hyena

plural hyenas · plural hyenae · alternative dated hyaena · alternative dated hyæna · alternative obsolete hyen

1. Any of the medium-sized to large feliform carnivores of the family Hyaenidae, native to Africa and Asia and noted for the sound similar to laughter which they can make if excited.

   The udder of the hyena, tied on the left arm, enticed the affection of any desired woman.

   1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 60

   4 more examples

   I took no systematic data on the costs to cheetahs and hyenas, but some anecdotes suggest that both parties took numerical advantage and hunger into account.

   1994, T. M. Caro, Cheetahs of the Serengeti Plains: Group Living in an Asocial Species, page 283

   Hyenas are scavengers, which means they eat food left behind by other animals and people.

   2002, Maskew Miller Longman, Find Out about African Animals, page 28

   Hyena biologists often think of spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) as baboons with big teeth and relatively small brains.

   2003, Anne Engh, Kay E. Holekamp, “Case Study 5A: Maternal Rank "Inheritance" in the Spotted Hyena”, in Frans B. M. De Waal, Peter L Tyack, editors, Animal Social Complexity: Intelligence, Culture, and Individualized Societies, page 149

   This female hyena also gets erections and is larger, more aggressive than the male hyenas and lives in matrilineal clans of up to 80 individuals governed by an alpha female matriarch.

   2022 June 12, Katie Hunt, “How zoology got female animals all wrong”, in CNN, archived from the original on 17 Aug 2022

2. Subsaharan AfricaA man that performs ritualized sex acts with recently widowed women and menarchal girls.

   see Citations:hyena