Hyenas like Many Christians Observe Lent Too

Lent is an observance in the liturgical year of many Christian denominations, lasting a period of approximately six weeks and leading up to Easter.  During Lent, many of the faithful commit to fasting or giving up certain types of luxuries as a form of penitence. Common practices may include abstaining from meat, eating only one full meal each day, and fasting entirely one day each week.

Like many Christians, hyenas give up eating certain foods during Lent. Research in Ethiopia suggests that Lent forces spotted hyenas to change their diets. Do not think that the Ethiopians may have succeeded in converting hyenas to their faith; they only deprived the hyenas of butcher scraps. Hyenas are supremely adaptable mammals. As well as being good hunters, they are also opportunistic scavengers. The heavily Orthodox population gave up meat for Lent forcing hyenas to hunt down donkeys instead of scavenging outside butcher shops. Donkeys are a common livestock animal in northern Ethiopia and an easy target for the hyenas because they are kept outside at night.

According to Discover Magazine, the research team collected hyena feces and identified all the animals found in them. Hyenas are capable of eating and digesting all parts of their prey except hair and hooves. The results showed that when humans stop buying, eating and discarding animal products the hyenas' eating habits change significantly: before Lent, 14.8% of hyena droppings contained donkey hairs, during Lent this increased to 33.1%, falling again to 22.2% once the fast was over.