Press coverage, awards, and feature stories about MHP and our research.
A feature on the study by Zach Laubach, Kay Holekamp, and colleagues showing that hyena cubs infected with the parasite Toxoplasma gondii get dangerously close to lions and are about four times more likely to be killed than uninfected cubs.
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MHP founder Kay Holekamp received the 2025 Ralph H. Smuckler Award for Advancing International Studies and Programs at MSU, recognizing her long-term contributions to international scholarship, teaching, and public service through her hyena research and the BEAM study abroad program.
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A feature story drawing on MHP's long-term research to explore spotted hyena society, cognition, and adaptability. The piece highlights work by Kay Holekamp and Lily Johnson-Ulrich on hyena innovation, matrilineal dominance, and the species' capacity to thrive alongside humans.
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Coverage of Eli Strauss's analysis of four decades of MHP data showing that while hyenas can shift social rank over time, they tend to slide downward as new clan members are born or others leave, with knock-on effects for access to food and reproductive success.
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A profile of Zach Laubach's Nature Communications study examining how early-life social experiences in spotted hyenas shape adult stress responses and DNA methylation patterns, and what those findings might suggest about human development.
Read the article →Press release on Zach Laubach's Nature Communications study, finding that hyenas with stronger maternal care and social connections during their cub and subadult years showed lower adult stress hormones and distinct DNA methylation patterns near genes involved in immune function and aging.
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Coverage of a Science paper by Amiyaal Ilany and Kay Holekamp combining 27 years of MHP observations with social network analysis. The work showed that hyena cubs inherit social networks from their mothers, with the strength of that inheritance varying by maternal rank.
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The original press release on Zach Laubach and colleagues' Nature Communications study, drawing on three decades of MHP data to show that Toxoplasma gondii infection in cubs is associated with bolder behavior near lions and higher mortality.
Read the article →Julie Turner's behind-the-paper post for the Journal of Animal Ecology's Animal Social Networks Special Issue, telling the story of her MHP analysis showing that the social position of female spotted hyenas during early life predicts their adult reproductive success and longevity.
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Eli Strauss and Daizaburo Shizuka analyzed MHP data to show that young hyenas who underperformed their inherited social ranks were roughly 1.5 times more likely to die at any given age than those who matched or exceeded expectations.
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An MHP paper by Julie Turner, Rachel LaFleur, Allison Richardson, and Kay Holekamp earned the cover of Ethology's January 2020 issue. The study used a life-size model hyena to test responses to a simulated intruder across two populations exposed to different levels of human activity, finding that less time spent near the model predicted better survivorship.
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Shayla Love's long-form essay draws extensively on interviews with Kay Holekamp and Eli Strauss to explore why female spotted hyenas dominate males, covering the masculinized genitalia, prenatal androgen exposure, prolonged maternal care, and the role of social coalitions in maintaining female rank.
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Marc Bekoff covers a study by Lily Johnson-Ulrich, Sarah Benson-Amram, and Kay Holekamp examining how innovative ability relates to reproductive fitness in MHP's Talek West and Fig Tree clans. The research used a novel puzzle box to test 29 females, finding that more innovative mothers produced more cubs per year despite lower offspring survival.
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Kay Holekamp received the 2019 Distinguished Animal Behaviorist Award from the Animal Behavior Society, recognizing her career contributions to the field including MHP's findings on rank inheritance, telomere length and longevity, and the role of social coalitions in shifting clan hierarchies.
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A podcast episode on Eli Strauss and Kay Holekamp's PNAS paper analyzing rank reversals across five generations of MHP hyenas. The team found that strong coalitions, not body size, predict which females successfully climb the social hierarchy.
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Coverage of Eli Strauss and Kay Holekamp's PNAS paper showing that hyena coalitions translate into lasting social status gains, with consequences that ripple across generations.
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NOVA's feature on the same Strauss and Holekamp PNAS work, told through the story of Waffles, a female who climbed from low rank to alpha by building a network of loyal allies.
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David Z. Hambrick on how Kay Holekamp's long-term MHP research challenges the social brain hypothesis, drawing on Sarah Benson-Amram's puzzle box studies to show that exploratory behavior, not social complexity, best predicts hyena problem-solving success.
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An early feature on Kay Holekamp and Laura Smale's research in the Maasai Mara, written in the project's first decade and offering a glimpse of fieldwork in the original Talek clan.
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