Talk:Hyena/Archive 1

Unbiased?
The article makes no mention of the hyenas social hierarchy, instead making them out to be evil demons and hermaphrodites. There is no counter action against this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.131.58.220 (talk) 22:17, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

species clarification
There are four species in the hyena family,red black white and green (hyaenidae) ( [] ). This generic "hyena" article speaks mostly about Spotted Hyena and much, if not all, of the information is not pertinent to the other three species. Specific to the spotted are the ranking system, the strength of the jaws, diet, mating, 'laughing' vocalization, androngeny of females, etc. Therefore I would suggest NOT including this page in the 2006 CD unless major editing done to make it generic to all hyenas OR specific to spotted. What does anyone think? Should content specific to the spotted_hyena be moved to that article and this article made generic to the family hyenas?

Billspat 17:19, 29 December 2006 (UTC)


 * So I took it upon myself to combine the "spotted hyena" and "hyena" entries into one cohesive article on the spotted hyena, containing all the pertinent information found in both articles. This article has been placed under "spotted hyena".


 * That seems to have been a nessecary step, but I am uncertain what to do with the current "hyena" article. As it stands, most of the information here applies only to the spotted hyena, and as such, much of this article is repeated under "spotted hyena". This article will need a major overhaul to apply to the hyena family in general; something I do not currently have time for. Coding "hyena" to go to "spotted hyena", with a brand new article on the family Hyaenidae could also be an option.

NihilRat 21:54, 10 February 2007 -

physical description
Nowhere in the description does it say how large any of the animals are. Seconded - anyone got a good source to add this info from please please


 * There's four different species, and they are not all the same size. You can find out the information at the individual pages: Spotted hyena, Striped hyena, Brown hyena, and Aardwolf. Anaxial (talk) 18:54, 24 February 2009 (UTC)

jaw strength
Under Physiology it says "The hyena has one of the strongest jaws in the animal kingdom" but Digestion says "they are the most powerful of the Animal Kingdom" I'm changing the latter, since there are a few animals with stonger bite force than the hyena.In hindi, Hyena is also known as "Lakadbaggha".

This article now claims that the Aardwolf has a stronger jaw than the Hyena but the Aardwolf page claims it's weak jaw as one reason it doesn't hunt anything larger than the occasional small bird or rodent. Looks like we need a correction somewhere. -- 74.13.58.176 23:42, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

You say "Spotted Hyena" twice. Do you mean the Striped Hyena is weaker than the Spotted Hyena? I assumed this to be the case and changed it. Please correct me if I am wrong! hhhobbit (talk) 19:01, 25 December 2007 (UTC)
 * You are correct; the striped hyena is, indeed, weaker than the spotted hyena. Anaxial (talk) 08:51, 26 December 2007 (UTC)

Discussion of the relative jaw strength compared to other mammals is useless without quantitative data. A more appropriate discussion would go something like... The hyena dentition and skull have modifications to provide the strong forces required to crunch and grind bone. The exception to this being the Aardworlf. The Aardwolf has reduced dentition and zygomatic arch when compared to the rest of the family as their diet is considerable different (they mainly eat insects, termites, ect...).

This whole discussion really belongs under a physiology section...also someone threw in a dental formula for no real reason...

16:27, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

Why is it called that their strongest bite is a myth? Now some people probably think that hyenas don't have a strong bite at all. The article should say hyenas do have the strongest bite among mammals based on the biteforce, but tasmanian devil has the strongest bite based on the ratio of the body. I won't bother changing the content (cause holier than thou people will change it back) but this is what makes wiki a poor source of knowledge, articles are very poor, misleading and sometimes incomprehensible. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.63.21.66 (talk) 05:11, 29 November 2009 (UTC)

laugh
I suggest adding something about the 'laugh' of the hyena - perhaps its most well-known trait. There is some information from the external links. BillMcGonigle 16:30, 19 November 2005 (UTC)
 * There's info about the laugh in the Spotted Hyena article. Is it specific to that species? --Kalthare 21:40, 30 December 2005 (UTC)

