Characteristics of the clan:

• The clan whose members intrude most into territories of other clans to feed. Low-ranking females and males of the Lemala clan know particularly well where most prey animals can be found.
• Socially the most stable Crater clan with just one coup d’état in 20 years of monitoring.
• With less than half the number of males than females, it is the hyena clan with the lowest proportion of males of all Crater clans.

In portrait:  Ororo

Ororo was born to Nadra, one of the lowest-ranking females of the Lemala clan. He had a twin sister, Ramesa, and just like in 80% of all mixed-sexed twin litters in the Crater, the sister was the dominant of the two siblings. Ororo nevertheless grew strong, whereas Ramesa died at the age of eight months, presumably killed by lions.

Ororo then got interested in the females of the Lemala clan at a very young age. Unlike most other young male hyenas, he chose to stay and reproduce in the clan he was born into. As ‘philopatric’ male, Ororo occupied a high social rank within the male hierarchy from the beginning. This allowed him to shadow females of very high social rank, that is, females that are particularly successful at raising their young.

And Ororo was unmatched when it came to shadowing females! When he had a crush on a female, he followed her over weeks, showing her all his affection and chasing away other males if they came too close to his female. Hardly any day went by without Ororo being in immediate vicinity to Raha, the former alpha female of the Lemala clan, or one of her daughters.