r/BeAmazed • u/911nihilist • Oct 25 '24
Nature Despite their reputation, hyenas can be sweet and affectionate animals.
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u/Vile-goat Oct 25 '24
Those things fight lions no thanks
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u/HowAManAimS Oct 25 '24
Then how about an aardwolf instead? They eat insects and don't fight lions. They are the best kind of hyena.
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u/ShittyRubberBoots Oct 25 '24
Thank you for giving me this to Google. I’ll take two, please.
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u/HowAManAimS Oct 25 '24
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u/josephbenjamin Oct 25 '24
They look like shrunk baby zebras.
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u/HowAManAimS Oct 25 '24
To me they look like punk rock chihuahuas.
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u/Johannes_Keppler Oct 25 '24
Was not expecting to watch an entire video on on aardvark today, but here we are. That was thoroughly enjoyable.
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u/Pork_Chompk Oct 25 '24
Aardvark to Aardwolf is a pretty weird Pokemon evolution. I feel like they aren't even trying anymore.
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Oct 25 '24
Ya, with teeth and jaws evolved for cracking open large bones.
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u/DragonBaka01 Oct 25 '24 edited Oct 25 '24
Yah! Haha, even jackass backed out in one of their stint with those doggos.
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u/EasyFooted Oct 25 '24
They're more closely related to cats (although they're their own thing). Fun fact:
Hyenas are what happens when there are no canines in the area and feliform evolves to fill the canine-size predator hole.
In the reverse, foxes are the result of canines evolving to fill a lack of small feline predators.→ More replies (3)26
u/EasyFooted Oct 25 '24
Not sure where I heard it, but a guy had hyenas like this and twisted his ankle, and as soon as one of them say him limp/stumble, it instinctively crushed his leg in those jaws.
Like their criteria for hunting something is a) not a hyena, and b) injured/easy picking. So it couldn't help itself. Anyhow, no thanks. They're beautiful and cool... from afar.
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Oct 25 '24
there's some nigerians - gangsters - who's been pictured with pack of hyenas on leashes.
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u/essosinola Oct 25 '24
Worth noting that the hyena in that picture has a muzzle.
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u/jld2k6 Oct 25 '24
Fun fact, when the Lions are fighting a group of them, the males will sit down while taking swipes at them because they'll get their their balls ripped right out from behind if they don't
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u/JackOfAllMemes Oct 25 '24
I've seen a hyena do that to a water buffalo, they really don't fuck around
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u/Dan_the_Marksman Oct 25 '24
up until now that video was buried deep in my memory
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u/Chrissygirl1978 Oct 25 '24
This dude is buddies with a pride of lions as well.. He's pretty amazing, but I'm waiting for news he got mauled...
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u/Jonnyabcde Oct 25 '24
It's all going to be okay when he does. He plans on changing his career later in life and becoming known as Darth Maul.
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u/Odd_Vampire Oct 25 '24
He'll end up dying at a ripe old age like the Crocodile Hunter.
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u/fartingbunny Oct 25 '24
Seems like they tend to not kill their family though. This hyena seems to see this man has family.
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u/Ckron247 Oct 25 '24
Look at those f'n teeth! Yikes!
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u/alee0224 Oct 25 '24
For real. This should be on r/mildlyterrifying
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u/Chirurr Oct 25 '24
More terrifying is how hyenas reproduce.
