Hyena Facts, Africa’s Misunderstood Predator

What Makes a Hyena a Hyena

Why do female hyenas have a pseudo-penis, and how do you tell them apart?

The female spotted hyena is the only female mammal that lacks an external vaginal opening. Instead, she has an enlarged clitoris, commonly called a pseudo-penis, through which she urinates, mates and gives birth. Two explanations are generally offered: elevated androgen levels circulating in the womb, a hormonal by-product linked to the aggression and dominance that define female hyena behaviour, and a social function, since clan members inspect each other’s erect pseudo-penis during greeting ceremonies as a display of trust and submission.

Because the anatomy looks so similar between the sexes, guides rarely rely on it in the field. Size is a better cue, since females typically outweigh males by around ten per cent, and so is behaviour, since it is females who lead a clan, feed first at a kill and outrank every male.

How long is a hyena pregnant, and what happens when cubs are born?

Gestation runs for roughly 110 days, though it can range from around 90 to 130, and a litter is usually one to three cubs, most commonly two. A female gives birth in an isolated den away from the clan, and unlike lion cubs, hyena cubs arrive with their eyes open and their teeth already through, ready to compete with a sibling from the first hours of life. Where a litter is the same sex, that competition can turn fatal. After a few weeks, the mother moves her cubs to the communal den, where several litters are raised alongside one another under the watch of the clan, though each female nurses only her own young.

How does a hyena clan work, and how big is its territory?

Spotted hyenas live in clans of anywhere from a handful to more than a hundred animals, with the largest concentrations found where prey is abundant, such as the Ngorongoro Crater. Clans are strictly matriarchal, and the hierarchy is absolute: even the lowest-ranking female outranks the highest-ranking male, rank is inherited from the mother, and females remain in their natal clan for life while males disperse and join a new clan around puberty. Territories run from around 40 to over 1,000 square kilometres depending on prey density, marked with communal latrines and scent-paste along regularly used paths. The clan’s whoop call, audible for several kilometres, summons members, announces a kill or declares ownership of ground to a rival clan.

How do hyenas hunt, and what do they do when it rains?

The idea of the hyena as a scavenger living off lion leftovers is largely backwards. Depending on the region, spotted hyenas make between half and as much as ninety-five per cent of their own kills, and it is lions that more often steal from hyenas than the other way round. Hunting is built around endurance rather than ambush: a hyena can hold 40 to 50 kilometres an hour over several kilometres, wearing down wildebeest, zebra or impala until it tires, with larger clans occasionally taking prey as substantial as buffalo. Rain tends to work in a hyena’s favour rather than against it. Wet ground and reduced visibility make prey easier to catch, and the first rains of the wet season green up the plains and draw herbivores back within easy reach.

Why does a hyena look hunched, and is its bite really the strongest in the animal kingdom?

A hyena’s sloping profile comes from powerfully built shoulders and forelegs rather than genuinely short hind legs, which are only marginally shorter than the front pair. The bulk sits up front because a hyena’s skull, jaw muscles and neck are heavy enough to need serious support, all of it built around a bite that can crush bone. That bite measures around 1,100 pounds per square inch, stronger than a lion’s and among the most powerful of any land mammal relative to body size, though not the outright strongest in the animal kingdom; a jaguar, a gorilla and certainly a crocodile all bite harder in absolute terms. What sets a hyena apart is what the bite is for: specialised premolars let it crack open bones that lions and leopards leave behind.

Why do hyenas laugh, and are they actually scared of lions?

The giggle that gives hyenas their reputation is not amusement. It is a stress call, produced when a hyena is nervous, frustrated or asserting submission, most often during competition over food, and the pitch rises the lower an individual’s rank. The separate whooping call carries a different meaning, functioning as long-range contact between clan members rather than any kind of laughter. As for lions, the relationship runs both ways. A single hyena or a small group will generally give ground to a pride, and lions steal kills from hyenas more often than the reverse. A large clan is a different matter, particularly where adult male lions are absent, and can mob and drive off a smaller group through sheer persistence, and in the Ngorongoro Crater it is not unusual to see hyenas holding their ground beside lionesses at the same kill.

How do you tell a hyena from a painted dog?

At a glance, a painted dog (African wild dog) and a spotted hyena can look similar to an inexperienced eye, but the differences are clear once you know what to look for. Painted dogs are slighter and more athletic, with a blotched coat of black, brown, white and yellow unique to each individual, and large, rounded ears. A hyena is heavier through the shoulders, with a sloped back, a sandy or greyish coat marked with dark spots, and smaller, more pointed ears. The behavioural gap is just as wide. Painted dogs are highly cooperative hunters with a success rate around eighty per cent, sharing food generously and feeding pups first. Hyenas often hunt alone and compete fiercely over kills, and their habit of stealing food from painted dog packs, whose numbers are already critically low, is one of the pressures conservationists are working to manage.