How can this be?! =(

I have been watching The Life of Mammals, a beautifully made series on, surprise surprise, mammals. And it is beautiful, visually and in the approach it takes to looking at the diverse range of mammals in existence. Not to mention it's narrated by David Attenborough. I love that man.

I was really excited when I reached episode 5, Meat Eaters. I love carnivores even more than I love David. Seriously, some of the most gorgeous, intelligent and charismatic animals ever are fluffy with sharp teeth. I find there is something dangerously attractive about wolves, tigers, foxes and so on. And this episode was awesome. It even included a section on African wild dogs, which have absolutely amazing social structures and hunting skills. They are the most successful of all mammalian hunters, with a kill rate over 80% (wolves only have about a 10% kill rate, I think).

Sorry, I'm getting sidetracked. Anyway, everything was awesome until David started talking about hyenas. AND HE MADE AN ERROR! He said that hyenas belonged to the dog tribe. Actually, hyenas belong to the cat suborder (shocking but true).

Hyenas are more closely related to cats than dogs. A bit of reading confirmed that David Attenborough was in fact wrong. Below is a diagram of the truth:


If you don't trust the awesome phylogeny I drew, google search "hyena phylogeny" and you will see that I am right.

Anyway, despite being wrong, I still like David, I still loved that episode, and I still look forward to watching the rest of the series.