely carried 

 by storm, notwithstanding defences of nearly six 

 feet high of branches of the prickly triiloh, and 

 two donkeys, whose flesh these animals are particu- 

 larly fond of, carried off in spite of the efforts of the 

 people." 



Few animals have been the subjects of more false 

 and superstitious opinions, both in ancient, and 

 modern times, than the hyaena. Among the writers 

 of antiquity, however, Aristotle accurately describes 

 it, and even explains the pqpular error current in 

 his day, as it. has been since, respecting the bi-sexual 

 character of the animal; an error in which Pliny- 

 seems to acquiesce, though he alludes to Aristotle's 

 contradiction of it ; but it is evident that he knew 

 nothing himself of the true history of the animal, 

 for, as Cuvier has observed, the Romans were not 

 really acquainted with the animal till at a compara- 

 tively late period. Gordian III. is the first, and 

 apparently the only one, of the emperors who im- 

 ported it; he had ten which were exhibited in the 

 games of Philip, in the year of Rome 1000, or a. i>. 

 247. It is not, in fact, until within the last few 

 years, comparatively speaking, that the moderns 

 have recognised the true hyaena. Belon, who wrote 

 in 1553 4-5, &c, mistook the Civet for it, which 

 animal indeed resembles the hyaena in having scent- 

 pouches, a mane, and a transversely barred or waved 

 style of colouring ; yet at the same time that he fell 

 into this error, he was in possession of a good figure 

 of the true hyaena, but, without suspecting the real 

 fact, he gives this under the title of Sea-Wolf, and 

 describes it. as an animal from the coasts of England. 

 From the lime of Belon to that of Buffon, no natu- 

 ralist figured the hyaena from nature ; and it is 

 only within the last few years that its real character 

 has been understood. 



The hyaena has been represented as ferociously 

 untameable: nothing can be more untrue; it is 

 easily domesticated. Bishop Heber saw one in 

 India that followed its master and fanned on him 

 like a dog. Barrow, speaking of the South African 

 Spotted hyaena, states that in "the district of Schneu- 

 berg it is domesticated and used like a hound for 

 the ohaee. Colonel Sykes kept a young Hyaena 

 tame in India, and brought the animal over to 

 England; he presented it (then full grown, yet 

 gentle as a dog) to the Zoological Society. " In 

 India," says Colonel Sykes, "it was allowed to run 

 about my house, and on board ship it was released from 



its cage two or three times a day, to play with 

 the sailors and gambol with the dogs. It early 

 recognised my person and voice, would obey when 

 called, and in general was as playful and goud 

 humoured as a puppy. My visits to it in the Gardens 

 have been rare and at long intervals, nor have I 

 ever carried it food. I anticipated, therefore, that 

 it would outgrow its early affection, and that I 

 should be to it as any other stranger ; but it has 

 always greeted me not only as an old acquaintance, 

 but as an old friend, and if I am to judge from its 

 agitation and peculiar cries, the animal's recognition 

 is that of affection. On Sunday last it was asleep 

 in its cage when I approached. On calling it by its 

 name, it looked up, distinguished me in the crowd, 

 started on its legs, and on my applying my hand to 

 its mouth to smell to, it threw itself down against 

 the bars, rubbed its head, neck, and back against 

 my hand, and then started on its legs, and 

 bounded about its cage uttering short cries. On 

 ceasing to speak to it and moving away, it looked 

 wistfully after me, nor resumed its motions till I 

 addressed it again. Its manifestations of joy were 

 so unequivocal as to excite the surprise of a great, 

 number of bystanders." ('Zool. Proceeds.' 1&33, 

 p. 76.) 



935, 936.— The Spotted Hyjena 



(Hyaena crocuta). Tiger-wolf of the colonists at 

 the cape ; Hyaena Capensis, Desm.; H. maculata, 

 Thunberg. 



This species is the nuisance and even terror of 

 South Africa, where it is well known to the farmers, 

 who too often experience the effects of its destruc- 

 tive habits ; for it not only devours the carrion 

 which chance throws in its way, but. it invades the 

 farmers ' pens or folds during the night, and often 

 succeeds in killing or mutilating such of the larger 

 kinds of live stock as have not been secured before 

 dusk. Sickly animals, as we are assured, are less 

 liable to suffer from the voracity of this creature 

 than those which are in full health: the latter by 

 their rapid flight inspiring the enemy with a courage 

 of which by nature he is destitute ; whereas the 

 sickly face him, and thus intimidate him. So anx- 

 ious is he for the flight of animals as a preliminary 

 to his attack, that he uses all. the grimace and 

 threatening he can command, to induce them to 

 run, and never dares to attack them unless they do 

 so. The spotted hyaena seldom moves abroad during 

 the day ; night is his season of activity, and towards 

 nightfall his howlmgs are regularly heard, announ- 

 cing to the various animals that their foe is on his 

 prowl. These dismal sounds appal the timid; and 

 as they are heard on every side around, confuse the 

 affrighted fugitive, who often runs into the danger 

 from which he seeks to escape. Formerly hyaenas 

 were in the habit of paying nightly visits to the 

 streets of Cape Town, and even now occasionally 

 approach the town, and their howlings are often 

 heard from the Table Mountain. In the Caffre 

 country they are numerous and daring, approaching 

 the villages, and attempting, either by force or stra- 

 tagem, to pass the wattles by which the houses are 

 defended. If so far sueeesful, they next attempt to 

 enter the houses, and not unfrequently succeed in 

 carrying off a young child of the family. 



Mr. Steedman, in his ' Wanderings and Adven- 

 tures in the Interior of Southern Africa,' gives mu.-t 

 appalling accounts of the rapacity of the spotted 

 hyaena. "He states that Mr. Shepstone, in a letter 

 from Mamboland, relates that the nightly attacks 

 of wolves, as the hyaenas are generally called, have 

 been very destructive amongst the children and 

 youth; for within a few months not fewer than 

 forty instances came to his knowledge wherein that 

 beast had made a most dreadful havoc. " To show 

 clearly," says that gentleman, " the preference of 

 the wolf (spotted hyaena) for human flesh, it will be 

 necessary to notice that when the Mambookies 

 build their houses, which are in form like beehives, 

 and tolerably large, often eighteen or twenty feet m 

 diameter, the floor is raised at the higher or back 

 part of the house, until within three or four feet of 

 the front, where it suddenly terminates, leaving an 

 area from thence to the wall, in which every night 

 the calves are tied to protect them from the storms 

 or wild beasts. Now it would be natural to suppose, 

 that should the wolf enter, he would seize Ihe first 

 object for his prey, especially as the natives always 

 lie with the fire at their feet ; but notwithstanding 

 this, the constant practice of this animal has been 

 in every instance to pass by the calves in the area, 

 and even by the fire, and take the children from 

 under the mother's kaross, and this in such a gentle 

 and cautious manner, that the poor parent has been 

 unconscious of her lo>s until the cries of her little 

 innocent have reached her from without when a 

 close prisoner in the jaws of the monster." Mr. 

 Shepstone then particularizes two instances within 

 his own knowledge, one of a boy about ten years of 

 age, and the other of a little girl about eight, who 

 had been carried off by this species, and wretchedly 



