Many myths surround the Hyena Men who haunt the peripheries of Nigeria's cities. Accompanied by hyenas, rock pythons and baboons, these men earn a living by performing before crowds and selling traditional medicines. Pieter Hugo's extraordinary portraits of their liminal existence reveal an uncanny world of complex, codependent relationships, where familiar distinctions between dominance and submission, wildness and domesticity, tradition and modernity are constantly subverted.

Winner of the Governor General's Award A Library Journal Best Book of 2001 Part autobiography and part social history, Nega Mezlekia's Notes from the Hyena's Belly offers an unforgettable portrait of Ethiopia, and of Africa, during the 1970s and '80s, an era of civil war, widespread famine, and mass execution. "We children lived like the donkey," Mezlekia remembers, "careful not to wander off the beaten trail and end up in the hyena's belly." His memoir sheds light not only on the violence and disorder that beset his native country, but on the rich spiritual and cultural life of Ethiopia itself. Throughout, he portrays the careful divisions in dress, language, and culture between the Muslims and Christians of the Ethiopian landscape. Mezlekia also explores the struggle between western European interests and communist influences that caused the collapse of Ethiopia's social and political structure—and that forced him, at age 18, to join a guerrilla army. Through droughts, floods, imprisonment, and killing sprees at the hands of military juntas, Mezlekia survived, eventually emigrating to Canada. In Notes from the Hyena's Belly he bears witness to a time and place that few Westerners have understood.

Hyena is a collection of autobiographical stories by Jude Angelini, which takes the reader on his journey of heartbreak, depravity, and hilarity, deftly moving between his adult life and his childhood growing up in a factory town outside of Detroit. Each story is told with brutal honesty, yet maintains a gallows humor that will leave you shaking your head in disbelief. Jude is one of the top hip-hop radio hosts on Sirius Satellite radio. His self-published, print-on-demand edition of Hyena has been an indie bestseller, despite having no ebook or physical distribution. Its exploration of drugs, sex, and the human condition compares to Charles Bukowski, Hunter S. Thompson, Artie Lange, and Jim Norton. It also captures the hardscrabble culture, language, and landscape of post-industrial Detroit, from which came some of pop culture's most compelling artists.

The Jews (Falasha) of northwestern Ethiopia are a unique example of a Jewish group living within an ancient, non-Western, predominantly Christian society. Hagar Salamon presents the first in-depth study of this group, called the "Hyena people" by their non-Jewish neighbors. Based on more than 100 interviews with Ethiopian immigrants now living in Israel, Salamon's book explores the Ethiopia within as seen through the lens of individual memories and expressed through ongoing dialogues. It is an ethnography of the fantasies and fears that divide groups and, in particular, Jews and non-Jews. Recurring patterns can be seen in Salamon's interviews, which thematically touch on religious disputations, purity and impurity, the concept of blood, slavery and conversion, supernatural powers, and the metaphors of clay vessels, water, and fire. The Hyena People helps unravel the complex nature of religious coexistence in Ethiopia and also provides important new tools for analyzing and evaluating inter-religious, interethnic, and especially Jewish-Christian relations in a variety of cultural and historical contexts.

Biologists studying large carnivores in wild places usually do so from a distance, using telemetry and noninvasive methods of data collection. So what happens when an anthropologist studies a clan of spotted hyenas, Africa’s second-largest carnivores, up close—and in a city of a hundred thousand inhabitants? In Among the Bone Eaters, Marcus Baynes-Rock takes us to the ancient city of Harar in Ethiopia, where the gey waraba (hyenas of the city) are welcome in the streets and appreciated by the locals for the protection they provide from harmful spirits and dangerous “mountain” hyenas. They’ve even become a local tourist attraction. At the start of his research in Harar, Baynes-Rock contended with difficult conditions, stone-throwing children, intransigent bureaucracy, and wary hyena subjects intent on avoiding people. After months of frustration, three young hyenas drew him into the hidden world of the Sofi clan. He discovered the elements of a hyena’s life, from the delectability of dead livestock and the nuisance of dogs to the unbounded thrill of hyena chase-play under the light of a full moon. Baynes-Rock’s personal relations with the hyenas from the Sofi clan expand the conceptual boundaries of human-animal relations. This is multispecies ethnography that reveals its messy, intersubjective, dangerously transformative potential.

