Berkley hyenas need some help

The UC Berkley hyena colony is facing a funding crisis; after being sustained for 22 years by the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health, the organization has decided not to renew funding for the studies undertaken at the institution. An emergency grant from the NSF will keep the colony going for about another year, but many animals have already been shipped to zoos and two older animals have been euthanized in order to make things more manageable in the present situation.

You can learn more about the dilemma via this article in Science (hat-tip to Behavioral Ecology Blog), but I sincerely hope that the hyena research at Berkley is able to continue. Although they're often maligned, hyenas are absolutely fascinating carnivores, and studies about their social structure, physiology, endocrinology, etc. provide important insights into the development of social intelligence and other features normally associated with primatology.

[Hat-tip to Greg Laden]