THE STRIPED HYENA. 



(Hyaena striata.) 



The first Hyena in which I became 

 interested lived in a zoological garden 

 connected with a well known park. 



I cannot claim that she was a beautiful 

 creature for. if all must be told, she had 

 the same ugly appearance of every other 

 Striped Hyena. And yet her very ugli- 

 ness made her somewhat interesting. 

 She would look at me from her slanting 

 eyes with an unsteady, uncanny expres- 

 sion. Her thick head and neck, her stout 

 body, her shorter hind legs and longer 

 front ones, causing her back to slope 

 from shoulder to tail like a small tobog- 

 gan slide, gave her an extremely awk- 

 ward look, I admit ; and then she had but 

 four toes on each foot as is the case of 

 all members of the hyena family. Her 

 body was covered with rather long coarse 

 hair of a yellowish gray color striped 

 with black, her tail was short and bushy, 

 and along the spine the hair grew long 

 and stiff, making a sort of mane. Her 

 ears were large, erect and devoid of hair, 

 and her voice — well ! it was something 

 to startle the uninitiated. There were 

 shrieks, murmurs and growls, sometimes 

 hoarse and sometimes shrill, and yet I 

 am told that it is mild and musical com- 

 pared with the ghostly laughter of her 

 cousin, the spotted hyena, and yet her 

 voice is not pleasant to hear. 



In spite of all these characteristics I 

 was interested in Mrs. Hyena, perhaps 

 on account of her unhappy lot, for she 

 was not loved as were other animals 

 around her. There was Duchess, the ele- 

 phant, Major, the lion, and other favored 

 ones whose personality was recognized, 

 as they all had names and they received 

 much attention. But Mrs. Hvena had no 

 name, for the keeper declared that she 

 was such a miserably cowardly mean 

 creature that she was not worth one. 



She was only the "Hyena" to him, though 

 he had cared for her for' many years 

 and sometimes had been obliged _to put 

 her in the hospital because her mate had 

 mauled and punished her so badly. 



And was she not to be pitied because 

 she was so far from those of her own 

 kind? for hyenas are not native in the 

 new hemisphere and to seek her own, 

 she would be obliged to cross the ocean 

 to the coast of Africa. There she would 

 rind many of her own kind and should 

 she cross into southern Asia as far as 

 the Bay of Bengal she would still find 

 many friends, while in central and south- 

 ern Africa her cousin, the spotted hyena, 

 would be plentiful, and at the south, along 

 the western coast, her other cousin, the 

 brown hyena, would be found. 



In spite of the large area in which the 

 various members of the family may be 

 found a traveler may be in the country 

 some time without seeing one. for they 

 are nocturnal in their habits, hiding by 

 day in their haunts among the rock-cut 

 tombs in Syria and Palestine or among 

 holes and caves in the rocks in other 

 countries, sometime lurking among ruins, 

 but more often inhabiting a den made 

 by digging a hole in the side of a cliff 

 or ravine. 



But at night it is heard, if not seen, 

 as it goes forth to seek its food. It pre- 

 fers food already killed and only attacks 

 a living animal when driven to it by lack 

 of carrion. Its powerful jaws enable it 

 to crush the bones which other animals 

 leave. As the cleaning up of the world 

 must be done in some way for the good 

 of all. can we not believe that the hyena 

 has an important mission to fulfil in spite 

 of the strong feeling against it ? It takes 

 what other animals leave and is the vul- 

 ture among beasts. 



179 



