Editing Hyena (section)

==Relationships with humans==

===Folklore, mythology and literature===
[[File:20,000 Year Old Cave Paintings Hyena.png|left|thumb|[[Cave hyena]] (''Crocuta crocuta spelaea'') painting found in the [[Chauvet Cave]] in 1994]]
[[File:Hyenamosaic.jpg|thumb| A depiction of the legendary striped hyena, Krokottas of Kytheros Island, from the [[Nile mosaic of Palestrina]]]]
Spotted hyenas vary in their folkloric and mythological depictions, depending on the ethnic group from which the tales originate. It is often difficult to know whether spotted hyenas are the specific hyena species featured in such stories, particularly in West Africa, as both spotted and striped hyenas are often given the same names. In West African tales, spotted hyenas are sometimes depicted as bad [[Muslim]]s who challenge the local [[animism]] that exists among the [[Beng language|Beng]] in [[Côte d’Ivoire]].<ref name="magic"/> In [[East Africa]], [[Tabwa]] mythology portrays the spotted hyena as a solar animal that first brought the sun to warm the cold earth, while West African folklore generally shows the hyena as symbolizing immorality, dirty habits, the reversal of normal activities, and other negative traits. In [[Tanzania]], there is a belief that [[witch]]es use spotted hyenas as [[Riding animal|mounts]].<ref name="magic"/> In the [[Mtwara Region]] of Tanzania, it is believed that a child born at night while a hyena is crying will likely grow up to be a thief. In the same area, hyena feces are believed to enable a child to walk at an early age, thus it is not uncommon in that area to see children with hyena dung wrapped in their clothes.<ref name="m97">{{Harvnb|Mills|Hofer|1998|p=97}}</ref> The [[Kaguru]] of Tanzania and the [[Kujamaat]] of southern [[Senegal]] view hyenas as [[Food and drink prohibitions|inedible]] and greedy hermaphrodites. A mythical African tribe called the [[Bouda]] is reputed to have members able to transform into hyenas.<ref name="AP">{{cite web| url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-17909878.html| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110811101045/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-17909878.html| url-status=dead| archive-date=2011-08-11| title=The spotted hyena from Aristotle to the Lion King: reputation is everything - In the Company of Animals| work=Stephen E. Glickman| access-date=2007-05-22}}</ref> A similar myth occurs in [[Mansôa]]. These "[[werehyena]]s" are killed when discovered, and do not revert to human form once dead.<ref name="m97"/>

Striped hyenas are often referred to in [[Middle East]]ern literature and folklore, typically as symbols of treachery and stupidity.<ref name="ABI">Mounir R. Abi-Said (2006) ''Reviled as a grave robber: The ecology and conservation of striped hyaenas in the human dominated landscapes of Lebanon'' Ph.D. thesis, University of Kent (Biodiversity management)</ref> In the Near and Middle East, striped hyenas are generally regarded as physical incarnations of [[genie|jinn]]s.<ref name="magic">Frembgen, Jürgen W. ''[http://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/nfile/364 The Magicality of the Hyena: Beliefs and Practices in West and South Asia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160412175143/http://nirc.nanzan-u.ac.jp/nfile/364 |date=2016-04-12 }}'', Asian Folklore Studies, Volume 57, 1998: 331–344</ref> Arab writer [[Abu Yahya Zakariya' ibn Muhammad al-Qazwini|al-Qazwīnī]] (1204–1283) spoke of a tribe of people called ''al-Ḍabyūn'' meaning "hyena people". In his book ''‘Ajā’ib Al-Makhlūqāt'' he wrote that should one of this tribe be in a group of 1,000 people, a hyena could pick him out and eat him.<ref name="ABI" /> A [[Persia]]n medical treatise written in 1376 tells how to cure cannibalistic people known as ''kaftar'', who are said to be "half-man, half-hyena".<ref name="magic" /> [[Al-Damiri|al-Damīrī]] in his writings in ''Ḥawayān al-Kubrā'' (1406) wrote that striped hyenas were [[vampiric]] creatures that attacked people at night and sucked the blood from their necks. He also wrote that hyenas only attacked brave people. Arab folklore tells of how hyenas can mesmerise victims with their eyes or sometimes with their pheromones.<ref name="ABI" /> In a similar vein to al-Damīrī, the [[Greek people|Greeks]] until the end of the 19th century believed that the bodies of werewolves, if not destroyed, would haunt battlefields as vampiric hyenas that drank the blood of dying soldiers.<ref name="Woodward">{{cite book| last=Woodward|first=Ian| title=The Werewolf Delusion| year=1979| page=256|publisher=Paddington Press | isbn=0-448-23170-0 }}</ref> The image of striped hyenas in [[Afghanistan]], India and [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]] is more varied. Though feared, striped hyenas were also symbolic of love and fertility, leading to numerous varieties of love medicine derived from hyena body parts. Among the [[Baluch people|Baluch]] and in [[northern India]], witches or magicians are said to ride striped hyenas at night.<ref name="magic" />