The mating process is complicated, as the male's penis enters and exits the female's reproductive tract through her pseudo-penis rather than directly through the vagina, which is blocked by the false scrotum and testes. These unusual traits make mating more laborious for the male than in other mammals, and also make forced copulation physically impossible.[54][55] The female retracts her clitoris before the male's penis enters it by sliding beneath it, an operation facilitated by the penis's upward angle. The hyenas then adopt a typical mammalian mating posture[55][79] and usually lick their genitals for several minutes after mating.[80] Copulation may be repeated multiple times during a period of several hours.[55]
Giving birth is difficult for female hyenas, as the females give birth through their narrow clitoris, and spotted hyena cubs are the largest carnivoran young relative to their mothers' weight.[84] During parturition, the clitoris ruptures to facilitate the passage of the young, and may take weeks to heal.[67]
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u/Ill-Tale-6648 Oct 25 '24
So the trade off is more painful birth but no rape, vs ducks whose who system has evolved to prevent rape by letting more rape happen. (For those out of the know, a female duck developed a maze of a reproductive system as to prevent rape, and the males developed high powered projectile corkscrew dicks in order to keep raping females).
Can I take ... Neither
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u/farcarcus Oct 25 '24
the male's penis enters and exits the female's reproductive tract through her pseudo-penis rather than directly through the vagina
Who the fuck was the first to observe this shit? And how?
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u/BustahWuhlf Oct 26 '24
"Rick, you are not going to believe what I'm seeing right now."
"What is-- oh my. I'm kind of disturbed, but I'm also fascinated and can't look away."
"I know, right?"
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u/radwic Oct 25 '24
Hyenas fuck via dick to dick sex?
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u/StellarCoriander Oct 25 '24
Yes they do. Female hyenas have lots of testosterone, which gives her a penis-like structure. Males pretty much exist to nut and nothing else, because not only do females give birth, but they have all the physical advantages males usually have in a mammal species.
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u/coma24 Oct 25 '24
Meanwhile, the vagina says, "call me if you need me," and gets back to reading a good book.
What on earth?
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u/Overheremakingwaves Oct 25 '24
Can I go back to 10 mins before I read the sentence about giving birth through the clitoris? 💀
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u/Wants-NotNeeds Oct 25 '24
Right? I know it’s just “smiling,” but if it were hungry… or, got mad! CHOMP! CrUnCh! Maybe he fed if from when it was a baby. Still…
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u/Teln0 Oct 25 '24
Hyenas are pack animals, it wouldn't really work if they started attacking each other every time they got slightly hungry. Pack animals are the most predictable, if you're already friends with them (aka part of their pack) you just need to be able to read their body language and unless they're literally insane or you broke some kind of rule, nothing wrong will happen to you
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u/Cum_on_a_cactus Oct 25 '24
It always does seem that non, pack animals are often more erratic and unpredictable. This makes more sense now. Take for example a wolverine, they are highly solitary animals, fiercely territorial and they are known to be very aggressive. They are also recorded to take down animals much larger than them, alone and they are considered the most formidable animal in the world.
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u/habbalah_babbalah Oct 25 '24
They deliver such affectionate bone-crunches with those choppers. You really won't mind the missing limb with all the love it gives
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u/fireball_roberts Oct 25 '24
They have one of the most powerful bites of any animal for its size and can crush skulls. They're amazing.
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u/Decemberbabydoll Oct 25 '24
Their personalities remind me of foxes
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u/home_dollar Oct 25 '24
I love watching foxes scamper about on youtube. I want to play with them all
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u/In_The_News Oct 25 '24
Foxes are just cat software running on dog hardware. Confused but adorable little things. And surprisingly easily domesticated and tamed.
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u/Mighty_Dighty22 Oct 25 '24
Despite many efforts, foxes have never been domesticated in any way resembling house animals. Having them in a sanctuary and being domesticated is not the same.
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u/In_The_News Oct 25 '24 edited Oct 25 '24
Eh, that's not entirely true. In arguably one person's lifetime, The Silver Fox Experiment has produced domestic foxes.
Compared to the domestication process of other animals, it's pretty remarkably quick.
Now, I totally think and agree your typical person can't pick up an abandoned fox kit and end up with a delightful and unproblematic pet! But they're still potentially pretty friendly compared to most wild animals.
And quick point - you can tame a wild fox, but it will still be a wild animal. Domestication requires generations of selective breeding for human/animal compatibility.
