science

Spotted hyenas in Harar

Spotted hyenas in Harar is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Spotted hyenas in Harar rather than just read about it. In short: Written records indicate that spotted hyenas have been present in the walled Ethiopian city of Harar for at least 500 years, where they sanitise the city by feeding on its organic refuse. The practice of regularly feeding them did not begin until the 1960s.

Key takeaways

Spotted hyenas in Harar belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Spotted hyenas in Harar to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Spotted hyenas in Harar from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Written records indicate that spotted hyenas have been present in the walled Ethiopian city of Harar for at least 500 years, where they sanitise the city by feeding on its organic refuse. The practice of regularly feeding them did not begin until the 1960s. The first to put it into practice was a farmer who began feeding the hyenas in order to stop them from attacking his livestock, with his descendants having continued the practice.

As tourist attraction Some of the hyena men give each hyena a name they respond to, and call to them using a "hyena dialect,” a mixture of English and Oromo. The hyena men feed the hyenas by mouth, using pieces of raw meat provided by spectators. Tourists usually organise to watch the spectacle through a guide for a negotiable rate. As of 2002, the practice was on the decline, with only two practicing hyena men left in Harar.

Folklore According to local folklore, the feeding of hyenas in Harar originated during a 19th-century famine, during which the starving hyenas began to attack livestock and humans. In one version of the story, a pure-hearted man dreamed of how the Hararis could placate the hyenas by feeding them porridge, and successfully put it into practice, while another credits the revelation to the town's Muslim saints convening on a mountain top. The anniversary of this pact is celebrated every year on the Day of Ashura, when the hyenas are provided with porridge prepared with pure butter. It is believed that during this occasion, the hyenas' clan leaders taste the porridge before the others. Should the porridge not be to the lead hyenas' liking, the other hyenas will not eat it, and those in charge of feeding them make the requested improvements. The manner in which the hyenas eat the porridge on this occasion are believed to have oracular significance; if the hyena eats more than half the porridge, then it is seen as portending a prosperous new year. Should the hyena refuse to eat the porridge or eat all of it, then the people will gather in shrines to pray, in order to avert famine or pestilence.

In media The hyena men are featured in the last episode Cities of the documentary series Planet Earth II by David Attenborough.

References

External links

Hyenas in Harar: The Secret Lives of Urban Hyenas in Harar, Ethiopia, WordPress.com

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Spotted hyenas in Harar

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Spotted hyenas in Harar claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Spotted hyenas in Harar before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Spotted hyenas in Harar ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Spotted hyenas in Harar

In research: Spotted hyenas in Harar appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Spotted hyenas in Harar in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Spotted hyenas in Harar is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Hyenas and humans, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Spotted hyenas in Harar outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Spotted hyenas in Harar” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Spotted hyenas in Harar in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Spotted hyenas in Harar means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Spotted hyenas in Harar out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Spotted hyenas in Harar in simple terms?

Why does Spotted hyenas in Harar matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Spotted hyenas in Harar?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Spotted hyenas in Harar.