Merck starts new trial to test Alzheimer’s drug

(Reuters) – Merck & Co Inc has started a new trial of its experimental Alzheimer’s drug, the first mid-stage clinical trial of a promising new class of oral medicines that has the potential to shut down the production of a protein that many researchers believe is the primary cause of the disease.

The drugmaker said on Monday it had started the trial to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of the drug, MK-8931, in patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease.

The Phase II trial, which will compare the drug with a placebo, is a global, multi-center study that includes a group of 200 patients to test safety. The study is expected to eventually enroll up to 1,700 patients in the main Phase III trial.

The drug is the first of its kind to advance to this stage of clinical research.

Eli Lilly and Co is considered the front runner in Alzheimer’s research after its drug solanezumab, in a Phase III trial, was shown in August to slow down cognitive declines in patients with mild symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. However, the drug failed its overall goal of delaying cognitive and physical decline in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s.

The start of Merck’s new trial of MK-8931 could put the company on an equal footing with Lilly in the race for the first approved drug to delay the progress of the disease.

The Lilly drug is administered intravenously, while the Merck drug is taken orally.

Merck’s drug appears to almost entirely prevent the formation of new beta-amyloid, the toxic proteins that lead to plaques in the brain, while the Lilly drug acts by removing existing plaques, according to Mark Schoenebaum, an analyst with ISI Group. Amyloid plaques are linked to Alzheimer’s disease.

“We do not believe that Merck has any clinical efficacy data at this point upon which it is basing its Phase II/III ‘go’ decision. Thus, one must still view the Phase III as highly speculative,” Schoenebaum wrote in a research note.

Assuming the U.S. Food and Drug Administration asks Lilly to do another confirmatory Phase III trial on its drug, the Merck drug is on roughly the same timeline to potential approval as the Lilly drug, he said.

If the FDA approves the Lilly drug on its existing data, something Schoenebaum thinks is unlikely, then Lilly would be about three years ahead, he added.

Merck shares were up 30 cents to $ 44.60 in morning trade on the New York Stock Exchange, while Lilly shares were down 10 cents to $ 48.94.

Earlier this year, Roche Holding AG more than doubled the size of a clinical trial of its experimental Alzheimer’s drug gantenerumab in patients who have early Alzheimer’s but have not yet developed dementia, putting it in the vanguard of attempts to catch the disease in its early stages.

A successful Alzheimer’s treatment could reap billions of dollars in annual sales. But many experts believe treatment must be delivered before patients show signs of dementia because brain damage may be irreversible after that point.

(Reporting by Debra Sherman in Chicago and Ransdell Pierson in New York; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick and John Wallace)

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Citi cuts telecoms head in Europe: sources

DUBAI/LONDON (Reuters) – Citigroup‘s head of technology, media and telecoms in Europe is to leave as part of cost cuts the U.S. bank is making in response to the weak economic climate and due to tougher regulation, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday.

Daniel Bailey is to leave the bank with immediate effect and his position will be taken on by Citigroup’s European (EMEA) head of M&A, Wilhelm Schulz.

Bailey declined to comment. Citigroup also declined to comment.

Citigroup and other big banks are under pressure from investors to cut costs and scale-back activities in line with lower business volumes and reduced returns in the financial sector since the financial crisis.

The U.S. bank’s new chief executive Michael Corbat, who took the helm on October16, is in the process of reviewing management and executive reporting lines.

Bailey, who joined Citi in 2006 from Morgan Stanley , worked on some of the telecoms industry’s biggest deals, including the $ 183 billion merger of Vodafone with Mannesman in 2000, the largest corporate merger ever at that time.

Schulz will relinquish his role as co-head of German banking to focus on his new responsibilities but will remain head of German coverage. Stefan Wintels will become sole head of German banking.

Citigroup is also expected to cut bonuses this year by about 10 percent and axe around 150 investment banking jobs by year-end, just under one percent of the 17,000 staff in its investment bank, a person familiar with the matter said.

(Additional reporting by David Henry in New York, editing by Sophie Sassard and Jane Merriman)

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Italy votes for center-left candidate for premier

ROME (AP) — Italians are choosing a center-left candidate for premier for elections early next year, an important primary runoff given the main party is ahead in the polls against a center-right camp in utter chaos over whether Silvio Berlusconi will run again.

