So much to read into one picture of the spotted hyena

(writing in progress)
  
Every so often one stumbles on a photo that seems to bring together a lot of meaning about a particular organism.

This photo of Crocuta crocuta (https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/41886-Crocuta-crocuta) is an example: http://l450v.alamy.com/450v/dg0mt2/two-spotted-hyena-cubs-crocuta-crocuta-drinking-from-their-mother-dg0mt2.jpg.
 
Crocuta crocuta has a life history strategy with exceptional emphasis on suckling/lactation. Juveniles continue to depend on mother’s milk until they are adolescent, and females are unusual for Carnivora in possessing an inguinal udder.
 
We see the pseudo-scrotum of the female, which seems to mimic the male organ but is filled instead with connective tissue. It seems relatively small in this mother, hinting that perhaps it goes through fluctuations in size with the breeding cycle.
 
The female phallus, which is erectile and longer than the penis of the male, can be retracted more completely than the penis. In this photo we see it in retracted form. This gives us an idea of how C. crocuta manages to copulate: it somehow converts, in the female, what is a long phallus when erect into something approaching a vagina in functional terms.
 
A particular feature of Crocuta is the extremely flexible joints, both on the fore and on the hind feet. Both the carpals and the tarsals are ‘hypermobile’ (https://www.dreamstime.com/spotted-hyena-crocuta-crocuta-running-mana-pools-national-park-zimbabwe-hyena-running-mana-pools-national-park-image201692949).

In the depicted posture, this is evident in the mother. The ‘wrists’ flop and there is an obvious ‘heel’, despite the species being specialised for digitigrady (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digitigrade) rather than plantigrady (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantigrade).
 
And finally this photo shows the colouration of the infant, which begins all-black but then shifts, as seen here, to black with pale spreading from the temples.

(writing in progress)

הועלה ב-יולי 5, 2022 08:47 לפנה"צ על ידי milewski