I recall somewhere reading about the Hyena torturing its prey, always at night, once the pack has overwhelmed a live victim.. combining the horrible "laugh", enjoying (?) the torture of its victim, ease of eating rotting meat, rolling in a decaying kill to cover itself with the scent.. It all adds up to a nightmare, macabre picture.. I don't see very much of this described here.. the few hyena videos I just watched seem to substantiate some of this.. I think trivialization is an error .. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.116.240.13 (talk) 00:53, 3 April 2010 (UTC)

dominance
I find this passage confusing:
 * Females are the most powerful and dominating members of the Clan, then come cubs, and at last males.

Are these cubs here the female cubs or only, or do the male cubs dominate the adult males (until they become docile at puberty or something)? I suggest (depending on the facts) rewriting as either:
 * Adult females are the most powerful and dominating members of the Clan, then come female cubs, and at last males.

or:
 * Adult females are the most powerful and dominating members of the Clan, then come cubs of both sexes, and at last adult males.

The second version (which has male cubs dominating adult males) has extra clarifiction ("of both sexes") because of this backwardness.

--Toby Bartels 23:53, 13 November 2005 (UTC)

There is still much scientists don't know about the dominance within the hyena clan. It is extremely complicated and is still studied carefully. Cubs of the Alpha (be they male or female) can taunt any other hyena in the clan, and I know for a fact that cubs gang up to tease a male. We might be careful adding information about the ranking system, since it still is studied.

I find it hard to believe that any cub would dominate a male if the mother wasn't around. You may as well leave cubs out of the equation. The females are dominant, and therefore their interests (including in their cubs) take precedence over the interests of the males.


 * unless you've studied them I don't think you personal thoughts on the matter can really be considered fact

accidentally killing siblings
The article currently states:
 * Hyenas are born with teeth, which means that sometimes when the cubs play-fight they can accidentally kill each other.

I know precisely nothing about hyenas (except that I'm glad they don't live around here!), so I'm not going to go ahead and change anything, but according to a National Geographic Channel documentary playing right now, called, I believe, "Eternal Enemies: Lions and Hyenas", when siblings kill each other it's intentional fratricide in their constant struggle for dominance, not accidental mishap. Comments? Tom e rtalk 08:34, 27 March 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, I also just saw a Discovery documentary about most agressive predators or something such, featuring hyenas among others. I got the impression the cubs were pretty agressive. Apparently the female hyenas produce a lot of testosterone (hence their dominant attitude and agressiveness) - this also has the curious side effect of the females having false penises(!). -- 14 April 2006

After googling a bit, it seems like cubs indeed kill each other ( http://blindftp.exis.net/~spook/hyenatxt.html ) - I'm adding that page to external links. -- 14 April 2006

I came across an intressting factual piece of infomation about the hyena the other day. 80% of first born cubs are born dead, due to the strange makup of the female hyena's body. I'll see if I can reference something written for you... - 20th April 2006

Removed link
I removed this external link since it was dead. I saved it here for reference: Regards, --Dna-Dennistalk - contribs 06:27, 4 July 2006 (UTC)
 * The hyena man of Harar-

This link was removed for being inappropriate


 * Hyena Facts, Pictures & Video

I actually think it's more relevant than a lot of the other links that have been posted...if this link is going to be taken down, I feel as though it should either be re-added or a couple of the other not as strong links should come down. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Grace suriel (talk • contribs) 00:43, 30 September 2008 (UTC)

Digestion & Smelling Abilities
Since I am quite fascinated by hyenas, I read quite a bit about them some years ago. After reading this article I failed to find info about the following (which I have heard about):

1. That they have superior digestion - they eat their ENTIRE prey (even the bones) - I managed to double-check this, and found confirmation of this here: http://www.zoo.org/educate/fact_sheets/savana/hyena.htm I have added some info on this under the new section "Digestion".

