Kay E. Holekamp

Holekamp received her undergraduate degree in 1973 in Biological Psychology from Smith College, where she wrote her honors thesis on the behavior of Linnaeus's mouse opossum (Marmosa Murina).{{cite journal |last1=Holekamp|first1=K. E.| last2=Reutener|first2=D.B.|date=1981|title=Observation, description, and analysis of the captive behavior of Marmosa murina|journal=JSAS Catalog of Selected Documents in Psychology|volume=423|pages=69}} After a stint working as a river guide in Amazonas and hitchhiking around the world,{{cite book |last=Holekamp |first=K. E. |year=1979 |chapter=Suggestions for women travelers |editor-last=Berg |editor-first=R. |title=The Art & Adventure of Traveling Cheaply |publisher=And/Or Press |location=Berkeley, CA |pages=175–188}}

Holekamp earned her PhD in Psychobiology in 1983 at the University of California, Berkeley.

Holekamp’s doctoral dissertation research, conducted under the supervision of Stephen E. Glickman and Roy L. Caldwell, focused on the sexually dimorphic natal dispersal behavior of Belding's ground squirrel (Urocitellus beldingi, formerly Spermophilus beldingi). In her postdoctoral work in behavioral endocrinology with Frank Talamantes at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Holekamp studied the reproductive endocrinology of California ground squirrels (Otospermophilus beecheyi, formerly Spermophilus beecheyi){{cite journal |last1=Holekamp |first1=K. E. |last2=Nunes |first2=S. |last3=Talamantes |first3=F. |year=1988 |title=Circulating prolactin in free-living California ground squirrels (Spermophilus beecheyi) |journal=General and Comparative Endocrinology |volume=71 |pages=484–492}}

{{cite journal |last1=Holekamp |first1=K. E. |last2=Talamantes |first2=F. |year=1992 |title=Seasonal fluctuations in hormones and behavior of free-living male California ground squirrels (Spermophilus beecheyi) |journal=Hormones and Behavior |volume=26 |pages=7–23}}

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Holekamp is the eldest of four children born to Carl H. Holekamp Jr. and Barbara Brown Holekamp. Holekamp was raised in St. Louis, Missouri, where she attended the John Burroughs School from 1963 to 1969. During her senior year of high school, she initiated her career in animal behavior by working part-time as a keeper in the Children’s Zoo and Small Mammal Division at the St. Louis Zoo.

After graduating from Smith College, Holekamp worked as an Amazon river guide at the Parador Ticuna Hotel (now the Hotel Utuane) in Leticia, Colombia, until starting her doctoral work at U.C. Berkeley.

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In 1987, Holekamp joined the Department of Ornithology and Mammalogy as a research associate at San Francisco’s California Academy of Sciences. There, in May, 1988, she initiated her long-term field study of the behavioral ecology of spotted hyenas (Crocuta Crocuta) in the Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya. Holekamp joined the faculty of the Department of Zoology (now the Department of Integrative Biology) at Michigan State University in 1992. There, Holekamp and her students continued her field study of spotted hyenas with a particular focus on their behavioral and morphological development.

She received multiple awards for outstanding teaching and mentoring during her tenure at MSU, where she was named a University Distinguished Professor in 1999. She has received uninterrupted support for her hyena research from the U.S. National Science Foundation from 1987 through 2025.

Holekamp was awarded a fellowship from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation in 1993.{{cite web|url=https://www.packard.org/fellow/holekamp-kay-e/|title=Kay Holekamp}} She was elected as a Fellow of the Animal Behavior Society in 2001,{{cite web|url=https://www.animalbehaviorsociety.org/web/about-fellows.php|title=ABS Fellows}} and received the C. Hart Merriam Award for outstanding research in mammalogy from the American Society of Mammalogists in 2005. In 2006, she received a Guggenheim Fellowship. In 2013, Holekamp was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science,{{cite web|url=https://www.aaas.org/fellows/listing|title=AAAS Fellows Listing}} and she was also awarded the Smith College Medal.{{cite web |url=https://www.smith.edu/discover-smith/history-traditions/awards-medals|title= Smith College Awards and Medals}} She was inducted as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2015. In 2016, she was elected by the American Society of Mammalogists to Honorary Membership, which is the Society’s highest honor.{{cite web|url=https://www.mammalsociety.org/committees/honorary-membership|title=Honorary Membership}} Holekamp was also the recipient of the Distinguished Animal Behaviorist Award from the Animal Behavior Society, a lifetime achievement award and that Society’s highest honor, in 2019.{{cite web|url=https://www.animalbehaviorsociety.org/web/awards-distinguished.php|title=Distinguished Animal Behaviorist Award}}