Sunday’s runoff pits a veteran center-left leader, Pier Luigi Bersani, 61, against the 37-year-old mayor of Florence, Matteo Renzi, who has campaigned on an Obama-style “Let’s change Italy now” mantra.

Nearly all polls show Bersani winning the primary, after he won the first round of balloting Nov. 25 with 44.9 percent of the vote. Since he didn’t get an absolute majority, he was forced into a runoff with Renzi, who garnered 35.5 percent.

After battling all week to get more voters to the polling stations for round two, Renzi seemed almost resigned to a Bersani win by Sunday, saying he hoped that by Monday “we can all work together.”

Bersani, a former transport and industry minister, seemed confident of victory as well, joking about Berlusconi’s flip-flopping political ambitions by asking “What time did he say it?” when told that the media mogul had purportedly decided against running.

Next year’s general election will largely decide how and whether Italy continues on the path to financial health charted by Premier Mario Monti, appointed last year to save Italy from a Greek-style debt crisis.

The former European commissioner was named to head a technical government after international markets lost confidence in then-Premier Berlusconi’s ability to reign in Italy’s public debt and push through sorely needed structural reforms.

Berlusconi has largely stayed out of the public spotlight for the past year, but he returned with force in recent weeks, announcing he was thinking about running again, then changing his mind, then threatening to bring down Monti’s government, and most recently staying silent about his political plans.

His waffling has thrown his People of Freedom party into disarray and disrupted its own plans for a primary — all of which has only seemed to bolster the impression of order, stability and organization within the center-left camp.

A poll published Friday gave the Democratic Party 30 percent of the vote if the election were held now, compared with some 19.5 percent for the upstart populist movement of comic Beppe Grillo, and Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party in third with 14.3 percent. The poll, by the SWG firm for state-run RAI 3, surveyed 5,000 voting-age adults by telephone between Nov. 26 and 28. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 1.36 percentage points.

It’s quite a turnabout for Berlusconi’s once-dominant movement, and a similarly remarkable shift in fortunes for the Democratic Party, which had been in shambles for years, unable to capitalize on Berlusconi’s professional and personal failings while he was premier.

But Berlusconi’s 2011 downfall and a series of recent political party funding scandals that have targeted mostly center-right politicians have contributed to the party’s rise as Italy struggles through a grinding recession and near-record high unemployment.

Angelino Alfano, Berlusconi’s hand-picked political heir, seemed again exasperated Sunday after a long meeting with his patron over Berlusconi’s plans. News reports have suggested Berlusconi might split the party in two and re-launch the Forza Italia party that brought him to political power for the first time in 1994.

“We have to work to reconstruct the center-right, and reconstructing it means having a big center-right party,” not a divided one, Alfano said.

He added that Berlusconi didn’t say one way or another if he would run himself. “It’s his choice,” he said. “If there are any decisions in this regard, he’ll be the one to say so.”

___

Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield

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Bryce Dallas Howard film among the live-action short films on Oscar nominations shortlist

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – “when you find me,” directed by “Twilight” star Bryce Dallas Howard and executive-produced by her father Ron Howard, is among 11 films that have been shortlisted for possible Oscars nomination, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Thursday.

Though the Academy typically only short-lists 10 entries, a tie in the nominations balloting resulted in an 11th title making the list. In all, 125 films originally qualified in the category.

From here, members of the Academy’s Short Films and Feature Animation Branch will select three to five nominees for the Oscars during December screenings in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco.

Nominations will be announced January 10, with the Academy Awards taking place February 24.

Read the full short-list below.

“A Fábrica (The Factory),” Aly Muritiba, director (Grafo Audiovisual)

“Asad,” Bryan Buckley, director, and Mino Jarjoura, producer (Hungry Man)

“Buzkashi Boys,” Sam French, director, and Ariel Nasr, producer (Afghan Film Project)

“Curfew,” Shawn Christensen, director (Fuzzy Logic Pictures)

“Death of a Shadow (Dood van een Schaduw),” Tom Van Avermaet, director, and Ellen De Waele, producer (Serendipity Films)

“Henry,” Yan England, director (Yan England)

“Kiruna-Kigali,” Goran Kapetanovic, director (Hepp Film AB)

