Why in News?
A recent study published in Science Advances has found that spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) inherit not only genes but also social status and access to resources from their mothers. The findings challenge traditional evolutionary assumptions that males necessarily face greater reproductive competition.
About Spotted Hyena
The study found that the youngest daughter of an alpha female inherits her mother’s social status and gains better access to food, social allies and breeding opportunities. Over successive generations, these advantages can accumulate, enabling a small number of privileged female lineages to produce more descendants.
Spotted hyenas live in highly social groups known as clans, which have a complex and strongly hierarchical social structure. Their clans are matriarchal, with females generally larger and more dominant than males.
Hyena clans follow a linear dominance hierarchy. The highest-ranking female, known as the queen, occupies the top position, followed by her offspring and then other females and their offspring. Young generally inherit a social rank immediately below that of their mother through maternal inheritance.
Research by the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior has also shown that, except for the highest-ranking queen, members of a hyena clan generally experience downward social mobility during their lifetime, despite inheriting their initial rank from their mothers.
The spotted hyena, also called the laughing hyena, is the second-largest carnivore after the lion. Although hyenas have a dog-like appearance, they are more closely related to cats, mongooses and civets than to dogs.
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