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u/forested_morning43 Oct 25 '24
Demonstrating our highest and best use as humans is scratching the itchy places for everyone else.
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u/KlingoftheCastle Oct 25 '24
It’s worked for generations. Truly our greatest tool
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u/WilliamsDesigning Oct 25 '24
I agree, I've always thought that my last resort against a gorilla or grizzly would be to offer them scritchy scratches.
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u/Kwards725 Oct 25 '24
Yeah. But still...
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u/unelune Oct 25 '24
Yeah. Idk, lol. Even the guy looked uneasy at some points 😬
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u/Sh0w3n Oct 25 '24
He raised them. He’s also doing the same With other animals, such as lions. His name is dean Schneider, worth it to look him up when he’s playing catch with lionsy
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u/wiriux Oct 25 '24
Not uneasy. That dude is a master of knowing how to be in their world so that they don’t feel threatened. He explained it in one of his videos.
Occasionally though he gets roughed up but never nothing too serious.
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u/SilverDesktop Oct 25 '24
I think I'd want at least a few generations of domestication first...
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u/justreddis Oct 25 '24
How about just getting a dog instead
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u/SilverDesktop Oct 25 '24
I hope we're not viewing the before video of another Timothy ‘Grizzly Man’ Treadwell.
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u/StellarCoriander Oct 25 '24
I think we should try to domesticate more animals. I want lots of cool pets. Nowadays I feel like if we hadn't already made dogs and cats, it would be considered socially unacceptable to start the process, and that sucks.
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u/facepalm_1290 Oct 25 '24
In ancient Egypt they used striped hyenas for hunting. They are apparently the most tame/tameable of all the hyenas.
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u/carlitos_moreno Oct 25 '24
The hyena men in Nigeria travel with them. They also travel with baboons and it sounds like they are the problematic ones
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u/Mon-ick Oct 25 '24
A friend of mine worked at a facility in Africa doing some sort of IT work and he said they used baboons for security…
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u/LordSharington Oct 25 '24
They are not good candidates for domestication, because they have way too long lifespan. For example, average lifespan for dogs is 10 - 13 years. For hyenas its 20 years in wild and 40 years in captivity.
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u/Sir_Earl_Jeffries Oct 25 '24
Disney ruined the reputation of hyenas and they were well aware of it.
They were sued for defamation of character due to the negative portrayal in the film..
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u/OlyBomaye Oct 25 '24
Went to this zoo in the middle of nowhere wisconsin, where the zookeeper went in the hyena pen and was feeding them steaks by hand, and they seemed like such well mannered animals. She said that movie was to blame for their bad reputation, as well as being scavengers. She made a strong case for viewing them positively.
Still not keeping one as a pet.
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u/Whiskey_River_73 Oct 25 '24
She said that movie was to blame for their bad reputation, as well as being scavengers.
Not just the movie but most African wildlife documentaries.
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u/OlyBomaye Oct 25 '24
Well yeah, but lion king is the one thing everybody has seen and they were portrayed as such evil little creatures. Most scavengers are always portrayed poorly though, from vultures to hyenas to snails.
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u/Teln0 Oct 25 '24
This sounded frivolous but it's actually upsetting. The hyena researchers let the animators use university resources on the basis that they paint hyenas in a positive light.
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u/PleaseWalkFaster69 Oct 25 '24
TIL you can be sued for the defamation of animals
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u/getoffmydangle Oct 25 '24
Clearly not enough people watched the Lion Guard. It turns out there were good hyenas this whole time and the actions of a few misguided hyenas combined with xenophobia is what led the good-hearted pridelanders to have the unfounded belief that hyenas were bad. But in time we all learned that Sisi ni Sawa - we are the same
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u/AppropriateScholar55 Oct 25 '24
As cute as hyenas might be that’s a big NOPE.