2. That they have EXCEPTIONAL smelling abilities - I can't remember the details, but it was something like 4 or 10 times (or more?) better than the best dog. I have even seen a documentary about some Asian dog breeders who claimed to have successfully crossed hyenas (or hyena-like dogs? I can't remember...) with dogs into a new dog breed, with amazing smell abilities. I find this strange, since I also have read they are more related to cats than dogs, and that they can not be crossed with either. In the documentary they showed the new dog breed and demonstrated the smelling capabilities. Maybe my memory fails me, but at least I remember it had something to do with hyenas and some Asian species... I will try to find more info on this, but if I fail, and someone else can confirm/clarify it, please say so here and/or add it to the article.

Regards, --Dna-Dennistalk - contribs 05:00, 4 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Hyena-dog hybrid? Sounds like bs.  Can't be done.  I don't doubt that it's been claimed, but it was a lie.67.170.176.203 16:19, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

Disambiguation
Is the disambiguation with the Lion King characters really necessary? It seems doubtful that someone would go to "hyena" to look for particular cartoon characters. 68.77.111.101 15:12, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

But someone may be looking for Hyaena (album). I don;t know how to do those spiffy "You may be looking for..." links, though. 70.56.173.52 00:06, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Fighting not sourced
The description of lion/hyena battling is absolutely fascinating—almost seems like organized warfare. Which gets me wondering: would two predator species really waste so many calories on each other with the regularity suggested here?

So where is the source? Marskell 11:02, 29 September 2006 (UTC)

Looks like a child has made up the fighting section. Ridiculous.


 * Much of it closely resembles the information in the National Geographic video Eternal Enemies: Lions & Hyenas. It's a gripping documentary, but I found myself wondering the same things as Marskell as I watched. Unfortunately, I don't know enough to be able to say whether or not the information is reliable, but it's possible that this might do for a source.


 * As to the style of the article section, I entirely agree: it lacks polish. I'd go ahead and edit it so that it reads better, but I hate to do that if the information isn't even factual. National Geographic seems to me to be a fairly reliable source, but I'd be interested to hear if anyone has any other sources that dispute the claims of Eternal Enemies: Lions & Hyenas. &mdash;CKA3KA (Skazka) 01:36, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

origins and evolution
A section on the origin and evolution of the family would be good. Let's hear it for Ictitherium, Percocruta and Hyaena brevirostris! (they're the only ones I know about...) Totnesmartin 21:39, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

Hyneas in Culture
The entire pop culture section needed to rewritten. It wasn't at all written in an encyclopedic way. Plus it's neutrality was questionable. I've trimmed out the offending language and regorganized it so it's easier to read.

Still, the language in MOST of this article is in pretty dire need of being cleaned up. -- ScreenWriterJeb


 * I agree with the need to clean this section. Most of the pop references contain no particular value. If something like "The Lion King" was seen by many, has important characters which were portrayed in a certain way, fine. If the sound of a hynea was used in some experimental music, big deal. Also what, praytell, is the significance of

In India, Hyena is also called "Lakarbaggha" in Hindi, the local language.


 * ?? Great. And in France they call a bear "un ours." Presumably, someone was trying to give the name in some language for hyena that also equates to trickster, but it's not clear how meaningful that is; particularly when only half the statement is there.--Belg4mit 22:21, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

Hyneas figure prominently in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Episode "The Pack".

Quite frankly the bulk of this entire section is unnecessary and embarrassing, yet somebody seems intent on constantly placing this pop culture garbage back into the article. Oh, Wikipedia.


