00:00 I think the public still perceives hyenas as a rotten, smelly scoundrel that is a no-good-for-nothing
00:09 scavenger and I think people really believe that the world would be better off without
00:14 them. They kind of put them on the same category as vermin. And this couldn't be further from
00:19 the truth. And hopefully doing a project like this can yet again show people that these
00:26 are actually highly intelligent animals and they have a real purpose. And yeah, we're
00:32 going to hopefully get people loving you guys, hey? That would be an achievement. You are
00:37 pretty cool.
00:39 Hyenas use sound to recognize intruders and each other. Their highly social nature means
00:47 they have evolved a broad range of vocalizations. From the moment they are born, cubs use a
00:59 noise called a squitter to communicate with their mothers. Perhaps the most famous sound
01:07 of all is the giggle that gives them the nickname laughing hyena. But there's nothing funny
01:13 about this noise. It signals high stress, often heard when they come across their arch
01:20 enemies - lions.
01:25 It's a sound that animals make when there's competition. It's a sound that low-ranking
01:29 animals make when they're either getting beaten up or afraid they won't get access to food.
01:36 Every hyena has an individual whoop with a unique sound pattern. The hyena equivalent
01:42 of signing your name. It helps them coordinate their movements hunting and keep track of
01:52 their clan members.
01:56 Now Kevin is going to try an experiment to see how hyenas respond when they hear intruders
02:01 in their territory. To protect his equipment from inquisitive teeth and claws, Kevin is
02:08 taking to the safety of a cage. He's not sure how they'll react.
02:14 So what's really interesting about the whoop is if I played any human a whoop, they're
02:18 just going to go, "That's a hyena whooping." But with these guys, it's so much more than
02:21 that. They can recognize who it is, individual clan members. So they can put a face to that
02:28 whoop.
02:30 Like lions, hyenas are also highly territorial. Kevin plays the whoop of a total stranger
02:38 that this clan has never heard before.
02:49 Tika approaches the sound and lowers his head as he starts to whoop in response. A call
03:03 that rallies together the dominant hyenas to search for the intruder.
03:14 And then they came and they greeted each other just to reaffirm their bonds. Okay, guys,
03:18 we're going to bandy together to go and fight this guy wherever he might be. It was what
03:22 you would expect if there was an unfamiliar hyena in their territory. I mean, they got
03:26 to understand where he's come from, why he's there, let's get rid of him. So it certainly
03:30 evoked a really interesting response.
03:33 (music)
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