Snapshot Serengeti Talk

What Fasinating/Unusual or just down right weird, facts about Serengeti wildlife, do you know?

  • AowlanCrystal by AowlanCrystal moderator

    I wonder if anyone else wishes to add any Fasinating and/or unusual facts about the Serengeti animals, be it unusual habits the animals have or have witnessed, ie a lion adopting an impala calf for example would be unusual, which gender rules the pride/pack etc.., odd feeding habits, unusual courtship rituals, why some seem to have strange body adaptations, like elephants trunk, aardvarks shape....

    The unsual/strange facts I'll contribute are:
    About the Female Hynea.

    Females rule the pack, run the show, are very dominant and aggressive, more so than the males, who are smaller and less muscular than the female too.
    For some reason, whilst in the womb, the female pups are subjected to high levels of testosterone (Male hormones), which causes their bodies to grow rather different to what one would expect, cause of this it makes sexing Hyneas rather difficult from just viewing what's there!,..............
    ...........what might look like a lot of males 'hanging out' and showing off their sizable and erectable endowments, are infact a sisterhood of females and there is not even 1male adult around!!
    They have what appears to be a pair of testicles too, generally hairier than a male Hyenas, but unlike the male, a females are just full of fat n tissue.
    They have to urinate, mate and give birth through this male looking part, sadly cause of this strange evolutionary path that female hyneas have taken, means that around about 1 in 5 can die giving birth to their first litter, cause of complications.... as to why female hyenas are this way, no-one has come up yet with the right answer although many theories have been put forward.

    Posted