Welcome back to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Linda Wertheimer. Now, even if you've never heard a laughing hyena in the wild, you might recognize this hyena. Mr. CHEECH MARIN (Actor): (as Banzai) It's ...

I don’t know all about the exact onomatopoeia of a hyena’s laugh. Maybe it’s hee-hee-ha-ha? One thing I’m sure of is that they’re actually very complex animals. Especially females, but we’ll get to ...

Hyenas aren’t the most popular animals. Sometimes they kill people’s livestock. They are also thought of as scavengers, with some unappealing eating behaviour. Then there’s their cackling “laugh” and ...