Spotted Hyena

== Roleplays that feature this creature ==
* South African Savanna
== Other info ==
=== Social Structure ===
They live in matriarchal clans, males will disperse from their clan to find and join another one with more distantly related females at the age of 2 years and 6 months, while adult females will usually stay in their birth clan for life. The dispersal male is viciously attacked multiple times by the clan he wishes to join before they allow him to join, and the newest members of the clan are always given the very lowest ranks.
Females will always rank above males, even if one of the males is stronger than one of the females. There is no way for males to move up in the hierarchy other than waiting for the males higher up in the hierarchy to die or waiting for new males to join who will automatically rank lower because they are new.
The lower rank a hyena is in the clan, the less resources they get. Higher ranks eat before the lower ranks. This is the same for shelter and breeding partners. If the clan needs shelter from something, but there is not enough space in the chosen shelter, the higher ranks will take shelter while the lower ranks are forced to sit outside
The female hierarchy is based on familial ties, the matriarch's daughters ranking directly below her and her granddaughters ranking directly below her daughters. Because of this, there is also no way for females to move up in the hierarchy other than having cubs or waiting for the higher ranking females to die.
If a female were to ever disperse from her clan, a highly unusual occurrence, she would be treated like a male. She would never be able to rank up higher than any of the other females because she has no familial ties to them.
Category:Animal Pages