Diane Jones, age 12, of Madison, Tenn., for her question:

Are hyenas wild dogs?

Dogs and hyenas are meat eating mammals with many features in common, but there are basic differences in teeth and feet. The two groups of animals are classified in different families. All dogs, tame and wild, have five toes on each front foot and four toes on each hind foot. Most hyenas have four toes on each of their four feet. Their heads are far more massive in proportion to their bodies, and their toothy jaws are far stronger than those of the dogs.

We call all the dogs canine animals because they are classified in the animal family Canidae. The hyenas are classified in the family hyaenidae. There are about half a dozen different species of hyena, and the hungry meat eaters do their prowling and howling in various parts of Africa.