My story “Hyena’s Paw” a modern fairy tale about a family of hyenas is now available in issue 5 of Honeyguide Magazine which features poetry, prose, art, and photography about animals and our relationship to them. A portion of the issue sales will support a senior dog rescue.
Read online for free here: https://www.honeyguidemag.com/hyenas-paw/
Buy a full issue here: https://www.honeyguidemag.com/shop
I’ve always found hyenas fascinating, and I wanted to write a story about them. In the past I was always starting with human characters, so the stories didn’t work. I also wanted to avoid trying to write too much about any existing folklore or cultural meanings. Because I’m not a part of or very knowledgeable on any cultures that live alongside Hyenas. I didn’t want to misrepresent any existing folklore or beliefs. So, I decided to write as the animals themselves and realized they’re similar to humans but different in fascinating ways.
They’re complex social creatures that, also like us, evolved in the African savannah and became top and numerous persistence predators (both humans and hyenas commonly hunt by injuring an animal and following it until it dies). Hyenas are excellent at cooperative puzzle solving, rivalling apes at some tasks and are proven to recognize relationships between two individuals other than themselves and take those into account when making decisions (most monkeys don't seem to be able to do this). They are extremely vicious, violent, and hierarchical but can also be loving, loyal, playful, funny, and generous.
Unlike us, they are four-legged, rely on smell not sight (their vision is similar to a dog's in that they don't see red and it's blurrier than human vision, but their sense of smell is even stronger than a dog's), and are female dominated. Female hyenas are bigger and have more testosterone, which means they also have a false penis that serves as a birth canal. Like humans actually, they have a particularly high rate of mortality when giving birth. Humans have a higher mortality rate when giving birth than most mammals due to our narrow hips which allow us to walk upright and babies with big heads. If aliens come to Earth, I wonder if they might see us like the hyena: odd looking animals shocking in their cruelty, but so clever and adaptable. However, they’re oddly endearing, even cute and tender once you get to know them.
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