“The Night Shift Belongs to the Stars,” Silvia Bizio and Paola Porrini Bisson, producers (Oh! Pen LLC)

“9meter,” Anders Walther, director, and Tivi Magnusson, producer (M & M Productions A/S)

“Salar,” Nicholas Greene, director, and Julie Buck, producer (Nicholas Greene)

“when you find me,” Ron Howard, executive producer, and Bryce Dallas Howard, director (Freestyle Picture Company)

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Germany’s Merck Serono to produce medicines in UAE

ABU DHABI (Reuters) – Germany’s Merck Serono said it would team up with an Abu Dhabi firm to produce medicines for the domestic and regional markets, the first multinational of its kind to make branded products in the United Arab Emirates.

Merck Serono, the pharmaceutical arm of Merck KGaA, will initially produce two of its products at Neopharma‘s facilities in Abu Dhabi, the German firm’s first such partnership in the Middle East, the company’s CEO said.

“The Middle East is very important and the fastest growing region for our products,” Stefan Oschmann told reporters. “We plan to meet 100 percent of the regional demand for the products,” he added.

Oschmann declined to give specific figures but said revenues from emerging markets accounted for a third of Merck‘s total.

The two products to be produced at Neopharma’s facilities are Euthyrox, a synthetic thyroid hormone and Glucophage, for people suffering from type 2 diabetes.

Production of both branded products will start in 2013.

The UAE suffers from a high prevalence of diabetes. Some 827,000 people between the ages of 20 and 79 have diabetes in the UAE, according to the Ministry of Health.

Treatment of diabetes accounts for about 40 percent of the UAE’s overall healthcare expenditure, Amin al Amiri, assistant under-secretary for Medical practice & license at the ministry of health said.

“This alliance will provide increased supply of trusted branded medicines needed to help ease the diabetes crisis which is straining the financial resources of the UAE,” he said.

The Middle East is the largest market for Merck’s diabetes drug, Glucophage, which is currently imported from Europe.

(Reporting By Stanley Carvalho; Editing by Sami Aboudi and Helen Massy-Beresford)

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US budget talks ‘in stalemate’

2 December 2012 Last updated at 11:20 ET

US treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has said there will be no deal to avert a “fiscal cliff” unless Republicans accept a tax hike for the wealthy.

But House Speaker John Boehner has dismissed a 10-year plan, which aims to raise $ 1.6tn (£1tn) through tax rises and spending cuts, as “silliness”.

The two men met on Thursday as time runs out to broker a deal.

Economists warn planned tax rises and spending cuts due to take effect on 1 January could trigger a recession.

Mr Geithner, negotiating for the White House, has drafted a plan that includes more spending to help for the unemployed and struggling homeowners, as well as cuts in Medicare and other benefits.

On Friday President Barack Obama warned of a “Scrooge Christmas” if soon-to-expire tax breaks for households earning below $ 250,000 were not renewed as part of the deal to avert the fiscal cliff.

But Mr Boehner, negotiating for the Republicans who control the House of Representatives, said talks with the administration had so far gone “almost nowhere”.

Talk show entrenchment

Mr Geithner and Mr Boehner’s appearances on a number of Sunday television talk shows showed how entrenched their positions were.

“There’s not going to be an agreement without rates going up. There’s not,” Mr Geithner told CNN’s State of the Union.

He called on Republicans to make a counter-offer to the Obama administration’s plan.

But Mr Boehner said he was “flabbergasted” by Mr Geithner’s proposals – which he said asked Congress to give up its power to set the nation’s debt limit.

Continue reading the main story

• Under a deal reached last year by the White House and the Republicans, existing stimulus measures – mostly tax cuts – will expire on 1 January 2013


• Cuts to defence, education and other spending will then automatically come into force – the “fiscal cliff” – unless Congress acts


• The economy does not have the momentum to absorb the shock from going over the fiscal cliff without going into recession

“What do you think would happen if we gave the president $ 1.6tn of new money?” Mr Boehner asked Fox News Sunday. “He’d spend it.”

Mr Boehner says asking the top 2% of US taxpayers to pay more would deal a “crippling blow” to a fragile economy, and has criticised criticised the Obama administration’s proposed spending cuts as inadequate.

The White House has suggested it would not support any deal that did not increase tax rates on the wealthiest.

