Frants Havmand Jensen: Investigating the Ecology of Communication in Wild Spotted Hyenas

Abstract
Spotted hyenas are highly social carnivores that live in fluid fission-fusion societies called clans. Hyena clans are typically composed of multiple unrelated matrilines that cooperate to defend territory from other clans, and to defend resources within their territory from other megacarnivores. Yet hyenas also live in a strict matrilineal system where social rank determines access to resources, which means that lower ranking animals are better off finding and catching food on their own rather than sharing with conspecifics. Here we investigate the role that acoustic communication plays in mediating long-range interactions between individuals. We use a combination of machine learning approaches as well as traditional playback experiments to investigate how long-range contact signals - termed whoops - function in hyena societies, I will also go through some of the recent technological innovations we have implemented to investigate the role of communication in coordination and collective action on an unprecedented scale, and how we have just recently been able to tag an entire spotted hyena clan with sound and movement recording collars that allow for quantifying every single acoustic interaction within this complex social network.
About the speaker
Frants Havmand Jensen, Senior scientist, Department of Ecoscience, Aarhus University
IMC Tuesday Seminar held June 27th, 2023.
Note: Talk is trimmed to ensure anonymity of informants.