# Hyena
Hyenas are medium to large carnivorous mammals of the family Hyaenidae, a family of four living species found in Africa, southwest Asia, and India: the spotted hyena (*Crocuta crocuta*), the striped hyena (*Hyaena hyaena*), the brown hyena (*Parahyaena brunnea*), and the aardwolf (*Proteles cristata*).[1](https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Hyaenidae/) Three of the four hunt and scavenge large vertebrate prey, while the aardwolf subsists almost exclusively on termites.[1](https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Hyaenidae/) Despite a popular reputation as mere scavengers, hyenas are skilled hunters, and the spotted hyena lives in one of the most complex societies documented among non-primate mammals.[1](https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Hyaenidae/) • [2](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2346515/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Family | Hyaenidae, four species each in its own genus, in Africa, SW Asia, and India[1](https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Hyaenidae/) |
| Size | 10 to 80 kg; forequarters larger than hindquarters, giving a sloping, uphill-running appearance[1](https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Hyaenidae/) |
| Diet | Three species hunt and scavenge large vertebrate prey; the aardwolf eats termites almost exclusively[1](https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Hyaenidae/) |
| Feeding power | A group of hungry hyenas can reduce a 150 kg antelope to a skull and vertebrae in as little as 13 minutes[3](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6664139/) |
| Sociality | Spotted hyenas live in hierarchically structured clans of up to 90 to 130 individuals; the other species are solitary or live in small groups[4](https://doi.org/10.1159/000323849) • [5](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5413890/) |
| Conservation | Spotted hyena is IUCN Least Concern, with an estimated 27,000 to 47,000 across sub-Saharan Africa; striped hyena is Near Threatened[6](https://www.kws.go.ke/sites/default/files/2023-10/NATIONAL%20WILDLIFE%20CENSUS%202021%20REPORT%20ABRIDGED%20FINAL%20-%20WEB%20VERSION%20AUGUST%2023rd.pdf) • [7](https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Hyaena_hyaena/) |
| Evolution | The aardwolf diverged from other hyaenas about 15 to 32 million years ago; the spotted hyaena lineage separated 10 million years ago, and the striped and brown hyaena split 6 million years ago[8](https://portals.iucn.org/library/efiles/documents/1998-013.pdf) |
## The four species
The living Hyaenidae span a wide spectrum of body size, diet, and social organization. The aardwolf is the smallest member of the family, slightly larger than a jackal, and is considered an indicator species for the Somalia-Kalahari semi-desert axis; it occurs in Africa in two discrete populations separated by wetter regions.[8](https://portals.iucn.org/library/efiles/documents/1998-013.pdf) The striped hyena weighs 25 to 45 kg and ranges across northern and eastern Africa, the Middle East, India, and Asia extending north to the Caucasus and southern Siberia.[1](https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Hyaenidae/) The brown hyena lives in small clans of up to about 14 individuals in southern Africa, and the spotted hyena, the largest of the four, lives in complex hierarchically organized groups.[4](https://doi.org/10.1159/000323849)
All four species have patterned pelage in the sense that three bear stripes or spots; the brown hyena is unmarked.[1](https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Hyaenidae/) • [9](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42991-021-00188-1) A long-standing hypothesis proposed that the aardwolf's striped appearance evolved as [Batesian mimicry](https://www.edgepedia.org/batesian-mimicry) of the striped hyena, but the resemblance holds just as strongly in southern Africa, where the striped hyena does not occur and is replaced by the dissimilar brown hyena, arguing against the mimicry idea.[10](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1096-3642.1975.tb01897.x)
## Anatomy and feeding
Hyaenas are characterized by massive jaws and large premolars and molars used to crush bone, a dental apparatus the aardwolf lacks: its cheekteeth are reduced in size, and its dental formula is 3/3, 1/1, 3/2-1, 1/1-2, totaling 28 to 32 teeth, against 3/3, 1/1, 4/3, 1/1 = 34 in the other three species.[1](https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Hyaenidae/) A striking feature of the family is the disparity in length between front and rear limbs, which, together with a large head and heavier forequarters, makes hyenas look as if they are always running uphill.[1](https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Hyaenidae/)
Bone-cracking ability develops slowly. In a study of nine captive spotted hyenas aged 6 months to 2 years, morphological growth reached a plateau at about 20 months, but bite strength increased linearly up to 5 years of age; juveniles had not achieved adult feeding performance at 12 months, the age at which wild cubs are typically weaned, suggesting recently weaned cubs face elevated starvation risk.[11](https://zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-7998.2000.tb00622.x) After the permanent teeth replaced the deciduous teeth, the primary area of tooth use during bone cracking moved from the anterior teeth to the rearmost premolars, increasing the mechanical advantage of the jaw muscles.[11](https://zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-7998.2000.tb00622.x)