The fiscal cliff would suck about $ 600bn (£347bn) out of the economy.

The measures were partly put in place within a 2011 deal to curb the yawning US budget deficit.

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Cargo plane crashes in Brazzaville, 3 dead

BRAZZAVILLE, Republic of Congo (AP) — A cargo plane owned by a private company crashed Friday near the airport in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of Congo, killing at least three people, officials said.

The Soviet-made Ilyushin-76 belonged to Trans Air Congo and appeared to be transporting merchandise, not people, said an aviation official who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The plane was coming from Congo‘s second-largest city, Pointe Noire, and tried to land during heavy rain, he said.

Ambulances rushed to the scene in the Makazou neighborhood, located near the airport, but emergency workers were hampered by the lack of light in this capital, which like so many in Africa has a chronic shortage of electricity.

“At the moment, my team is having a hard time searching for survivors in order to find the victims of the crash because there is no light and also because of the rain,” Congolese Red Cross head Albert Mberi said.

He said that realistically, they will only be able to launch a proper search Saturday, when the sun comes up.

Reporters at the scene fought through a wall of smoke. Despite the darkness, they could make out the smoldering remains of the plane, including what looked like the left wing of the aircraft. A little bit further on, emergency workers identified the body of the plane’s Ukrainian pilot, and covered the corpse in a blanket.

Firefighters were trying to extinguish the blaze of a part of the plane that had fallen into a ravine. They were using their truck lights to try to illuminate the scene of the crash. Although the plane was carrying merchandise, emergency workers fear that there could be more people on board.

Because of the state of the road connecting Pointe Noire to Brazzaville, many traders prefer to fly the roughly 400 kilometers (250 miles).

Africa has some of the worst air safety records in the world. In June, a commercial jetliner crashed in Lagos, Nigeria, killing 153 people, just a few days after a cargo plane clipped a bus in neighboring Ghana, killing 10.

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The Kids Are All Right: How Social Media Created a Generation of Activists

This week marked the nation’s inaugural  “Giving Tuesday,” a UN sponsored initiative, which utilized social media to encourage businesses, schools, and community members to give back. The effort resulted in $ 10 million worth of donations made in a single day, a 53 percent increase over the same day last year.

Conceived as a means to promote activism and charity, the campaign’s use of social media to spread its message is most likely a large part of the initiative’s success. 

Certainly people from every age group use Twitter and Facebook, but social media activism is especially resonant with young adults. According to TBWA, people between the ages of 18-29 strongly identify as activists and count social media as their first point of engagement when they learn about a new cause.

MORE: ‘Tis Always the Season to Give: Creating a Corporate Culture That Gives Back

In fact, about half believe that activism is important to their personal identity and about a third look to it as a means of socializing and relating to one another.

But more than identifying with activism, this younger generation’s aptitude for social media can effect real change. Look at the Susan G. Komen Foundation. Earlier this year, when the organization announced it would pull its funding for breast cancer screenings from Planned Parenthood, cutting off medical access for millions of women, Twitter and Facebook lit up with vitriolic statements, claiming the organization had become a puppet of the religious right. The ensuing bad press proved to be too much and within days, the organization reversed its decision and issued a public apology.

Similarly, when Florida law enforcement officials refused to arrest George Zimmerman after he fatally shot Trayvon Martin, the case lay dormant for almost a month. But an online petition started by Martin’s parents went viral and galvanized a nation demanding justice for the boy’s death. Zimmerman was arrested and charged as a result.

For all we hear about “kids these days” and their irresponsible use of social media−posting questionable pictures of themselves doing kegstands or letting Twitter corrode their ability to hold a thought for more than a nanosecond−it turns out that most are using it to express a genuine passion for changing the world around them. And they’re succeeding.

And these trends extend well beyond the U.S. That same age group in other countries shows similar interests in contributing to larger causes. China’s young adults for instance, lead the world in online political discussions and offline they donate the most money to charities. India’s younger generation ranks the first in the world when it comes to staying informed, and they’re the most optimistic about the impact their activism has on the world around them.

It seems that our youngest generation of adults are the ones leading the charge when it comes to effectively making a difference.

Do you consider yourself an activist? Let us know in the Comments what social causes inspire you to get involved.