 * I've just tagged it for clean-up, which is at least a start. The text sections don't violate WP:TRIV guidelines, but the lengthy lists of indiscriminate facts certainly seem to, in my opinion. Anaxial 19:32, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

Hyenas and lions
Ive seen lots of sources about hyenas and lionesses fighting over food and all, but a lion is much more massive. For what Ive seen so far, hyenas just run away when a lion comes, there is no such thing as a war. But are hyenas capable of killing with "male" lions? Or at least holding them at bay? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.79.32.234 (talk) 20:33, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

Hyenas are certainly willing to take on female lions, provided they number enough to make up for the size difference. This kind of interaction has been filmed numerous times, including pitched "battles" between groups of hyena and female lions. How likely they are to do so depends on how hungry they are, how much prey is around, and how outnumbered the lions are. I've never heard of hyena taking on a male lion though, even a solitary one. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.121.56.251 (talk) 20:31, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

GQ article
There was this article in GQ from a couple of years ago about a group of roaming street people or something in Southern Africa that had sedated pet hyenas they showed around for money, has anyone seen this article? Arthurian Legend 01:59, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

It does not say.
It does not say how hyenas and the Aardwolf are related to civets, I just want to inform people how they are more related to civets than they are to dogs, though I don't exactly know how they are more related so I can't exactly say how they are, so can anyone edit how they are, I just want more people who read about this to believe it. The Winged Yoshi —Preceding unsigned comment added by The Winged Yoshi (talk • contribs) 20:40, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Jaw
"hyenas have among the strongest jaws in the animal kingdom"

How do they compare against marsupials like the Thylacine and Tasmanian devil. I was udner teh impression their jaws were the strongest in the animal kingdom. Maybe that is ratio to size (or the hyena measurement is)--ZayZayEM 14:05, 31 October 2007 (UTC)

Physiology?
The section titled 'Physiology' does not appear to contain any information about physiology as such, so I've changed the title to something more apropos. Anaxial 20:51, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

How are Hyenas not dogs?
How are Hyenas not dogs? The Winged Yoshi —Preceding unsigned comment added by The Winged Yoshi (talk • contribs) 17:57, 29 December 2007 (UTC) __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 4 da froobs1 (talk • contribs) 22:24, 14 January 2008 (UTC) because in thier evolutionary tree it was tilited more tword the cats side that a dogs side................

Random question
What is it about this article that attracts so much random IP vandalism? It seems that every time it pops up in my watchlist, it's for shenanigans of some sort.UltraExactZZ Claims~ Evidence 01:20, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Probably because its considered a "funny" animal, and ip vandalisers like to edit "funny" things. Saksjn (talk) 13:51, 10 March 2008 (UTC)

Update to match MSW3
I will be updating all of the hyena aritcles to match the following taxonomy from Mammal Species of the World (3rd ed, 2005):


 * Family Hyaenidae
 * Genus Crocuta
 * Spotted Hyena (Crocuta crocuta)
 * Genus Hyaena
 * Brown Hyena (Hyaena brunnea)
 * Striped Hyena (Hyaena hyaena)
 * Genus Proteles
 * Aardwolf (Proteles cristata)

If you need to discuss this, pleae contact me on my talk page. If no one objects, I will proceed in 48 hours. - UtherSRG (talk) 23:04, 21 April 2008 (UTC)


 * Yes I agree with that. I missed this recent changes in systematic by upgrading the Hyaenidae article. Thank you for checking that. --Altaileopard (talk) 20:15, 24 June 2008 (UTC)

--

Hyenas as Feliformia, while Mustelidae are Caniformia?
I was fascinated by this above mentioned zoological taxonomic attribution. Frankly -- just because it seems to me that Hyenas are so much more reminiscent of dogs in their appearance. Also in "popular zoology" if one may use such problematic term, Hyenas are always considered to be relatives of dogs?
 * In fact, zoologists have considered hyenas to be more closely related to cats than dogs for a very long time. Anaxial (talk) 21:57, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

And i do believe that the outward similarity between the two families is obvious. While additionnaly, and admittedly through no better proof then subjective "unlearned" opinion -- weasels seem much more resemblant to cats in certain aspects. So i was just wondering if someone might care to confirm my assumption that DNA evidence suggests the biological proximity between cats and Hyenas etc?
 * While this is true, the relationship was known before DNA analysis came on the scene. While the overall shape of a hyena is certainly dog-like, their skeleton has certain cat-like features. On the other hand, many of the extinct Borophagines resemble hyenas, and yet do appear to be related to dogs. Anaxial (talk) 21:57, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

In either case i find it intriguing and interesting. Monkey dog2088 (talk) 20:55, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

Closest to the Herpestidae?
Although hyenas bear some physical resemblance to canids, they make up a separate biological family that is most closely related to Herpestidae

Is this right? According to Building large trees by combining phylogenetic information: a complete phylogeny of the extant Carnivora (Mammalia) (some sort of subscription required, I think) the hyenas are closer to the felidae. But that article's 10 years old so I suppose more modern phylogenetics could have changed our opinions.

