Description
Brown hyenas can measure 86 to 140 cm (34 to 55 in) in head-and-body length, although they average 110 to 125 cm (43 to 49 in). The height at the shoulder is 70 to 80 cm (28 to 31 in) and the tail is 25 to 35 cm (9.8 to 14 in) long. Unlike the larger spotted hyena, there are no sizable differences between the sexes, though males may be slightly larger than the females. The average adult male weighs 40.2 to 43.7 kg (89 to 96 lb), while the average female weighs 37.7 to 40.2 kg (83 to 89 lb). The normal upper weight limit for the species is 55 kg (120 lb), although an occasional outsized specimen can weigh up to 67.6 to 72.6 kg (149 to 160 lb). The coat is long and shaggy, particularly on the tail and back. The general fur color is dark brown, while the head is gray, the upper body tawny and the legs grey with dark horizontal stripes. Erectile hairs 305 mm (12 in) in length cover the neck and back. Brown hyenas have powerful jaws: young animals can crack the leg bones of springboks within five minutes of birth, though this ability deteriorates with age as their teeth gradually wear. The skulls of brown hyenas are larger than those of the more northern striped hyenas, and their dentition is more robust, indicating less generalised dietary adaptations. Brown hyenas possess an anal gland below the base of the tail, which produces a black and white paste. The gland has a groove, coated with a white secretion, which divides a pair of lobes which produce a black secretion. These secretions are deposited on grass stalks roughly every quarter mile of their feeding grounds, particularly around territorial borders.
Read more about this topic: Brown Hyena
Famous quotes containing the word description:
“The type of fig leaf which each culture employs to cover its social taboos offers a twofold description of its morality. It reveals that certain unacknowledged behavior exists and it suggests the form that such behavior takes.”
—Freda Adler (b. 1934)
“An intentional object is given by a word or a phrase which gives a description under which.”
—Gertrude Elizabeth Margaret Anscombe (b. 1919)
“The next Augustan age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic. There will, perhaps, be a Thucydides at Boston, a Xenophon at New York, and, in time, a Virgil at Mexico, and a Newton at Peru. At last, some curious traveller from Lima will visit England and give a description of the ruins of St Paul’s, like the editions of Balbec and Palmyra.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)