Related Stories on TakePart:

• Secret Santas: Profiles in Anonymous Holiday Generosity

• Rwanda Genocide Survivor Wins Grant for Giving Back

• 40 U.S. Billionaires Pledge Half of Fortunes to Charity

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A Bay Area native, Andri Antoniades previously worked as a fashion industry journalist and medical writer.  In addition to reporting the weekend news on TakePart, she volunteers as a webeditor for locally-based nonprofits and works as a freelance feature writer for TimeOutLA.com. Email Andri | @andritweets | TakePart.com

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“Honey Boo Boo” star arrested for going ape on Georgia Freeway

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – If you tend to believe that the cast members of TLC reality series “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo” are less than totally evolved, rejoice; this story might just confirm your suspicions.

“Crazy” Tony Lindsey – the cousin of “Honey Boo Boo”‘s titular star Alana Thompson” – was arrested in Georgia earlier this week following a goofy, but dangerous, stunt involving a gorilla suit, TMZ reports.

A police report says that Lindsey was among a group of men arrested for reckless behavior after one of them, dressed in a gorilla suit, prepared to jump into a lane along Highway 20 at approximately 11 p.m. Unfortunately for the band of wrongheaded pranksters, Deputy Joe Rozier happened to be driving by as he was about to take the leap from the side of the road.

“I observed a white male dressed in a gorilla suit acting as if he was going to jump into my lane of travel. I swerved into the left lane to avoid an accident with the person,” Rozier said in a police report.

Rozier took pursuit, and “observed several white males run up the embankment and into the woods,” the report notes. After threatening to release his police dog, he heard a voice yell back, “You don’t have to do that, we’re coming back.”

A group of five adults and two minors emerged – but with no gorilla suit. After a while, however, they admitted to hiding the suit in the woods.

It’s not known if Lindsey was the one in gorilla suit, or if the stunt will be incorporated into an upcoming episode of “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.”

A spokesperson for the show has not yet responded to TheWrap’s request for comment.

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How Aggressive Hyena Moms Give Their Kids a Boost

