Photo: (c) Amelia Tauber, some rights reserved (CC BY) — via iNaturalist
Spotted Hyena
Crocuta crocuta
Lives in large clans across savanna, hunting more than it scavenges.
About the Spotted Hyena
The spotted hyena is routinely miscast as a scavenger living off lion leftovers. It is in fact a formidable hunter that kills the majority of what it eats, and it is quite capable of taking a kill away from lions when it has the numbers. The sloping back comes from powerful forequarters built to carry and dismember, and the jaws generate enough force to crack the long bones of large ungulates.
How it lives
Hyenas live in clans that can run to dozens of animals, structured around a strict hierarchy in which all females outrank all males. Females are larger and unusually aggressive, and the social system is inherited maternally. Clans defend territory, coordinate hunts, and keep up a running commentary of whoops, giggles and groans that carries for kilometres. Cubs are born with their eyes open and start competing immediately.
Where it lives
Lives in large clans across savanna, hunting more than it scavenges. Its main habitat is the African Savanna, where the climate is hot all year with dramatic wet and dry seasons, typically 25–35°C.
Notable facts
- Their 'laugh' is actually a sign of stress or excitement.
- Clans are led by females, who are larger than males.
- Their jaws can crush bone with ease.
Conservation
IUCN Red List status: Least concern. Assessed as not currently at risk of extinction in the wild.
Spotted hyenas are still widespread and adaptable, and they persist near human settlement better than most large carnivores. The threats are persecution — poisoning and shooting in response to livestock losses — and the general shrinking of wild prey. Their reputation costs them: they attract far less conservation funding and public sympathy than the cats they compete with.
Read the Wikipedia article →
