The world's only captive research colony of spotted hyenas as gotten a much-needed boost from the U.S. economic stimulus package.
Since 1985, the hyena colony at the University of California, Berkeley, has attracted a wide range of scientists to study the animals' unusual sexual anatomy and social hierarchy. But in 2007, the National Institute of Mental Health declined to renew a grant that had funded research with the hyenas for 22 years.
The National Science Foundation provided emergency funds to keep the colony going, but later rejected a research application from the station's director, Stephen Glickman. He began talking to zoos about taking some of the hyenas.
But then the economic stimulus package loosened the purse strings, and in May, Glickman learned that a revised version of his NSF proposal had been funded. The grant for roughly $570,000 in direct costs, which kicks in tomorrow, will fund research on urogenital development and pay for the care of 10 of the colony's 26 hyenas for 4 years. The money will buy time for Glickman and his collaborators around the country to submit more grant applications. The future is still uncertain, Glickman says, but "right now I'm just grateful."
—Greg Miller
Image Credit: Christine Drea
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