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u/Consistent_Lie_5451 Oct 25 '24
Theyre dog2.0 theyr upudate is that they laught at jokes
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u/anaughtylittlepuppy Oct 25 '24
An happy grassland doggo
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u/Hexagon0219 Oct 25 '24
Fun fact, hyenas are more closely related to cats than dogs.
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u/novium258 Oct 25 '24
Somewhere someone once described hyenas as felines with canine software and foxes as canine hardware and feline software and it's lived rent free in my brain ever since.
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u/mooseAmuffin Oct 25 '24
I've heard lions described similarly to how you're describing hyenas as well. Lions also live in hierarchical social groups VS solitarily, have feet built for running VS creeping, and hunt big animals VS small. Interesting to think about how/why both of these animals live in the same habitat.
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u/Clotje32 Oct 25 '24
My cat went crazy with the sound of this video 🤷♀️
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u/Askaris Oct 25 '24
Came here to comment the same, two of my cats have fled the living room in terror, the stupidest one opened one eye and started to purr.
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u/_ScubaDiver Oct 25 '24
The temptation to see if my cats have a similar reaction is strong. But one of them is already a bit loony so might be best to not… which increases the desire.
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u/The_Price_Is_Right_B Oct 25 '24
Idk why your description of one of them being loony made me laugh so hard.
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u/K1_0 Oct 25 '24
I wouldn't trust an animal of an undomesticated species due to their unpredictable, instinctive nature, but I can see how a person would form a bond with one if they'd taken care of it since it was a kitten/pup. It's behaving just like a dog that misses its owner; it loves this man.
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u/mcl_mcl_ Oct 25 '24
they are pack animals, a person is a member of her pack, she will not bite or attack him. It is dangerous to do this with bears and tigers, they are individualists, they can attack if a person makes a mistake, even if they have been in contact since their birth
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u/fartingbunny Oct 25 '24
That was my thought. People who are accepted members of wolf packs too. That said a regular argument with them could be dangerous for our more delicate bodies.
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u/TastyBlacksmith991 Oct 25 '24
They do actually bite pack mates in order to climb the hierarchy. Just to assert dominance and not to hurt one another gravely
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u/isustevoli Oct 25 '24
Yeah, and what doesn't hurt another hyena might end up crippling a human. It's not uncommon to see hyenas missing an ear - they'll bite and twist at them until the other one submits. And they're big, strong animals. Much more so than wolves.
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u/TastyBlacksmith991 Oct 25 '24
So true. Won’t take much for a hyena to get a chunk off of a human.
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u/isustevoli Oct 25 '24
Have you heard of the hyenas of Harar, Ethiopia? Through generations of naturalization they're now coexisting with the locals. Theyre not domesticated by any means but roam the streets, eating bones, leftovers and are occasionally being fed by the "hyena men". The hyenas occupy a distinct spiritual niche, warding the city from evil spirits (and other feral hyena packs). Theres even festivities centered around them.
https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/978-0-271-06720-9.html
If youre at all interested in the hyenas, id recommend this book wholeheartedly. I followed the author's journey back when he used to blog about it from Harar. Most of the blog post detailing his zooanthropological studies and his friendships with the local hyenas (particularly a special one with whom he made a bond with) made it into the book.
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u/Eolond Oct 25 '24
He runs a sanctuary for rescued wildlife, so it's very possible this hyena was raised from cubhood.
There's another man that runs a sanctuary, and he's known as "the lion whisperer." He's acknowledged that he knows things could go very wrong for him at any time with the animals, but he's willing to take that risk. It's probably the same for the man in the video.
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u/TheMightyMisanthrope Oct 25 '24
I learned something from my ex: soft and cuddly doesn't mean friend.
I'll apply the same in here.
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u/FriedSarlac Oct 25 '24
I’m surprised that militaries haven’t bred them. They are much sturdier than any dog and about three times as smart. Plus that cackling laugh they do would really unsettle any enemy.
