Talk:Hyena

Panther from Buenos Aires?

The caption of an image of an 18th century advertisement mentions a “Panther from Buenos Aires.” The word “panther” in English generally refers to leopards, which are not native to South America. It can also refer to the cougar (aka mountain lion, puma, catamountain or catamount), which does inhabit South America. The hyperlink of the word, however, redirects to the Wikipedia article for “Jaguar,” which, although indeed native to South America, is a distinct species from the panther. Unless someone knows otherwise, I am editing the hyperlink to redirect to the Wikipedia article for “Cougar,” which is the only option that makes sense to me. 66.91.36.8 (talk) 04:44, 9 December 2024 (UTC)

"Panther" refers to any big cat that has black fur, i.e., the black fur morphs of leopards, jaguars and cougars, the latter two of which are found in Argentina. Mr Fink (talk) 05:25, 9 December 2024 (UTC)

Hyena in Islam

You cannot take one source and say It is halaal. Where in the Muslim world does anyone think eating a hyena is halal? ref. I found very very little on this. But this is the strongest 2 NO you cannot eat hyena. Hausa warrior (talk) 16:54, 2 January 2025 (UTC)

There are actually multiple sources, including both hadith and fatwas, saying that hyena is considered halal, but that isn't the point because that's not the claim being made. The claim being made is that some Somali Muslims may consider it halal.

As to the question of whether it actually is, that's way beyond the scope of this article. However, there is ample evidence that some Muslims do consider it to be halal, although I did not find anything in the source cited or other sources that was specific to Somali people. For now I'm going to remove the specific reference to Somali Muslims and add the additional sources. FearlessLingonberry (talk) 04:04, 9 February 2025 (UTC)

Truth or myth?

I encountered the following statement on reddit:

Also, female hyenas have a pseudo-penis for a vagina
They also give birth through it, tearing it open. Up to 20% of mothers and around 60% of cubs die the first time a hyena gives birth due to the difficulty of the cubs passing through the pseudopenis.

This is an interesting claim. Is it true? A myth? Or just some random statement based on misinformation? If it's one of the first two, then some discussion of this assertion should be included in this article. (If it falls under the third category, we can safely ignore this.) -- llywrch (talk) 00:52, 18 March 2025 (UTC)

The anatomical information is at least approximately true, but refers only to the spotted hyena, not hyenas in general, and therefore doesn't belong on this page. The mortality figures would need a better citation than Reddit. Indeed, according to this paper the overall mortality of cubs due to all causes is 61%, so, while not impossible (since we're talking about a subset) the claim seems unlikely on the face of it. Anaxial (talk) 05:34, 18 March 2025 (UTC)

The claim is very specific and would need a reliable scientific source saying exactly that. —  Jts1882 | talk  08:01, 18 March 2025 (UTC)

Seems unfounded, based on a brief look. The paper given by Anaxial reports that while cumulative pup mortality may reach 60ish %, almost none of that is at birth (Figure 2). The originating thesis gives a detailed breakdown of mortality among 61 pups, none of which cases were considered to be due to stillbirth. I can't find any references to mother mortality (let alone 20%) during birth. Apparently a Reddit fabulation. --Elmidae (talk · contribs) 12:16, 18 March 2025 (UTC)

classification

The text places hyenas in a suborder, but the sidebar omits this. The two should be brought into full agreement. Kdammers (talk) 03:49, 8 October 2025 (UTC)

Where does it say this in the text? It sounds wrong, but it may depend on the context, and I can't see where it is mentioned? Anaxial (talk) 04:20, 8 October 2025 (UTC)

Maybe "Feliformia"? Mr Fink (talk) 05:18, 8 October 2025 (UTC)