A warthog, a porcupine, and a hyena entered a den and all decided they would live there together.
According to a study released on April 20 in the African Journal of Ecology, researchers came across this “new phenomenon” while watching animal dens at a wildlife preserve in Kenya.
Between 2016 and 2021, camera traps were placed outside five hyena dens at the preserve, and it quickly became apparent that two of the dens housed three kinds of animals.
One of the hollows held seven hyenas, three warthogs, and two porcupines, while the other held eleven hyenas, six warthogs, and two porcupines. The animals coexisted for weeks at a time, occasionally entering and exiting through the same door just a few minutes apart.
According to Marc Dupuis-Desormeaux, one of the study’s authors, the creatures were likely more neighbors than roommates because the distinct chambers inside the dens allowed them to maintain some distance from one another.
It is unclear why the African animals, both predators and prey, choose to live in such close proximity to one another. According to one view, the behavior may be motivated by a “‘healthy regard’ for the threats offered by their mutually powerful weaponry,” specifically their tusks, teeth, and spikes.
According to Dupuis-Desormeaux, prey lacking similar defense skills probably wouldn’t risk being that close to hyenas.
Curiously, other hyenas in the area did consume warthogs and porcupines, even while those living with them did not, suggesting a peculiar sort of prey selection.
In addition, those from the den didn’t appear in the hollow at the same time as they tended to be active at different periods of the day or night.
According to experts, shared dens might be occupied on a “time-share” basis because hyenas, porcupines, and warthogs are primarily nocturnal and diurnal, respectively. However, they added that there was proof of all the species present in the dens at the same time.
The animals may have decided to cohabitate since the area’s hard soil during the dry season made it challenging to dig new dens. When the rains came and the soil softened, the alliance between the three species appeared to come to an end, according to researchers.
Den sharing has been seen in other species, but in tropical regions like sub-Saharan Africa, less is known about the phenomenon.
In Italy, researchers witnessed badgers, foxes, pine martens, and porcupines cohabiting the same hillside burrow system, according to a study that was published in the journal Behavioral Processes in 2019.
