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National Geographic : 2005 Jun
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Across an acacia-dotted plain in the Serengeti (above), nursing mother hyenas may lope 25 or more miles each way to hunt migrating herds of wildebeests and other grass-eaters.Among nature's most devoted mothers, they may make two such round-tripsa week to maintain their milk supply. Mile after mile the chase goes on. The gazelle tires, but not the spotted hyenas in pursuit. With a final surge of speed, the predators spring upon the flagging prey, drag it down, and disembowel it. Then a roar echoes across the East African savanna. The hyenas flee their feeding as a male lion takes over the kill. The thwarted hunters skulk nearby with empty bellies. Hyenas have an undeserved reputation as thieves and scavengers that subsist on the leavings of the larger predator. "But it is far more frequent that the lion will steal a kill from the hyenas," says Kay Holekamp of Michigan State University. Biologists have known this for decades, she laments, yet hyenas are still viewed as "slobbering, mangy, stupid poachers" (not to mention goose-stepping fascists) in The Lion King, the movie that for many has defined the species. Why do people grimace at the sight of them? With their patchy fur and odd proportions, maybe they flout our shallow standards for beauty in animals. "Our obsession with looks doesn't take into 54 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC * JUNE 2005
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