Bobby Franklin, age 13, of Haynesville, Virginia, for his question:
Does the hyena really laugh?
Certainly his utterances in no way resemble a merry giggle or those hearty human ho ho hos has that boom forth like a happy tuba. To hear the so called laughing hyena, the stage must be set on the plains of Africa, amid other eerie noises of the secret night. When you hear him in full voice, you may decide that whoever named him certainly had a very weird sense of humor. Obviously this person was addicted to late late shaves designed to scare honest folk out of a night's sleep.
The African hyena has quite a vocabulary and some of his notes do indeed seem to echo more ghastly sounds of human laughter. He may utter a long yowl that begins as a low, sad wail and climbs to a piercing shriek. Or he may chuckle with the hair raising cackles that we expect from a gloating party of silly witches. Sometimes he shatters the night air with a sound that reminds us of hysterical laughter from some pitiful person who has lost his mind.
It is, of course, quite unfair to attribute some human qualities to any member of the animal kingdom. Those of us who care about ecology know that true reforms must begin with a new respect and love for nature and all the creatures that share our world. This involves trying to understand them from their point of view, as they really are. For example, a real duck is a charming creature with a fascinating life of his own. He does not resemble a human halfwit dolled up in phony feathers, performing antics that lower our regard for the real thing.
A real hyena roams the plains in search of wild game and leftovers from lion banquets. Usually he travels with a well organized hunting party of relatives. At times, he needs to communicate with other hyenas or to scare hungry moochers away from his food. He may even try to intimidate lions away from their kill.
He is, of course, capable of feeling hunger, fear, anger and various emotions toward other hyenas. Like other mammals, he uses his voice to express himself on these and perhaps other happenings. And because of his special vocal equipment, what he says just happens to sound like demented laughter at least to human ears.
Through the ages, our knowledge of animal communications has been sadly neglected, along with a proper regard for the rest of nature. Naturalists now are recording various animal sounds, though decoding the meanings has barely begun. For example, we can suspect what a hyena means to convey. But there is no evidence whatsoever that he intends to impersonate human laughter. His peculiar yowling just happens to sound that way.
We know that a dog understands a few human words, though he cannot imitate them. On the other hand, when a budgie imitates human speech, he has no idea what he is talking about. Obviously, we have not established twoway communications with the animals. So far, one of the best efforts is a very limited conversation in sign language between a man and a chimpanzee. No hyena has come forward with an offer to decode his language for us, so we can only guess what he means.