The striped hyena is mentioned in the [[Bible]]. The [[Arabic]] word for the hyena, ''ḍab`'' or ''ḍabu`'' (plural ''ḍibā`''), is alluded to in a valley in [[Israel]] known as Shaqq-ud-Diba` (meaning "cleft of the hyenas") and Wadi-Abu-Diba` (meaning "valley of the hyenas"). Both places have been interpreted by some scholars as being the Biblical Valley of [[Zeboim (Hebrew Bible)|Tsebo`im]] mentioned in 1 [[Book of Samuel|Samuel]] 13:18. In modern [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]], the word for hyena and hypocrite are both the same: [[wikt:צבוע|''tsavua'']]. Though the [[Authorized King James Version]] of the Bible interprets the term "''`ayit tsavua`''" (found in [[Book of Jeremiah|Jeremiah]] 12:9) as "speckled bird", [[Henry Baker Tristram]] argued that it was most likely a hyena being mentioned.<ref name="BOTF">{{cite book| last=Bright|first=Michael| title=Beasts of the Field: The Revealing Natural History of Animals in the Bible| year=2006| pages=[https://archive.org/details/beastsoffieldrev0000brig/page/127 127–129]|publisher=Pavilion Books | isbn=1-86105-831-4| url=https://archive.org/details/beastsoffieldrev0000brig/page/127 }}</ref>

The vocalization of the spotted hyena resembling hysterical human [[laughter]] has been alluded to in numerous works of literature: "to laugh like a hyæna" or a "hyen" was a common [[simile]], and is featured in ''The Cobbler's Prophecy'' (1594), Webster's ''[[The Duchess of Malfi|Duchess of Malfi]]'' (1623) and [[Shakespeare]]'s ''[[As You Like It]]'', Act IV. Sc.1.{{Citation needed|date=January 2025|reason=Cobbler's Prophecy}}<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Duchess of Malfi, by John Webster |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2232/2232-h/2232-h.htm |access-date=2025-01-25 |website=www.gutenberg.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=As You Like It: Entire Play |url=https://shakespeare.mit.edu/asyoulikeit/full.html |access-date=2025-01-25 |website=shakespeare.mit.edu}}</ref>

''Die Strandjutwolf'' (The [[brown hyena]]) is an [[allegory|allegorical]] poem by the renowned South African poet, [[N. P. van Wyk Louw]], which evokes a sinister and ominous presence.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.17159/2309-9070/tvl.v.55i3.5506 |title=Symbolic values of the dog in Afrikaans literature |date=2018 |last1=Taljaard-Gilson |first1=Gerda |journal=Tydskrif vir Letterkunde |volume=55 |issue=3 }}</ref>

===Attacks on humans===
[[File:Hyena attack (1842 woodcut).jpg|thumb|Illustration from ''Fraser's'' magazine showing an artist's impression of a "stag-hound" biting a spotted hyena attacking its master]]
[[File:Bodleian Libraries, Handbill of Merchant's Hall, 1739, announcing A lion, lionesses, tigers, etc..jpg|thumb|A 1739 advertisement by [[Charles Benjamin Incledon (advertiser)|Charles Benjamin Incledon]] featuring [[feliform]]s: the [[Mesopotamian lion]] from the vicinity of [[Bassorah]], [[Cape lion]], [[tiger]] from the [[East Indies]], [[jaguar|panther]] from [[Buenos Aires]], ''[[Hyaena hyaena]]'' from [[West Africa]], and [[leopard]] from [[Turkey]], besides a "[[Lampago|Man tyger]]" from [[Africa]]. The advertisement mentions that the 'hyaena' can mimic a human voice to lure humans.]]
Ordinarily, striped hyenas are extremely timid around humans, though they may show bold behaviors towards people at night.<ref name="h36">{{Harvnb|Heptner|Sludskii|1992|p=36}}</ref> On rare occasions, striped hyenas have preyed on humans.