Holekamp studied the proximal factors influencing dispersal from the natal site{{cite journal |last=Holekamp |first=K. E. |year=1986 |title=Proximal causes of natal dispersal in Belding's ground squirrels (Spermophilus beldingi) |journal=Ecological Monographs |volume=56 |pages=365–391}} by Belding's ground squirrels in the Sierra Nevada of California. Holekamp’s data supported an "ontogenetic switch" hypothesis, suggesting that natal dispersal behavior by male squirrels is triggered by attainment of a particular body mass or body composition, or some combination of these variables. Holekamp also tested hypotheses about the endocrine mediation of natal dispersal, finding that the behavior was mediated by organizational effects of androgenic hormones.{{cite journal |last1=Holekamp |first1=K. E. |last2=Smale |first2=L. |last3=Simpson |first3=H. B. |last4=Holekamp |first4=N. A. |year=1984 |title=Hormonal influences on natal dispersal in free-living Belding's ground squirrels (Spermophilus beldingi) |journal=Hormones and Behavior |volume=18 |pages=465–483}}

Later, Holekamp‘s first PhD student, Scott Nunes, found that perinatal exposure to testosterone determines the probability of dispersal, whereas the amount of energy a ground squirrel has stored as fat strongly influences the timing of its dispersal.{{cite journal |last1=Nunes |first1=S. |last2=Duniec |first2=T. R. |last3=Schweppe |first3=S. A. |last4=Holekamp |first4=K. E. |year=1999 |title=Energetic and endocrine mediation of natal dispersal behavior in Belding's ground squirrels |journal=Hormones and Behavior |volume=35 |pages=113–124}}

Together with P. W. Sherman, Holekamp summarized her work on natal dispersal in a 1989 paper published in American Scientist that addressed the question of why male ground squirrels disperse{{cite journal |last1=Holekamp |first1=K. E. |last2=Sherman |first2=P. W. |year=1989 |title=Why male ground squirrels disperse |journal=American Scientist |volume=77 |pages=232–239}} at all four levels of analysis suggested by Niko Tinbergen.

File:Kay Holekamp in the Masai Mara National Reserve.gif

From 1988 until 2025, Holekamp served as Director of the Mara Hyena Project, a long-term field study of free-living spotted hyenas in southwestern Kenya. Her early hyena work, conducted in collaboration with Laura Smale, addressed the question of how females come to dominate males during the course of their early social development. Holekamp and Smale found that young hyenas of both sexes assume social ranks immediately below those of their mothers, and that females only come to dominate males when males disperse from their natal social group.{{cite journal |last1=Holekamp |first1=K. E. |last2=Smale |first2=L. |year=1993 |title=Ontogeny of dominance in free-living spotted hyaenas: Juvenile rank relations with other immature individuals |journal=Animal Behaviour |volume=46 |pages=451–466}}{{cite journal |last1=Smale |first1=L. |last2=Frank |first2=L. G. |last3=Holekamp |first3=K. E. |year=1993 |title=Ontogeny of dominance in free-living spotted hyaenas: Juvenile rank relations with adults |journal=Animal Behaviour |volume=46 |pages=467–477}}

Holekamp and her students went on to study social rank and reproductive success,{{cite journal |last1=Holekamp |first1=K. E. |last2=Smale |first2=L. |last3=Szykman |first3=M. |year=1996 |title=Rank and reproduction in the female spotted hyaena |journal=Journal of Reproduction and Fertility |volume=108 |pages=229–237}} hunting success,{{cite journal |last1=Holekamp |first1=K. E. |last2=Smale |first2=L. |last3=Berg |first3=R. |last4=Cooper |first4=S. M. |year=1997 |title=Hunting rates and hunting success in the spotted hyaena |journal=Journal of Zoology, London |volume=242 |pages=1–15}}

behavioral and hormonal changes associated with natal dispersal behavior,{{cite journal |last1=Holekamp |first1=K. E. |last2=Smale |first2=L. |year=1998 |title=Dispersal status influences hormones and behavior in the male spotted hyena |journal=Hormones and Behavior |volume=33 |issue=3 |pages=205–216}}

