EVOLUTION
A
recent study in northern Ethiopia has found that large populations of
hyenas are living side-by-side with human settlements, providing a
mutually beneficial arrangement.
By playing hyena and gnu-hyena
distress calls, researchers were able to calculate the density of the
hyena population in the area to be around 52 hyenas per 100 square
kilometres. These hyenas rely almost entirely on humans for
their food because of the way agriculture has fragmented their habitat -
hair analysis of hyena droppings indicated that only 1% of their prey
was not of domestic origin.
It's thought the reason human and
hyena communities successfully coexist is because the cost of hyena
predation to human settlements is very low. Hyenas are efficient
scavengers and the majority of their diet consists of what humans have
thrown away. Dr. Yirga (Mekelle University) commented, "Spotted hyenas
benefit from waste disposal and human communities benefit from the
waste-clearing service... This also indicated that large carnivores
could coexist with people at remarkably low costs."
Photo credit: Stephanie M. Dloniak.
The abstract of their paper: http://www.sciencedirect.com/
Other articles:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/
http://www.upi.com/
A
recent study in northern Ethiopia has found that large populations of
hyenas are living side-by-side with human settlements, providing a
mutually beneficial arrangement.
By playing hyena and gnu-hyena distress calls, researchers were able to calculate the density of the hyena population in the area to be around 52 hyenas per 100 square kilometres. These hyenas rely almost entirely on humans for
By playing hyena and gnu-hyena distress calls, researchers were able to calculate the density of the hyena population in the area to be around 52 hyenas per 100 square kilometres. These hyenas rely almost entirely on humans for
their food because of the way agriculture has fragmented their habitat -
hair analysis of hyena droppings indicated that only 1% of their prey
was not of domestic origin.
It's thought the reason human and hyena communities successfully coexist is because the cost of hyena predation to human settlements is very low. Hyenas are efficient scavengers and the majority of their diet consists of what humans have thrown away. Dr. Yirga (Mekelle University) commented, "Spotted hyenas benefit from waste disposal and human communities benefit from the waste-clearing service... This also indicated that large carnivores could coexist with people at remarkably low costs."
Photo credit: Stephanie M. Dloniak.
The abstract of their paper: http://www.sciencedirect.com/
Other articles:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/
http://www.upi.com/
It's thought the reason human and hyena communities successfully coexist is because the cost of hyena predation to human settlements is very low. Hyenas are efficient scavengers and the majority of their diet consists of what humans have thrown away. Dr. Yirga (Mekelle University) commented, "Spotted hyenas benefit from waste disposal and human communities benefit from the waste-clearing service... This also indicated that large carnivores could coexist with people at remarkably low costs."
Photo credit: Stephanie M. Dloniak.
The abstract of their paper: http://www.sciencedirect.com/
Other articles:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/
http://www.upi.com/
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