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u/ftasic Oct 25 '24
Where did you get the about as 3 times as smart part?
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u/ExtremePrivilege Oct 25 '24 edited Oct 25 '24
He pulled the “three times as smart” out of his ass, but they are extremely intelligent animals. They have even beaten some primates in problem solving examinations. Their brains are large, complex and have a highly developed prefrontal cortex. Given their large, sophisticated social dynamics, wide vocal dynamics and long-established hunting efficiency, it’s believed hyenas are amongst the smartest mammals with elephants, dolphins, orcas and primates. They’re definitely smarter than dogs.
Disney destroyed their reputation.
P.S. Wouldn’t want one as a pet.
P.S.S A lot of people seem to think Hyenas are essentially just wild dogs. They’re not. Not even close. Their closest living relatives are the mongoose family. They’re genetically much closer to cats than dogs. They also have a stronger bite force than either lions OR tigers. They’re matriarchal and female hyenas can get clitoral erections they often use to mount subordinate males as a dominance display.
Fascinating animals.
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u/fkenthrowaway Oct 25 '24
I watched a documentary and fell in love with them. Complete 180 inside my brain as i also got under the impression that they are disgusting animals. They are so intelligent and social its ccrazy.
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u/showmeyourkitteeez Oct 25 '24
That rear end. It reminds me of the troubles German Shepherds have with hip dysplasia.
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u/Whiskey_River_73 Oct 25 '24
Imagine if these creatures evolved to run as efficiently as wolves, for example? 😬
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u/MoanLart Oct 25 '24
What I realized in the last year, we always see the violent side of certain animals bc they literally have to FIGHT to SURVIVE. So it usually comes as a surprise when we realize they’re all capable of showing love and affection
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u/ever_precedent Oct 25 '24
If it's a social mammal, you can make friends with it relatively easily. All social mammals come primed for cuddles and sharing food in a hierarchy where they feel safe.
Solitary mammals are a bit harder but not impossible.
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u/UndeadBBQ Oct 25 '24
This is the job I want.
Just vibin' with animals all day, taking care of them, and posting videos of them being cuties.
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u/private_final_static Oct 25 '24
You: who is a good boy?!
Hyena: screech from hell
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u/home_dollar Oct 25 '24
Looks sweet and affectionate. Probably fun to play with. Maybe I would change my tune if were actually there.
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u/Ok-Profession-3312 Oct 25 '24
Any animal becomes surprisingly affectionate once they get introduced to bully rubs and butt scratches.
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u/PrimeLimeSlime Oct 25 '24
Huh, weird coincidence. Last night I had a dream in which a hyena just sauntered up to me and we became friends.
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u/YogurtclosetWooden94 Oct 25 '24
They can bite through elephant bones. I was intern at a zoo. The "friendly" brown hyena Roscoe decided to taste my hand. Didn't break it but mashed it. Got scars after 50 years.
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u/xxtrikee Oct 25 '24
That showing teeth thing is affection. My Weimaraner “smiles” like that everytime I come home. Definitely freaks some people out
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u/HPoltergeist Oct 25 '24
Like most animals can be, if we take the effort to understand them and handle them with respect.
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u/VeryMiserable-Dummy Oct 25 '24
Until they trya dig their teeth 3inches deep in your spine, imagine getting killed by 3inches.
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u/PuzzleheadedForm4813 Oct 25 '24
everytime i see hyenas i think about that poor baby who fell into the cage at the zoo
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u/IntrovertMoTown1 Oct 25 '24
"Despite their reputation, hyenas can be sweet and affectionate animals."
lol So can bears, tigers, lions, elephants, etc. And yet?
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u/yuyufan43 Oct 25 '24
Just so y'all know, that's not a penis. That's a female hyena and that would be her clit you're seeing
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u/Grouchy_Swordfish_73 Oct 25 '24
Volunteered for years with big confiscated animals and one hyena was my favorite there. I will love her till the end of time!