To human ears, the laughs of individual hyenas in a pack all sound the same: high-pitched and staccato, eerie and maniacal. But every hyena makes a different call that encodes information about its ...

Sure, hyenas laugh. But did you know they groan, giggle and whoop too? Researchers at UC Berkeley have been listening to the calls of a colony of hyenas in the Berkeley hills and just released a paper ...

Status among hyenas sounds like a laughing matter. Spotted hyenas may not be amused, but they do make noises that to human ears sound like laughter. Biologists refer to this classic hyena laugh, a ...

The giggle call of the spotted hyena tells other hyenas not only the age and identity of the animal, but also its social status, according to a new study. While dominant hyenas have a steady, ...

A Hyena's giggle is not actually laughter, but a sound of frustration. New research found a way to distinguish individual hyenas based on the peculiarities of their, well, let's call them fighting ...

Spotted hyenas, the social, carnivorous creatures often referred to as "laughing hyenas," live across Africa and east to India. Their laughing sound, however, "has nothing to do with hyenas having a ...

Acoustic analysis of the 'giggle' sound made by spotted hyenas has revealed that the animals' laughter encodes information about age, dominance and identity. Researchers writing in the open access ...

It may sound like a strange giggle to humans, but a spotted hyena’s laugh is no joking matter in maintaining order in the wilds of Africa. In the first research of its kind, scientists studying a ...

Spotted hyenas grunt and growl. But you know what they're famous for. [Hyena sounds.] So what's all the laughing about? Well, field researchers have noticed that groups of hyenas tend to giggle around ...

Spotted hyenas giggling over an antelope spine. Courtesy BMC Ecology. For spotted hyenas, a laugh can speak volumes about an individual. Despite being portrayed as stupid scavengers who rely on the ...

While dominant hyenas have a steady, confident-sounding giggle, subordinate ones produce a more variable call, allowing the animals to keep track of their social hierarchy, according to a new ...

This story is free to read because readers choose to support LAist. If you find value in independent local reporting, make a donation to power our newsroom today. WERTHEIMER: That is Ed, the hyena ...