Anyway, a cite would be good for the above text. Evercat (talk) 21:12, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

Closest to Cat or Dog
To go forward from that, it's often cited that the hyena is closer to the cat family than that of the dog, despite appearances. I think the way the article is written as of now, especially in the evolution section that relies mostly on the text version of the book (as opposed to a web version that could be verified more easily) keeps refering to a canine-like hyena repeatedly - which may confuse the issue. I think there is only one line that refers to hyena as actually being closer to another species and not to dog and that sentence points to the Herpestidae, not the Felidae. Some clarification may be in order or rephrasing or perhaps a direct sitation.--RossF18 (talk) 18:48, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

misc
Do you know where I can get some information on the ice-age cave hyena?

what is up with the hyena comedy club?

How do you add a category? I would have put this under Physiology:

I just don't understand this sentence:

One indication of hyena intelligence is that they will move their kills closer to each other so they can play dirty games with each other to protect them from scavengers; another indication is their strategic hunting methods.[2]

Female Hyena's and giving birth
Female Hyena's have an unusually high mortality rate associated with giving birth this is due to their strange false "male genitials" which they give birth through. This results in a high death rate in the Adult Female's giving birth and also in firstborn cubs. 80% of firstborn cubs are born dead

http://www.accessexcellence.org/WN/SUA06/hyena.html http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Crocuta_crocuta.html http://blindftp.exis.net/~spook/hyenatxt.html http://www.africanconservation.org/dcforum/DCForumID5/347.html

A few references which explain it better than I can. Somebody want to add a bit?

Genus within a genus??
In the section on genera, we have "Furthermore, the genus Paracrocuta, to which the living brown hyena belongs, is not included into the genus Pachycrocuta, but in the genus Hyaena". Including a genus within a genus makes no sense. What is this trying to say? --Stfg (talk) 19:06, 4 July 2010 (UTC)


 * I believe it's trying to say that the genus Paracrocuta is now deprecated, and the species formerly assigned to it are listed in the article as belonging to Hyaena, although some authors have listed them as belonging instead to Pachycrocuta. I'll try and rephrase. Anaxial (talk) 20:16, 5 July 2010 (UTC)


 * Thanks. Your rephrasing makes it clear. --Stfg (talk) 20:39, 5 July 2010 (UTC)

Group of Hyenas
You need to add that a group of hyenas is called a clan or cackle.

Gatorgirl7563 (talk) 02:00, 10 October 2010 (UTC)

Good source
Was googling images for my kids and found this good ref National Geographic I'll add the info when I have time but it maybe awhile. Anyone feel free to go for it. Blackash  have a chat 02:22, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

The Lion King
Wha-a-a-at?! No "cultural reference" for the hyenas in The Lion King? :-( I'm a little sad... Sir Ian (talk) 18:29, 20 July 2013 (UTC)


 * Look at the spotted hyena article for that. "Hyena" is a family, not a species. To include The Lion King here would be like including it in the Panthera article rather than the lion one.Mariomassone (talk) 18:36, 20 July 2013 (UTC)

Croups?
From the entry: "Hyenas have relatively short torsos and are fairly massive and wolf-like in build, but have lower hind quarters, high withers and their backs slope noticeably downward toward their croups."

