Argon was a low-ranking subadult, and neither she nor Monopoly likely had a firm understanding of their rank in hyena society yet.
However, she was particularly friendly with a subadult named Argon. As a cub (CD), Monopoly was confined to the den and did not have much choice in who she could hang out with. She hung out with everyone in her cohort of cubs and those that visited the den. Hyenas are very hierarchical, and it structures their lives. She was the granddaughter of the matriarch when she was born, so she was in the upper half of the hierarchy. Monopoly was one of the females we followed through this analysis, so let’s take a look at her life. Furthermore, the relationships females had as an adult had a stronger influence on their reproductive success than their juvenile periods, but the reverse is the case for longevity. The number of individuals that a female was around had a greater impact on her reproductive success but friendships had a bigger influence on the female’s longevity. We found that different types of relationships throughout development had important influences on development. We dug through this data to build social networks at three stages of hyena development – at the den (CD), juveniles not dependent on the den (DI), and early adulthood (adult) – to try to answer how the juvenile relationships of hyenas may influence their fitness. This means that thanks to many research assistants and graduate students, we have data on several generations of hyenas growing up, having offspring, and dying. Importantly to answering questions about longevity and reproductive success, we were able to take advantage of the fact that the Mara Hyena Project has been collecting data this way for 30+ years. Observing hyenas at the communal den (Photo credit – Julie Turner) We look at the social network positions of female hyenas as they grow up to see how their different types of relationships may influence how many children they have or how long they live. In our recently published paper, “ Early‐life relationships matter: Social position during early life predicts fitness among female spotted hyenas,” we attempt to answer how social development of female spotted hyenas relates to their reproductive success and longevity.
This interest in complex social behavior is what inspired the research. Gaddafi is a particularly popular cub despite the fact she’s low ranking she is one of the older ones in her cohort, so the younger ones don’t understand her rank yet. Sponge’s mom doesn’t seem to care about him, so he doesn’t have many friends even though he is high ranking. The most interesting gossip to me is always around the relationships in the clan, and what does that mean for the individuals in it. Who is hanging out with who, who is getting picked on, who is a new mom, etc.
GROWING UP ANIMAL SERIES
The first in the behind-the-scenes series for the Journal of Animal Ecology’s Animal Social Network Special Issue, this blog post is provided by Julie Turner ( and tells the #StoryBehindThePaper for the article “ Early‐life relationships matter: Social position during early life predicts fitness among female spotted hyenas“, which was recently published in the Journal of Animal Ecology Animal Social Networks Special Issue.ĭo you ever wonder about the inner workings of animals’ lives? Do they have lots of friends or are they loners? What is it like growing up as an animal? Do their behaviors have long-term consequences? These are some of the questions that we are lucky enough to get to address and observe with the Mara Hyena Project.Īs hyena researchers, we always like catching up on the hyena “gossip” when we get together.
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