The most recent publication from the award-winning photographer Pieter Hugo reveals the devastating consequences of toxic waste on one community in Africa. In his previous well-received volumes of photographs, Hugo offers unflinching yet striking portraits of humans, animals, societies, and landscapes that shock and disturb, but also demand our attention. In Permanent Error, he documents a garbage dump in Ghana that has become the repository for discarded computers from around the world. These haunting images document the true cost of a misguided policy-the shipping of millions of tons of obsolete computers to developing countries. The computers are burned to extract valuable metals, effectively turning the site into a toxic wasteland that contaminates air, soil, and groundwater for miles around. These amazing portraits tell a story of a marginal community overwhelmed by poverty, but where human strength and resilience shine through the inhuman conditions Hugo lays bare.

Best friends and freelance troublemakers Hap Collins and Leonard Pine find themselves dealing with abduction, betrayal, robbery, and murder as they attempt to help someone whose brother has joined a gang of bank robbers.

"An appealing, elegantly designed introduction to another much-maligned species." —Kirkus (starred review) "A fascinating, informative, and inclusive window into a feared and misunderstood species." —Booklist (starred review) This myth-busting addition to the critically acclaimed Scientists in the Field series by Sibert medal winning team Sy Montgomery and Nic Bishop is perfect for nonfiction readers looking for more female scientist narratives, or a fresh perspective on an underrepresented animal—Hyenas! Timely and inspiring, The Hyena Scientist sets the record straight about one of history’s most hated and misunderstood mammals, while featuring the groundbreaking, pioneering research of a female scientist in a predominately male field in this offering by Sibert-winning duo Sy Montgomery and Nic Bishop. As a scientist studying one of the only mammalian societies led entirely by females, zoologist Kay Holecamp has made it her life’s work to understand hyenas, the fascinating, complex creatures that are playful, social, and highly intelligent—almost nothing like the mangy monsters of pop culture lore.

Why do pharmacists always stand on platforms? Why do we close our eyes when we kiss? Why no canned broccoli? Feldman dares to ponder the Imponderables in his addictively fascinating question-and-answer books that have already sold over two million copies. This new volume offers facts, clues, and theories about the great mysteries of everyday life that keep us perpetually puzzled--and endlessly entertained. Nationl media.

In this seminal study, Hans Kruuk redefines the image of the spotted hyena, not as a common scavenger, but as a complex matriarchal predator with links to human evolution. The Spotted Hyena is the first study to capture the true behavior and ecology of these formidable predators, who instinctively adapt their social structure to meet their ecological needs. Kruuk's research reveals for the first time that hyenas combine carnivorous habits with group territoriality, thus drawing parallels between their existence and that of wolves, lions, and arguably early humans. In addition to being lovable rogues, spotted hyenas are sophisticated hunters that live in complex communities of up to 80 animals. Covering more than broad facts about this species, Kruuk addresses the vital questions concerning hyena behavior such as why females are dominant, why lions scavenge from hyenas, why hyenas hunt zebra and wildebeest differently, and how their social behavior correlates with ecology. Since its original publication, The Spotted Hyena has transformed the common perception of the spotted hyena. With nearly 2,000 citations in scientific literature, The Spotted Hyena has become a classic work and trailblazer for linking changes in animal behavior with the environment, in addition to its concentration on a large carnivore that shares several characteristics with select primates. Although this is a science book, Kruuk skips the jargon and complicated theory, thus making its conclusions easily accessible to any student of natural history, African predators, or social behavior within animal communities. The Spotted Hyena features exciting field notes in addition to comprehensive graphs and tables that have made it an invaluable contribution to behavioral ecology and its methodology. Hans Kruuk studied hyenas while living in the wilderness of Africa's Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater for many years. After completing his doctorate with Nobel Prize winner Niko Tinbergen at the University of Oxford, Kruuk was asked by the former Tanganyika (now Tanzania) National Parks to study predation in the Serengeti. Kruuk focused on the most important carnivore there—the spotted hyena—and co-founded the Serengeti Research Institute in Tanzania to carry out his research. Many years later in 1997, he retired emeritus from his position as Senior Principal Research Officer at the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology in Banchory, Scotland. Kruuk has carried out research projects on mammals and birds on all continents, published seven books and over 120 scientific papers. Among his awards are scientific medals from the Zoological Society of London and British Mammal Society, and secondary Doctorate of Science from the University of Aberdeen where he is also Honorary Professor.