Wikipedia has a page for croup which is type of respiratory infection, but nothing on a part of a hyena that is called a croup. Please explain or give an alternative word. Rissa, copy editor 00:24, 19 April 2014 (UTC)


 * It means croup in the equestrian sense. However, that seems an odd thing to call the back end of a hyena, so I've changed to something clearer. Anaxial (talk) 05:51, 19 April 2014 (UTC)

"fourth-smallest biological family"
From what I gather, the biological family is small. Of the four families in carnivora, it is the smallest. If that is true, shouldn't it be the fourth-largest? Or first-smallest? I realize that they all sound weird, and that I'm mostly wrong about most things. But, in a list of the smallest things, the number one thing is the smallest, and the number four thing is the largest. Sorry if this is dumb. 99.176.20.243 (talk) 00:39, 12 September 2013 (UTC)


 * The flaw in your calculation is that there are sixteen families in the Carnivora, not four. On the other hand, you are correct in that "fourth-smallest" isn't accurate, there being four Carnivoran families that are smaller. So it should be the fifth-smallest. Anaxial (talk) 07:56, 20 July 2014 (UTC)

This part should be edited for other reasons. There are not only four species if you count extinct ones. Since evolving, there have been untold countless numbers of species in this family, not four. The lead is too focused on just existent species. Chrisrus (talk) 15:01, 23 January 2015 (UTC)


 * I have added the word "extant" to the lead.__DrChrissy (talk) 16:16, 23 January 2015 (UTC)

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Known to whom?
Hyenas first arose in Eurasia during the Miocene period from viverrid-like ancestors, and SOON BECAME WELL KNOWN as being of two distinct types: the lightly built dog-like hyenas and the robust bone-crushing hyenas.

What? I have no idea what the capitalized portion of the above sentence is trying to say. Known to whom? To our Australopithecus ancestors? Though they were presumably familiar with hyenas of different sorts, I doubt they were conceptualizing the differences between hyenas in such taxonomic terms. Would it perhaps make more sense for the sentence to read

Hyenas first arose in Eurasia during the Miocene period from viverrid-like ancestors, and soon diversified into two distinct types: the lightly built dog-like hyenas and the robust bone-crushing hyenas.

?

206.208.105.129 (talk) 16:02, 19 May 2016 (UTC)

✅ Done. Anaxial (talk) 19:17, 19 May 2016 (UTC)

Which species are represented on this map?
This article includes a very confusing map (shown here) that uses more than 5 different colors to represent the ranges of only 4 species. Some of the ranges are shown in orange, brown, and three different shades of green, but the meaning of these colors is not explained anywhere in the map key. Can we replace or update this map to show the ranges more clearly? Jarble (talk) 15:43, 12 May 2017 (UTC)


 * Yes it is hard to work out the distibutions from the map, but by using the individual maps in the four species articles I got there. The problem is for the areas with three overlapping species and the two methods to show overlap.
 * Where the Hyaena species overlap with the aardwolf a striping effect is used, e.g. the red and blue striping in South Africa where the aardwolf (red) and brown hyaena (blue) overlap or the red and blue striping on the west coast of the red sea where the striped hyaena (light blue) and aardwolf (red) overlap.
 * Where the spotted hyaena (olive) overlaps with another species or combination of species the colours are merged (hence "olive overlay" in the key). So the dark cyan areas in the Sahel are where the spotted hyaena (olive) overlaps with the striped hyaena (light blue), while the the orange in southern Angola is where it overlaps with the aardwolf (red).
 * It gets confusing where three species overlap when there are the striping effect of a Hyaena species and aardwolf plus the merged colours due to spotted hyaena (olive).
 * Unfortunately, it's not too obvious how to change the key to explain all that clearly. For starters, how about this:
 * Proteles - red (striped to show overlapping ranges)
 * Hyaena - blue (striped to show overlapping ranges)
 * Crocuta - olive (composite colour to show overlapping ranges)
 * That's the best I can do now, but I don't think it is good enough to justify a change yet. Jts1882 (talk) 14:21, 13 May 2017 (UTC)