Early one morning I caught sight of Morpheus, silhouetted against a pink African dawn. Her long, sloping neck was stretched out as she loped away from me, disappearing over a hill. I followed her to a nearby plain and was met with the unmistakable sound of a group of hyenas squabbling over a carcass. Morpheus entered the fray, first lunging at a smaller male on her right. A moment later, she looked up briefly, her nose and mouth covered in blood, then turned and snapped at a hyena feeding nearby.I’m intimately acquainted with Morpheus and these other hyenas because they have been studied for more than twenty years by various members of the lab where I did my Ph.D. research; I’ve staked these hyenas out at dens for hours on end and followed them as they raced across open plains. From watching these animals, we’ve learned about hyenas’ social system, their physiology, and the conservation challenges they face.But to me, it’s the aggression that is the most fascinating thing about hyenas. It’s rule-based and constrained by specific social norms, but at the same time, it’s incredibly primal and ruthless. Studying aggression has helped us understand what makes hyenas tick, offering us a glimpse into the evolutionary pressures that have made them one of the most unusual and misunderstood species in the animal kingdom.Formidable femalesFor more than 1000 years, people believed that hyenas were hermaphrodites, since female hyenas have long, fully-erectile pseudopenises that mimic male genitalia. Seeing a hyena play the role of mom while sporting what looks like a penis would bewilder even an astute naturalist. Not only do female hyenas look like males, they are also the more aggressive and socially dominant sex, exhibiting aggression more than three times more often than male hyenas do.For many animals, too much aggression is detrimental, at least in terms of reproductive success; in baboons, aggressive females have reduced fertility and increased rates of miscarriage , and in western bluebirds, overly-aggressive males tend to fledge fewer offspring than other males. But in these species, males are generally more aggressive than females; how is aggressiveness related to fitness in a species where females are the more aggressive sex?Life in the clanHyenas live in huge social groups called clans that are structured by a “linear dominance hierarchy.” That’s the scientific way of saying that in these societies, a high-ranking individual is dominant to every lower-ranking animal in the clan: Morpheus is dominant to Scrabble, who is dominant to Hendrix, and so on. For hyenas, social rank isn’t just a title or a badge of honor. Rank determines access to food, so a high-ranking hyena like Morpheus can drive a lower-ranking hyena off a kill at any time, no matter who hunted or scavenged the meat.Social rank also plays an important role in aggressive behavior among hyenas, since dominance determines who can exhibit aggression toward whom. Aggression is nearly always directed down the hierarchy, toward lower-ranking hyenas (and if a hyena disregards this rule, it’s not taken lightly by other clan members). This means that the highest-ranking hyenas have a lot of opportunities for aggression – they can attack nearly any other hyena in the clan – whereas lower-ranking hyenas have far fewer possible targets. Aggression can occur over food, in defense of cubs, or to reprimand a pesky suitor.But unlike many species, aggression doesn’t dictate social rank among hyenas; instead, social rank is inherited. Hyenas are stuck with their lot in life, unable to move up the hierarchy. So does all this aggression actually benefit hyenas, and if so, how?The implications of aggressionAggressiveness, it turns out, varies drastically among hyenas; some hyenas tend to threaten – or outright attack – group members more frequently than others do. There is more than a five-fold difference in the aggression rates of the least aggressive and the most aggressive females, even after controlling for social rank and the number of opportunities for aggression.This type of consistent variation in behavior, called “animal personality,” is being found in several traits, such as sociability, boldness, and docility, across many species. And aggressiveness, like other personality traits, can have major implications for fitness. However, for hyenas, aggression doesn’t affect fitness by improving a hyena’s own survival; aggressive females don’t live longer or survive at higher rates than others that attack less often.Instead, the benefits of aggressiveness are seen later down the line, in the survival of offspring. Female hyenas that are particularly aggressive over food successfully rear a larger proportion of their cubs to adulthood than do females that aggress less often over food. But interestingly, the benefits of aggressiveness depend on social rank. For high-ranking hyenas, aggressiveness doesn’t matter much in terms of reproductive success; the offspring of dominant females do well no matter how aggressive their mom is. However, for hyenas low on the totem pole, aggression plays an important role in reproductive success, greatly improving their offspring’s odds of surviving until adulthood. But how?Competition and reputationsIt all comes down to acquiring resources for your offspring. High-ranking hyenas already have prime access to food, so being super-aggressive at a kill or carcass isn’t a huge advantage. However, for hyenas low on the totem pole, being able to secure a little extra food for a cub could mean the difference between its survival and starvation.When cubs begin eating meat at around 4 months of age, they start visiting kills with their moms. But as these cubs attempt to eat, they are often harassed by older hyenas and chased off the carcass. Additionally, these young hyenas have another disadvantage when it comes to feeding: their skulls haven’t finished developing yet. Although being able to crush bone is a big benefit for hyenas evolutionarily, it’s a huge morphological handicap for cubs. It takes up to 35 months for a hyena’s skull to develop the integrity and strength to crack bone, so until about three years of age, young hyenas feed more slowly and less efficiently than adults. Combine this physical disadvantage with the incredible feeding competition seen at kills, and cubs – especially low-ranking ones – often don’t get much to eat during these communal feeding situations.Here’s where a mom’s aggressiveness comes in: we found that the cubs of aggressive females are tolerated better, and are able to feed longer, at these kills than the cubs of less aggressive females are. By being super-aggressive, moms secure extra feeding time and valuable calories for their cubs during this particularly handicapped period in their lives. Although we don’t completely understand the process yet, aggressive females appear to develop a type of “mean girl” reputation within the clan that gives their offspring a boost early in life. This effect is incredibly strong and persists even when the mom isn’t present at the kill, allowing cubs to benefit from their mom’s aggressiveness even in her absence. This increased access to resources benefits low-ranking hyenas disproportionately, since they generally have very limited access to food.A combination of behavioral, morphological, and ecological research has helped us begin to understand why these highly aggressive and masculinized females have been favored evolutionarily. But even after 20 years of intensive research, there’s so much more to learn; we still aren’t sure what the functions and implications of male aggression are, and it’s possible that there are consequences of aggression in females that we haven’t yet discovered.Morpheus and her clanmates are still being observed, and you can follow the trials, tribulations, and musings of the researchers studying these hyenas out in the field at the Mara Hyena Project blog.

Follow Scientific American on Twitter @SciAm and @SciamBlogs.Visit ScientificAmerican.com for the latest in science, health and technology news.
© 2012 ScientificAmerican.com. All rights reserved.
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