Among hyenas, only the spotted and striped hyenas have been known to become [[Man-eating animal|man-eater]]s. Hyenas are known to have preyed on humans in prehistory: human hair has been found in fossilized hyena dung dating back 195,000 to 257,000 years.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/02/10/oldest-human-hair.html|title=Oldest Human Hair Found in Fossilized Dung|first=Jennifer|last=Viegas|website=Discovery News|access-date=29 November 2020|date=10 February 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100107023507/http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/02/10/oldest-human-hair.html|archive-date=7 January 2010}}</ref> Some paleontologists believe that competition and predation by [[cave hyena]]s (''Crocuta crocuta spelaea'') in [[Siberia]] was a significant factor in delaying human colonization of [[Alaska]]. Hyenas may have occasionally stolen human kills, or entered campsites to drag off the young and weak, much as modern spotted hyenas do in Africa. The oldest Alaskan human remains coincide with roughly the same time cave hyenas became extinct, leading some paleontologists to infer that hyena predation prevented humans from crossing the [[Bering Strait]] earlier.<ref name="Siberia">{{cite web|url=http://www.asu.edu/provost/emerituscollege/EVoice1/Articles%20section/n1%20Turner%206x9.pdf|title=Hyenas and Humans in Ice Age Siberia|work=Christy G. Turner II|publisher=School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University|access-date=2008-08-02 }}{{dead link|date=May 2016|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> Hyenas readily scavenge from human corpses; in Ethiopia, hyenas were reported to feed extensively on the corpses of victims of the [[1960 Ethiopian coup attempt|1960 attempted coup]]<ref>[[Ryszard Kapuściński|Kapuściński, Ryszard]], ''[[The Emperor (book)|The Emperor: Downfall of an Autocrat]]''. 1978. {{ISBN|0-679-72203-3}}</ref> and the [[Red Terror (Ethiopia)|Red Terror]].<ref>Donham, Donald Lewis (1999) ''Marxist modern: an ethnographic history of the Ethiopian revolution'', University of California Press, page 135, {{ISBN|0-520-21329-7}}</ref> Hyenas habituated to scavenging on human corpses may develop bold behaviors towards living people: hyena attacks on people in southern Sudan increased during the [[Second Sudanese Civil War]], when human corpses were readily available to them.<ref>Copson, Raymond W. (1994) ''Africa's wars and prospects for peace'', M.E. Sharpe, page 6, {{ISBN|1-56324-300-8}}</ref>

Spotted hyenas have been known to prey on humans in modern times, but such incidents are rare. However, attacks on humans by spotted hyenas are likely to be underreported.<ref name="SGDRN">Begg, Colleen, Begg, Keith & Muemedi, Oscar (2007) ''[http://www.selous-niassa-corridor.org/fileadmin/publications/2007-Human-Carnivore_Crocodile_Conflict_-NNR.pdf Preliminary data on human - carnivore conflict in Niassa National Reserve, Mozambique, particularly fatalities due to lion, spotted hyaena and crocodile] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111226170051/http://www.selous-niassa-corridor.org/fileadmin/publications/2007-Human-Carnivore_Crocodile_Conflict_-NNR.pdf|date=2011-12-26 }}'', SGDRN (Sociedade para a Gestão e Desenvolvimento da Reserva do Niassa Moçambique)</ref> Man-eating spotted hyenas tend to be very large specimens; a pair of man-eating hyenas, responsible for killing 27 people in [[Mulanje]], [[Malawi]] in 1962, weighed in at 72&nbsp;kg (159&nbsp;lb) and 77&nbsp;kg (170&nbsp;lb) after being shot.<ref name="maneat">Kruuk, Hans (2002) ''Hunter and hunted: relationships between carnivores and people'' Cambridge University Press, {{ISBN|0-521-89109-4}}</ref> A 1903 report describes spotted hyenas in the [[Mzimba District|Mzimba district]] of [[Angoniland]] waiting at dawn outside people's huts to attack them when they opened their doors.<ref name="NE"/> Victims of spotted hyenas tend to be women, children and sick or infirm men; [[Theodore Roosevelt]] wrote in 1908–1909 in [[Uganda]] that spotted hyenas regularly killed sufferers of [[African sleeping sickness]] as they slept outside in camps.<ref>Roosevelt, Theodore (1910) ''African Game Trails: An Account of the African Wanderings of an American Hunter, Naturalist'', New York, C. Scribner's sons</ref> Spotted hyenas are widely feared in Malawi, where they have been known to attack people at night, particularly during the hot season when people sleep outside. A spate of hyena attacks was reported in Malawi's [[Phalombe]] plain, with five deaths recorded in 1956, five in 1957 and six in 1958. This pattern continued until 1961, when eight people were killed. Attacks occurred most commonly in September, when people slept outdoors and bush fires made the hunting of wild game difficult for the hyenas.<ref name="SGDRN"/><ref name="NE">{{cite book| last=Knight|first=John| title=Natural Enemies: People-Wildlife conflicts in Anthropological Perspective| year=2000|publisher=Psychology Press | isbn=0-415-22441-1 }}</ref> A 2004 news report stated that 35 people were killed by spotted hyenas in a 12-month period in [[Mozambique]] along a 20-km stretch of road near the [[Tanzania]]n border.<ref name="SGDRN"/>

