Spotted hyenas, the social, carnivorous creatures often referred to as "laughing hyenas," live across Africa and east to India. Their laughing sound, however, "has nothing to do with hyenas having a ...

Their high-pitched menacing cackle is nothing to boast about. But it seems that is exactly what the hyena is doing when its distinctive laugh echoes across the savannah. Scientists have found a ...

It may sound like a strange giggle to humans, but a spotted hyena’s laugh is no joking matter in maintaining order in the wilds of Africa. In the first research of its kind, scientists studying a ...

The giggling sounds of a hyena contain important information about the animal's status, say scientists. In the first study to decipher the hyena's so-called "laugh", they have shown that the pitch of ...

April 23, 2009 -- Deteriorating screws in bridges, fish that listen in the dark, medical devices that use sound to treat disease, the detected comeback of a long-gone whale, the sound of hyenas, ...

Hyenas use a "laughing language" to communicate with each other, scientists have learned. The animals are famous for their manic giggling, especially around a kill. But although they might appear to ...

Have you ever heard the phrase "laughing hyenas"? Do they really laugh? In a word, no. There are four kinds of hyenas _ aardwolf, brown, spotted and striped _ but only the spotted hyena makes sounds ...

There's a new exhibit coming to the Bronx Zoo. And it's sure to keep you in hysterics. Hyenas are coming to town. The spotted brother and sister, Kidogo and Kubwa, were born last March in Denver and ...

· If you ever hear a spotted hyena making a sound, you might think it is laughing hysterically. It isn't. When a hyena is excited or scared, it lets out a noise that is a combination of a strange howl ...

To human ears, the laughs of individual hyenas in a pack all sound the same: high-pitched and staccato, eerie and maniacal. But every hyena makes a different call that encodes information about its ...