**Hunting and scavenging.** Although hyenas are commonly thought of as scavengers, they are also skilled hunters able to take down quite large prey, especially cooperatively; they cue on other species such as lions, cheetahs, and vultures to locate food, and in a conflict between lions and hyenas the winner is usually the species with the most individuals.[1](https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Hyaenidae/) [Cooperative](https://www.edgepedia.org/cooperative) hunting increases success and allows spotted hyenas to capture larger prey, yet 75% of successful hunts are conducted by lone hyenas, and only the largest prey species require more than one hunter.[3](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6664139/) Feeding competition among clan-mates is intense because a group can strip a 150 kg antelope to skull and vertebrae in 13 minutes, so an individual's social rank determines its priority of access to carcasses.[3](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6664139/) The striped hyena, by contrast, is predominantly a scavenger whose diet consists mainly of carrion and human refuse, foraging at night at average speeds of 2 to 4 km/h, occasionally 8 km/h when trotting.[7](https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Hyaena_hyaena/)
## Social life and intelligence
[Spotted hyena](https://www.edgepedia.org/spotted-hyena) societies resemble those of cercopithecine primates ([Old World](https://www.edgepedia.org/old-world) monkeys like baboons and macaques) in size, structure, and patterns of competition and cooperation. Like these monkeys, spotted hyenas recognize kin and other conspecifics as individuals, recognize third-party kin and rank relationships among clan-mates, and use this knowledge in social decision making, although they appear to rely more on social facilitation and simple rules of thumb, and no evidence to date suggests they can truly imitate.[2](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2346515/) Clans are centered around females, which are dominant to and larger than the males; males disperse, while females generally stay in their natal groups.[1](https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Hyaenidae/)
**Brain evidence.** Comparative CT studies of virtual brains built from skulls of wild-collected adults (32 spotted hyaenas, eight brown hyaenas, 11 striped hyaenas, and five aardwolves) found that spotted hyaenas have much larger corrected brain volumes than the other three species, and that their frontal cortex volume relative to total brain volume is significantly larger; the aardwolf's frontal cortex was significantly smaller than that of any other hyaenid.[5](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5413890/) These results are consistent with the social complexity hypothesis, but also with the foraging and cognitive buffer hypotheses, since spotted hyaenas hunt large, agile antelope and face more novel and unpredictable environments than carrion- or termite-eating relatives.[5](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5413890/) A CT study of a more than 350,000-year-old spotted hyena endocranium from Ethiopia found a brain indistinguishable from that of the extant species, placing a minimum age of 350,000 years on the evolution of spotted hyena sociality.[12](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10914-025-09784-1)
## Hyenas and people
Hyenas live alongside humans across much of their range, and interactions run in both directions. In some African villages, garbage is left outside at night for striped hyenas to feed on, giving the species a sanitary role; striped hyenas rarely attack livestock or people and are generally unaggressive.[7](https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Hyaena_hyaena/) A study in an agricultural landscape in [Rajasthan](https://www.edgepedia.org/rajasthan) found high striped hyena density and hypothesized that humans tolerate the species because, as a scavenger, it does not attack livestock and cleans organic waste, reducing disease risk.[13](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9067646/) A survey in Dera Ismail Khan District and adjoining former FATA regions of Pakistan documented the species' ecological dependence on rocky refugia and water availability in human-dominated landscapes.[14](https://www.sustainable-biodiversity.com/index.php/pub/article/view/173)
**Conflict.** Where spotted hyenas overlap with livestock herders, conflict can be substantial. In the Tarangire ecosystem of northern Tanzania, a questionnaire survey of 1,076 Maasai agropastoralist households estimated herder-reported livestock losses to spotted hyenas at approximately USD 904.84 per household per year, with attacks on kraaled livestock concentrated around homesteads near Manyara Ranch; most homesteads lacked fortified bomas and would benefit from lights and fencing materials.[15](https://doi.org/10.3390/conservation4010008) Around Pendjari Biosphere Reserve in northern Benin, spotted hyaena were reported responsible for 53.6% of 752 livestock losses from 2000 to 2007, ahead of baboon (24.8%) and lion (18.0%).[16](https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605310001109)
War can reshape hyena ecology. In Tigray, northern Ethiopia, where spotted hyenas and people had coexisted peacefully for centuries, researchers compared foraging at six battle sites with six control sites after the recent war: hyena diets at both site types consisted exclusively of domestically derived prey, but human hair was prevalent in scats from battle sites and absent from control-site scats, and of 318 hyenas responding to 48 call stations, response rates were significantly higher at battle sites (mean 36.7 ± 9.7 SD) than at control sites (16.3 ± 14.6 SD).[17](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11850440/)
