A mammal was introduced to me by its laughing voice! Hyena. It is a wolf-like animal that has high front legs and short hind legs. It has special teeth that can crush even bones of its prey! Apart from its laughing sound, it has many other sounds for communicating. It hunts in packs, often at night time (nocturnal). It can eat the carcasses of dead animals that are left out by the hunting animals. So, it is a scavenger of their forest territory in which they live in. It has an anal pouch that produces a white secretion with which it marks its territory on the grasses! Female hyenas are larger than the males in this kind of Spotted Hyenas (Crocuta crocuta, Kazhuthai puli in Tamil). Females dominate males. They have penis-shaped clitoris and a urogenital canal for copulating with male. Born cubs begin hunting in the first year of age itself! This hyena is said to be resistant to Rabies virus attack, as it has antibodies for that in its saliva! So a bite by an infected rabid animal cannot produce Rabies disease in it. There are many stories about this hyena – like taking away children sleeping on open grounds. This strange and different mammal, the Laughing Hyena, lives in a den that has many entrances on the ground, like that of mouse!