{{cite journal |last1=Holekamp |first1=K. E. |last2=Sisk |first2=C. L. |year=2003 |title=Effects of dispersal status on gonadal and pituitary function in the male spotted hyena |journal=Hormones and Behavior |volume=44 |pages=385–394}}

and mating strategies{{cite journal |last1=Szykman |first1=M. |last2=Engh |first2=A. L. |last3=Van Horn |first3=R. C. |last4=Funk |first4=S. |last5=Scribner |first5=K. T. |last6=Holekamp |first6=K. E. |year=2001 |title=Association patterns between male and female spotted hyenas reflect male mate choice |journal=Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology |volume=50 |pages=231–238}}

{{cite journal |last1=Curren |first1=L. J. |last2=Sawdy |first2=M. A. |last3=Scribner |first3=K. T. |last4=Lehman |first4=K. D. S. |last5=Holekamp |first5=K. E. |year=2022 |title=Endurance rivalry among male spotted hyenas: what does it mean to "endure"? |journal=Behavioral Ecology |volume=76 |pages=112}}

in spotted hyenas.

Together with S.M. Dloniak and J. A. French, Holekamp found that both male and female cubs born to mothers with high concentrations of androgens during late pregnancy exhibit higher rates of aggression than cubs born to mothers with lower androgen concentrations.{{cite journal |last1=Dloniak |first1=S. M. |last2=French |first2=J. A. |last3=Holekamp |first3=K. E. |year=2006 |title=Rank-related maternal effects of androgens on behaviour in wild spotted hyaenas |journal=Nature |volume=440 |pages=1190–1193}}

Because spotted hyenas live in social groups of the same size and structure as troops of many old-world primates,{{cite journal |last1=Holekamp |first1=K. E. |last2=Sakai |first2=S. T. |last3=Lundrigan |first3=B. L. |year=2007 |title=The spotted hyena as a model system for study of the evolution of intelligence |journal=Journal of Mammalogy |volume=88 |pages=545–554}}

Holekamp and her students used spotted hyenas as a model system for testing hypotheses about the evolution of large brains{{cite journal |last1=Swanson |first1=E. M. |last2=Holekamp |first2=K. E. |last3=Lundrigan |first3=B. L. |last4=Arsznov |first4=B. |last5=Sakai |first5=S. T. |year=2012 |title=Multiple determinants of brain size and brain architecture in mammalian carnivores |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=7 |pages=e38447}}

{{cite journal |last1=Benson-Amram |first1=S. R. |last2=Dantzer |first2=B. |last3=Stricker |first3=G. |last4=Swanson |first4=E. M. |last5=Holekamp |first5=K. E. |year=2016 |title=Brain size predicts problem-solving ability in mammalian carnivores |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |volume=113 |pages=2532–2537}}

and enhanced intelligence.{{cite journal |last1=Benson-Amram |first1=S. R. |last2=Holekamp |first2=K. E. |year=2012 |title=Innovative problem solving by wild spotted hyenas |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |volume=279 |pages=4087–4095 |doi=10.1098/rspb.2012.1450|pmc=3427591 }}

{{cite journal |last1=Holekamp |first1=K. E. |last2=Dantzer |first2=B. |last3=Stricker |first3=G. |last4=Yoshida |first4=K. C. S. |last5=Benson-Amram |first5=S. R. |year=2015 |title=Brains, brawn and sociality: a hyaena's tale |journal=Animal Behaviour |volume=103 |pages=237–248 |doi=10.1016/j.anbehav.2015.01.023|pmc=4493912 }}

{{cite journal |last1=Johnson-Ulrich |first1=L. |last2=Holekamp |first2=K. E. |year=2019 |title=Group size and social rank predict inhibitory control in spotted hyaenas |journal=Animal Behaviour |volume=160 |pages=157–168 |doi=10.1016/j.anbehav.2019.11.020|doi-access=free }}

Holekamp and her students have also made contributions elucidating the immune function of spotted hyenas, their microbiome,{{cite journal |last1=Flies |first1=A. S. |last2=Mansfield |first2=L. S. |last3=Johnston-Flies |first3=E. S. |last4=Grant |first4=C. K. |last5=Holekamp |first5=K. E. |year=2016 |title=Social rank predicts immune defenses in a long-lived wild carnivore |journal=Functional Ecology |volume=30 |issue=9 |pages=1549–1557 |doi=10.1111/1365-2435.12638}}

their conservation and management,{{cite journal |last1=Kolowski |first1=J. M. |last2=Holekamp |first2=K. E. |year=2006 |title=Spatial and temporal variation in livestock depredation by large carnivores along a Kenyan reserve border |journal=Biological Conservation |volume=128 |pages=529–541}}

