hyena Death of a Rose Hyena, doglike carnivore that is a renowned scavenger. Hyenas have powerful jaws capable of crushing large bones that other predators cannot eat. The hyena's range spans Africa, the Middle East, and southwestern Asia, including India. In prehistoric times, hyenas also roamed Europe. Their habitat is usually open plains and grasslands, but they are sometimes found in rocky terrain, brush-covered areas, and open forests. There are three species of hyenas: the spotted hyena, the striped hyena, and the brown hyena. Of these, the spotted hyena is the largest, measuring about 2 m (about 7 ft) long, including its 30 cm (12 in) tail. It weighs up to 86 kg (189 lb). Adults of this species are brown-gray with dark brown or black spots. The spotted hyena sometimes makes an eerie call that sounds like a human laugh, earning this animal the name of the laughing hyena. The size of striped and brown hyenas ranges in length from 1.2 to 1.5 m (3.9 to 4.9 ft), including the 30 cm (12 in) tail, and in weight from 25 to 55 kg (55 to 120 lb). Striped hyenas are yellow-brown with dark stripes, and brown hyenas have dark brown coats with distinct stripes on the legs. Both of these species have upright manes on their necks and backs. All hyenas share the characteristic of a distinctly sloping back, resulting from a size difference between their large, muscular front legs and smaller back legs. Each foot has four toes with nonretractable claws that help hyenas to run on the open plains. Hyenas have small heads that contain massive jaws and teeth. A prominent anal pouch, located under the base of the long, bushy tail, is used for scent marking. Most active at night, hyenas typically scavenge the kills of other animals, feeding on the body parts left behind. They are able to bite through tough hides and crush and digest large bones. Indigestible materials, such as hair, hooves, and horns, are formed into pellets in the digestive tract and regurgitated through the mouth. Hyenas also make their own kills. Capable of running up to 65 km/h (40 mph), individual hyenas will attack sheep, goats, wildebeest, and other animals, and they will form packs of ten or more to bring down a zebra. Hyenas usually associate in strongly territorial clans, which are centered around communal dens. A clan may consist of 10 or 12 females, 20 young, known as whelps, and a number of males on the fringes. Pair bonding is not evident, and the female, larger than the male, selects her mating partners. Females conceive throughout the year, giving birth to one to five whelps after a gestation period of 92 to 110 days. In many areas hyenas have traditionally been hunted by humans, who view them as predators of livestock. Habitat loss and persecution by humans have threatened hyenas in some areas. The brown hyena’s numbers have been somewhat reduced in some areas due to competition with spotted hyenas. Scientific classification: Hyenas make up the Hyaenidae family in the order Carnivora. The spotted hyena is classified as Crocuta crocuta, the brown hyena as Parahyaena brunnea, and the striped hyena as Hyaena hyaena. So after that cut and paste, I theorize that you are primarily a craven coward until you form your hunting pack, you smell terrible, and your kind is going to be extinct in the wild, hmm...lets say the next 50 - 100 years. So who is dominant now. And the curr was a drawn out growel. I guess I should have stated it like currrr; is that better little oh useless one? 040122 ... Death of a Rose and one last side note, in relation to my dominant blathe. I was trying to relate that Death is the dominant force over man. Have fun blathing. :-) 040122 ... Death of a Rose shite...growl...not growel. 040122 ... hyena first off, a story, if it please you mr. ohi'msoprettysir? it all started when he giggled. he has this very cute, innocent, playful laugh that comes out when he's really plotting the most nefarious things. when i hear that laugh, i start laughing. i have a laugh that will get me kilt in a video game someday. seriously, you can't hear it and not think i'm out to destroy the world. i can't help it. it sucks. anyhow. he started. which set me off. which kept him giggling. which kept me cackling. "look at you two! laughing like a pair of hyenas!" we laughed harder, the truth of his statement being immediately apparent. "man, you guys are off in your own little world. is it nice there? you're just high on eachother, god dammit. you *are* a couple of hyenas. the only thing you care about is your own entertainment. you're vicious as hell." we clung together and cackled helplessly. we twined our legs together on the couch to avoid stomping on the floor and waking the dogs downstairs. "you'll eat any meat you can find. couple of scavengers." i managed to gasp, "but i can put marks in a few flanks, thank you very much!" before the other's laughter set me off again. "i never said you didn't hunt. you'll just eat anything, is what i'm saying." the manic laughter continues, even stronger. we are poked at, discovered. our funnest habits hung out to dry. "a few hyenas can take down a wildebeest. you're pack animals, and you just found eachother. you guys are fucking dangerous, you know that? no scruples, all appetite, and you're good at what you do." we were laughing too hard to express our utter agreement, chomping on eachother's shoulders to try to control ourselves enough to breathe. "now, you have to understand, i don't mean any of this as an insult. matter of fact, i think hyenas are great. they're survivors. but someday, you're going to meet a lion." i pause in my guffaws long enough to choke out, "i've met a lion (hahaha). there are no lions in this town, (tee hee!) and if i meet one, he can have my throat, (hee hee hee!) if he can catch me!" laughter and laughter and laughter, until finally we descended into giggling sighs. 040122 ... hy naw, death is a condition that naturally follows life. i'm the one that makes it a meal. nothing in there would lead you to the conlusion that hyenas are cowards, they *do* take down wildebeest if you recall, something even lions have a time with (it's the zebras that are tricky, and fast, and have sharp hooves, but are delicious when they're nabbed), and if i smell funny it's cause i eat meat and make sure that no one comes up on my area, you dig? growling takes more than one rrrrrrr, two rrs is barely a question. i could teach ya sometime, but ya wouldn't like it. and no, you weren't trying to make some cosmically deep statement of the dominance of death over the human condition. i'll eat damn near anything, but not stuff you pull out of your butt. if you want to pretend to attempt to be the personification of the end of a life, i'm sorry, but you'd have to be a whole lot more of an evenhanded force for the closure of a cycle and beginning of the next, and not just personify a pup getting all suddenly snippy and rolling over onto my page when someone takes a few friendly chomps in your direction. man, wannabe doms can be so touchy. sheesh. 040122 ... corner of a mind crashing into Bleaker street 7 - You were right, you're not a very nice person. Yeah you talk a good game but beyond the 'come at me dog' postures and postulations and sharing all your open sore stories, really not much else worth loping out to the trough coated in decaying maggot mast for. 040123 what's it to you? who go blather from