In the 1880s, a hyena was reported to have attacked humans, especially sleeping children, over a three-year period in the [[Iğdır Province]] of Turkey, with 25 children and 3 adults being wounded in one year. The attacks provoked local authorities into announcing a reward of 100 [[ruble]]s for every hyena killed. Further attacks were reported later in some parts of the [[South Caucasus]], particularly in 1908. Instances are known in [[Azerbaijan]] of striped hyenas killing children sleeping in courtyards during the 1930s and 1940s. In 1942, a sleeping guard was mauled in his hut by a hyena in [[Qalıncaq]] (Golyndzhakh).<!-- Through Rissian: В 1942 г., в Исмаиллинском районе (с. Голынджах) гиена проникла в шалаш, где спал сторож, и нанесла ему ранения (Ф. Ф. Алиев) --> Cases of children being taken by hyenas by night are known in southeast Turkmenistan's [[Bathyz Nature Reserve]]. A further attack on a child was reported around [[Serakhs]] in 1948.<ref name="h46">{{Harvnb|Heptner|Sludskii|1992|p=46}}</ref> Several attacks have occurred in India; in 1962, 9 children were thought to have been taken by hyenas in the town of [[Bhagalpur]] in the [[Bihar]] State in a six-week period,<ref name="BOTF"/> and 19 children up to the age of four were killed by hyenas in [[Karnataka]] in 1974.<ref name="m25">{{Harvnb|Mills|Hofer|1998|p=25}}</ref> A survey of wild animal attacks during a five-year period in the Indian state of [[Madhya Pradesh]] reported that hyenas had attacked three people, causing fewer deaths than [[Indian wolf|wolves]], [[gaur]], [[boar]], [[Asian elephant|elephants]], [[Bengal tiger|tigers]], [[Indian leopard|leopards]] and [[sloth bear]]s.<ref name="Attacks">{{cite web| url=http://www.nina.no/archive/nina/Publikasjoner/oppdragsmelding/NINA-OM731.pdf| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927173051/http://www.nina.no/archive/nina/Publikasjoner/oppdragsmelding/NINA-OM731.pdf| archive-date=2007-09-27| title=The Fear of Wolves: A Review of Wolf Attacks on Humans| publisher=Norsk Institutt for Naturforskning| access-date=2008-06-26}}</ref>

===Hyenas as food and medicine===
Hyenas have occasionally been used for food and medicinal purposes in [[Somalia]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.somalilandpress.com/islamists-authorise-hyena-meat-in-southern-somalia/|title=Islamists authorise hyena meat in Southern Somalia.|work=Somalilandpress|access-date=2017-01-03|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170103170353/http://www.somalilandpress.com/islamists-authorise-hyena-meat-in-southern-somalia/|archive-date=2017-01-03|date=August 12, 2012}}</ref> Some Muslims consider it [[halal]] in [[Islam]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi:851|title=Jami' at-Tirmidhi 851 - The Book on Hajj - كتاب الحج عن رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم - Sunnah.com - Sayings and Teachings of Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه و سلم)|website=sunnah.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=April 25, 2022 |title=#368: Eating Hyena |url=https://maktabahalbakri.com/368-eating-hyena/ |url-status=live |access-date=February 8, 2025 |website=maktabahalbakri.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=August 23, 2009 |title=Ruling on Eating the Meat of Hyena |url=https://www.aliftaa.jo/research-fatwa-english/321/Ruling-on-Eating-the-Meat-of-Hyena- |url-status=live |access-date=February 8, 2025 |website=Fatwa Department of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan}}</ref> although this is disputed by other Muslims.<ref>[https://islam.stackexchange.com/questions/62942/confusion-on-hyenas Islam stackexchange]</ref><ref>[https://qna.ilmhub.com/question/ruling-on-consuming-hyena-meat/ ilmhub.com]</ref> This practice dates back to the times of the [[Ancient Greeks]] and [[Ancient Rome|Romans]], who believed that different parts of the hyena's body were effective means to ward off evil and to ensure love and fertility.<ref name="magic" />