Theodore Roosevelt had what unique pet?

Theodore Roosevelt had a hyena as one of his unusual presidential pets.

Roosevelt and his family kept an extraordinary collection of animals during his presidency, including dogs, cats, a badger, a pig, a macaw, a barn owl, a pony, and a one-legged rooster. The hyena was reportedly a gift from Menelik II, emperor of Ethiopia, and was sometimes identified as a laughing hyena named Bill. It later went to the National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C.

The animal was part of a broader tradition of diplomatic gifts and presidential menageries. Roosevelt’s family enjoyed animals, while the president himself was also a passionate naturalist and conservationist. His later Smithsonian-sponsored African expedition of 1909–1910 collected thousands of zoological specimens.

The hyena is often confused with Roosevelt’s other famous animals, especially his son Quentin’s macaw, Eli Yale, or the bear that helped inspire the teddy bear. Roosevelt did not merely have conventional household pets: his family’s White House animal collection was closer to a small zoo.