## Conservation
The IUCN Red List classifies the spotted hyena as Least Concern, in an assessment based on a 2014 evaluation, and Kenya's 2021 national wildlife census cites an estimate of 27,000 to 47,000 spotted hyenas across sub-Saharan Africa.[6](https://www.kws.go.ke/sites/default/files/2023-10/NATIONAL%20WILDLIFE%20CENSUS%202021%20REPORT%20ABRIDGED%20FINAL%20-%20WEB%20VERSION%20AUGUST%2023rd.pdf) • [18](https://doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2015-2.RLTS.T5674A45194782.en) The striped hyena is classified as Near Threatened.[7](https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Hyaena_hyaena/) The IUCN Species Survival Commission maintains a dedicated Hyaena Specialist Group for the four species, whose work includes threat assessments and a range-wide occurrence study.[19](https://iucn.org/our-union/commissions/group/iucn-ssc-hyaena-specialist-group) Camera traps are now a standard research tool for hyenas, though all four species' patterned pelage and nocturnal habits pose identification challenges.[9](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42991-021-00188-1)
## References
1. [Hyaenidae (aardwolf and hyenas), Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan](https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Hyaenidae/)
2. [Holekamp, K. E. and colleagues (2007). Social intelligence in the spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta). PMC](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2346515/)
3. [The evolution of matrilineal social systems in fissiped carnivores. PMC](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6664139/)
4. [Brain Size and Social Complexity: A Computed Tomography Study in Hyaenidae, Brain Behavior and Evolution](https://doi.org/10.1159/000323849)
5. [The evolution of intelligence in mammalian carnivores. PMC](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5413890/)
6. [Kenya National Wildlife Census 2021 Report, Kenya Wildlife Service](https://www.kws.go.ke/sites/default/files/2023-10/NATIONAL%20WILDLIFE%20CENSUS%202021%20REPORT%20ABRIDGED%20FINAL%20-%20WEB%20VERSION%20AUGUST%2023rd.pdf)
7. [Hyaena hyaena (striped hyena), Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan](https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Hyaena_hyaena/)
8. [IUCN Hyaenas: Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan (1998)](https://portals.iucn.org/library/efiles/documents/1998-013.pdf)
9. [Using camera traps to study hyenas: challenges, opportunities, and outlook, Mammalian Biology](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42991-021-00188-1)
10. [Goodhart, C. B. (1975). Does the aardwolf mimic a hyena? Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 57: 349-356](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1096-3642.1975.tb01897.x)
11. [Binder, W. J. and Van Valkenburgh, B. (2000). Development of bite strength and feeding behaviour in juvenile spotted hyenas. Journal of Zoology 252: 273-283](https://zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-7998.2000.tb00622.x)
12. [When did spotted hyenas become social? Evidence from fossil endocasts, Journal of Mammalian Evolution](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10914-025-09784-1)
13. [High striped hyena density suggests coexistence with humans in an agricultural landscape, Rajasthan. PMC](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9067646/)
14. [Population Status, Habitat Use and Conservation of the Striped Hyena in Human-Dominated Landscapes in Pakistan, Sustainability and Biodiversity Conservation](https://www.sustainable-biodiversity.com/index.php/pub/article/view/173)
15. [Raycraft, J. (2024). Human-Hyena (Crocuta crocuta) Conflict in the Tarangire Ecosystem, Tanzania. Conservation 4(1): 99-114](https://doi.org/10.3390/conservation4010008)
16. [Human-carnivore conflict around Pendjari Biosphere Reserve, northern Benin, Oryx](https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605310001109)
17. [War-Induced Behavioral Change in Spotted Hyena Populations in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia. PMC](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11850440/)
18. [Crocuta crocuta (Spotted Hyaena), The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2015: e.T5674A45194782](https://doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2015-2.RLTS.T5674A45194782.en)
19. [IUCN SSC Hyaena Specialist Group](https://iucn.org/our-union/commissions/group/iucn-ssc-hyaena-specialist-group)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Life and health › Animals › Vertebrates › Mammals › Carnivorans › Domestic dog breeds*
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