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Phylogeny update
Phylogeny needs updating. See this 2019 study: https://peerj.com/articles/6238/ Mariomassone (talk) 20:37, 12 April 2019 (UTC)
 * It seems that study uses the phylogeny of Turner et al (2008) and updates the ecomorphs assignment for some species. The groups are no longer as clear cut with advanced bone-crunchers among other groups. So the phylogeny was outdated when I created it following Werdelin & Solounias (1991), probably as that was the only article I had access to. I'll try and update the cladogram this weekend.  Jts1882 &#124; talk 07:53, 13 April 2019 (UTC)
 * If you have the time, could you also do a series of separate cladograms for the different hyena clades, like the bone crushers and the Chasmaporthetes lineage, with perhaps a single branch acting as an outgroup? Mariomassone (talk) 12:18, 13 April 2019 (UTC)
 * I wonder if one large cladogram with all the fossil species is that helpful. Perhaps the best appoach would be to condence the main cladogram to the fossil genera and have separate detailed cladograms like those you suggest, e.g.

It's easy to take out sections of the cladogram. Updating for the newer study will require a bit more time.  Jts1882 &#124; talk 12:45, 13 April 2019 (UTC)

Ancient Greek and Roman opinions
Some ancient Greek and Latin writers believed that the hyena changed its gender every year and gave birth via parthenogenesis. This might be an interesting addition to the "Folklore & Mythology" section. Muzilon (talk) 01:10, 3 January 2020 (UTC)
 * I think this is very interesting, if you have the correct verifiable sources, I would definitely endorse the addition of this information! Also don't forget you can add citations from books and magazines as well --02:02, 6 March 2020 (UTC)PrecociousPeach (talk)

Transcription of Greek
stop edit-warring over the transcription of ὕαινα now, and discuss here. Both u and y are widely used to transcribe υ, the choice depending on the context, so either is acceptable. Since both the scientific name and the English name use y, this seems the most sensible choice to me. Peter coxhead (talk) 12:37, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

Given that it's Ancient Greek, I'd go with "u", but I don't really care all that much. I mostly objected to the use of modern phonology as justification for the "y". &#32;- Sumanuil (talk) 21:41, 3 April 2020 (UTC)
 * on the issue of phonology, you are clearly correct. Although the Ancient Greek word is the ultimate origin, as with all scientific names, it's the Latinized forms that are more directly relevant, and for υ it's almost always y that is used, u being used for ου, particularly in Botanical Latin. (I was wrong to write transcription above, since it's transliteration that is the issue here; we're not interested in how the Ancient Greek word was pronounced.) Peter coxhead (talk) 15:10, 4 April 2020 (UTC)

Go ahead and change it if you have to, just use a valid justification (like that). Making potentially valid changes for invalid reasons is a particular pet peeve of mine. &#32;- Sumanuil (talk) 22:17, 4 April 2020 (UTC)

feliform
Would it be better to say: "Although feliform and phylogenetically closer to felines and viverrids, hyenas are.." or "Although phylogenetically they are closer to felines and viverrids, and belong to the feliformia category, hyenas are.." instead of "Although phylogenetically they are closer to felines and viverrids, and belong to the feliform category, hyenas are.." ?

My reasoning being that the latter may confuse people into thinking that feliform is a taxonomical category, when strictly it isn't, it just mean "cat-like in appearance.", whereas feliformia is a taxonomical category. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.31.123.130 (talk) 10:55, 10 August 2020 (UTC)


 * The use of feliform in this sense is referring to a taxonomic category, just as felid and feline can be use as common names for the family or subfamily. While it can have the more general meaning for cat-like appearance, it is not often used that way. When referring to the non-felid sabretooths it's more usual to see cat-like.
 * That said I agree about the current phrasing. The use of "feliform category" is strange and vague. I've changed it to "as part of suborder Feliformia" which is direct and to the point. —  Jts1882 &#124; talk 12:00, 10 August 2020 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 16:53, 14 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Short-faced hyena1.JPG

Attacks on Humans 2020 incident
can someone add the 2020 incident? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 169.0.56.220 (talk) 07:23, 3 December 2021 (UTC)