Lisa Marra, age 11, of North Brunswick, N.J., for her question:
WHERE DID THE TERM LAUGHING HYENA COME FROM?
On the plains of Africa lives a wolfish animal nobody loves. He is a shaggy, spotted prowler with hulking shoulders and massive bone crushing jaws. His favorite food is carrion and he carries a repulsive smell of rotting meat. Before he feeds, he utters a loud laugh of devilish glee. They call him the laughing hyena.
The hyena looks somewhat like a savage, delinquent dog. But scientists tell us that he is not related to the true dogs and class him in a different family in which there are three species. The famous spotted or laughing hyena prowls throughout most of Africa, wherever there is plenty of meat, alive or dead.
Sometimes he hunts for fresh meat, ganging up on his victims with a pack of his relatives. More often, he feeds on carrion, devouring decaying meat and crushing the bones in his mighty jaws. Often he skulks in hiding, waiting for the lions to finish their freshly killed feast.
When he arrives with the vultures and the wild dogs to feed on the leftovers, he lets out his famous howl. Usually he begins with a low growl that builds up to a high ¬pitched scream. As he gets close to his feast, his howling changes to a gleeful cackle. This is why he is called the laughing hyena for he sounds somewhat like the gloating villain in a monster movie.
Most likely the hyena's ghastly giggles have some meaning to himself and perhaps to other hyenas. But certainly we have no idea of what he feels or tries to express. Maybe it is just his way of saying, yummy yummy, dinner is served and it smells delicious.
In any case, at night his loudmouthed caricature of a human laugh resounds far and wide across the African plains. The bloodcurdling cry usually comes at a bad time, causing human travelers to wake up with nightmares. No doubt this is one reason why nobody has much love for the laughing hyena.
However, unbiased observers report that the hyena is not really such a detestable character. For one thing, he plays a very important role in the scheme of nature. Among Africa's crowded herds, countless animals die every day and in the hot sun their decaying bodies could create a very smelly problem. The hyena and other carrion eaters solve this messy situation by acting as nature's garbage disposers.