{{cite journal |last1=Pangle |first1=W. M. |last2=Holekamp |first2=K. E. |year=2010 |title=Lethal and non-lethal anthropogenic effects on spotted hyenas in the Masai Mara National Reserve |journal=Journal of Mammalogy |volume=91 |pages=154–164}}

their cooperative defense of resources,{{cite journal |last1=Boydston |first1=E. E. |last2=Morelli |first2=T. L. |last3=Holekamp |first3=K. E. |year=2001 |title=Sex differences in territorial behavior exhibited by the spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) |journal=Ethology |volume=107 |pages=369–385}}

{{cite journal |last1=Montgomery |first1=T. M. |last2=Lehmann |first2=K. D. S. |last3=Gregg |first3=S. |last4=Keyser |first4=K. |last5=McTigue |first5=L. E. |last6=Beehner |first6=J. C. |last7=Holekamp |first7=K. E. |year=2023 |title=Determinants of hyena participation in risky collective action |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |volume=290 |pages=20231390 |doi=10.1098/rspb.2023.1390|pmc=10685128 }}

and their social dynamics.{{cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=J. E. |last2=Kolowski |first2=J. M. |last3=Graham |first3=K. E. |last4=Dawes |first4=S. E. |last5=Holekamp |first5=K. E. |year=2008 |title=Social and ecological determinants of fission-fusion dynamics in the spotted hyaena |journal=Animal Behaviour |volume=76 |pages=619–636}}

{{cite journal |last1=Strauss |first1=E. D. |last2=Holekamp |first2=K. E. |year=2019 |title=Social alliances improve rank and fitness in convention-based societies |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |volume=116 |issue=18 |pages=8919–8924 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1810384116|pmc=6500164 }}

{{reflist}}

• {{google scholar id|Xc1m10wAAAAJ}}
• [https://www.holekamplab.org/ Holekamp lab website]

• [https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/whos-laughing-now-38529396/ 2008 Smithsonian Magazine: Who’s laughing now?]
• [https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/health/04iht-04hyen.10679231.html/ 2008 New York Times: Hyenas found to be sociable, and smart]
• [https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090331112851.htm/ 2009 Science Daily: Studies Of Hyena Skull Development Put Teeth Into New Female Dominance Theory]
• [https://archive.nytimes.com/scientistatwork.blogs.nytimes.com/author/kay-e-holekamp/ 2011 New York Times: Scientists at Work blog]
• [https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/scent-gland-bacteria-help-hyenas-identify-friends-strangers-and-pregnant-females/ 2011 Discover Magazine: Scent-Gland Bacteria Help Hyenas Identify Friends, Strangers, and Pregnant Females]
• [https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/601763/ 2012 AAAS Eureka Alert: Hyenas that think outside the box solve problems faster]
• [https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/what-hyena-giggles-really-say/ 2015 National Geographic: What Hyena Giggles Really Say]
• [https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/26/science/some-carnivores-are-better-than-others-at-unlocking-dinner.html/ 2016 New York Times: Some Carnivores Are Better Than Others at Unlocking Dinner]
• [https://corbinmaxey.com/podcast-1/category/Dr.+Kay+Holekamp/ 2019 Animals to the Max podcast: the Hyena Scientist]
• [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/hyenas-climbing-social-ladder-easier-friends/ 2019 PBS: For Hyenas, Climbing the Social Ladder is Easier with Friends]
• [https://thewildlife.captivate.fm/episode/whos-laughing-now-hyenas-with-dr-kay-holekamp/ 2020 The Wildlife Podcast: Who's Laughing Now? Hyenas with Dr Kay Holekamp]
• [https://scitechdaily.com/massive-study-over-27-years-shows-social-ties-and-rank-are-inherited-among-spotted-hyenas/ 2021 SciTech Daily: Massive Study Over 27 Years Shows Social Ties and Rank Are Inherited Among Spotted Hyenas]
• [https://www.bbc.com/mediacentre/proginfo/2022/08/discovery/ 2022: BBC Tooth and Claw: Spotted Hyena]
• [https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/spotted-hyenas-queens/ 2024 National Geographic Magazine: Love them or hate them, hyenas are getting the last laugh]

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