Is it true that spotted hyaenas are the “Cain and Abel of the animal world,” and that they routinely kill their siblings?
No. Whereas it is true that spotted hyaenas sometimes commit siblicide, it is false that they do this routinely, so it is inappropriate to consider them similar to Cain and Abel. Siblicide occurs when the death of a cub is caused by a litter mate (sibling). At birth spotted hyaena eyes are open and the teeth fully erupted – two characteristics which are rare amongst carnivores. Litter mates engage in aggressive interactions within minutes after birth (Frank et al. 1991), and this can result in obvious scarring of the subordinate littermate. These early fights quickly lead to the establishment of a dominance hierarchy between siblings (Golla 1993, Smale et al. 1995; Wahaj & Holekamp 2006) and allow the dominant cub to control access to maternal milk. Siblicide in the spotted hyaena is facultative in that it occurs only in some twin litters. Rather than functioning to routinely kill one’s sibling, the purpose of the early fighting observed between hyaena littermates is to establish an un
