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Part I

Spotted Hyena
(Crocuta crocuta)


Range and Habitat


Spotted hyenas range throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Their habitat includes savannah, arid semi-desert, open woodlands, dense dry woodland, and rocky mountainous forests up to 4,000 m in altitude.

They avoid the dense tropical rainforest that occurs along east-central Africa. They also are absent from coastal areas.


Physical Appearance


Spotted hyenas are a pale brown color with dark spots all over their back, and a dark brown mask on their face and legs. The hair is short and coarse, with a wooly undercoat. The guard hairs are 30-40mm in length, with undercoat hairs 15-20 mm in length.

They have a haunched back with low-set hind-quarters. Their body is proportionately large and round, set atop thin, long legs. The tail is short in proportion ot the body, and 1/3 of the tail's length is just hair.
They have four toes on each foot, with short, blunt, non-retractile claws.

The head is carried low in relation to their topline.
Their large, rounded ears are set on the sides high on the head.

Their head is shaped similar to the American pit bull dog, with huge jaw muscles, short and broad muzzle, thick neck, rounded skull, and oblique eyes, because like the pit bull, they were "bred to bite". Hyenas have extremely powerful jaws due to their diet.

Both sexes have anal scent glands which secrete a thick, sticky secretion that is used to mark territorial boundaries.

The glandular secretion is stored in a pouch located just outside the anus. This pouch is everted during scent marking, with the hyena in a crouching position to deposit the secretion on grass and sticks.

Sexual dimorphism is very prominent in the spotted hyena, with the females considerably larger than the males.

Average weight for males is 45 kg, with the females being 10 kg heavier on average, but females have been reported to be over 70 kg (150 lb) in southern Africa.


Females are masculinized due to the excess testosterone in their bodies; they have more testosterone in their bodies than most male hyenas.


As a result of this masculinization, females are a third larger than the males, have more muscle mass, are more aggressive, and have masculinized genetalia.

Their vulva is fused to look like a scrotum and testes, and their clitoris is large and looks like a pahllus, and can be erected just like a penis.

The vagina runs through the pseudo penis.

This makes it hard for them to mate and give birth, since they do so through this pseudo penis.

It was once thought that hyenas were hermaphroditic animals because the females sported genitalia similar to the males.

In fact, the only sure way to determine the sex of a hyena is that after giving birth the female's two black nipples become enlarged.

Diet and Hunting Behavior


Hyenas are opportunistic feeders and obligate carnivores.

Contrary to popular belief, hyenas hunt more than they scavenge.

Most people picture hyenas as lowly scavengers that steal kills from lions, when it is more often that the reverse is true; lions steal more hyena kills than hyenas steal from the lions.

Hyenas hunt alone or in packs led by their female leader, and kill by tearing their prey apart.
Typical prey species are herbivorous mammals, and include gazelle, water buffalo, zebra, warthog, and young giraffe, rhinoceros, and hippopotamus. However, they have been observed feeding on a wide variety of prey, including mammals, birds, fish and reptiles. Spotted hyenas have been known to kill and scavenge off of domestic livestock, such as cattle, sheep, goats, poultry, horses, donkeys, camels and even cats and dogs.
They can and do feed on carrion, as most predatory species do, but it only makes up less than 5% of their total diet.

Hunting is usually at night, but they sometimes hunt during the day.

They tend to hunt alone or in small groups of 2-5 individuals. They detect their prey using sight, hearing and smell. Hyenas will travel extinsively throughout their territory in search of prey. Some hyenas have been known to travel for 42-80 km in search of adequate prey sources. Once prey is found, the group will travel up to 2-3 km in active pursuit of prey, and can run at speeds of up to 60 km/hr. T

he group will often run through a herd of ungulates to single out an individual. Though they will usually catch diseased, weak, very young or very old individuals, healthy prey items are often taken. They kill their prey by severing the major arteries and veins in the neck and by disemboweling. Usually after a kill, the females will disperse with pieces of the kill and eat at a distance. Males and females may will fight over food, but the female usually is the winner because of her massive size. One hyena can eat 14.5 kg per meal. Hyenas have been known to cache food underwater.

Hyena's teeth are especially large, set in a heavy jaw, and can crush through an ungulate's thick femur.

Hyenas will ingest every piece of the animal.

Bones, horns, hooves, even teeth are digested completely within 24 hours.

Hyenas have the ability to eat and digest bones due to immensely powerful jaws, and the highly acidic digestive fluids in their stomach.

Due to the fact that they eat so much bone matter, their feces are often white.


Reproduction and Life Cycle


Mating is non seasonal and can occur at any time during the year. Pairs do not mate for life; females mate to any wandering male who isn't a member of their own clan. After a gestation period of four months (98-110 days), the female gives birth to one to four all black two pound cubs through her penis-like clitoris.

The clitoris usually ruptures during birth, creating a large gaping wound that can take weeks to heal. The cubs are born fully developed, due to the unusually long gestation period.

Their eyes are open, they have fully formed teeth, and they are very active.

The social life of spotted hyenas is centered around a communal den.

These dens are not dug by the hyenas themselves, but are abandoned burrows of other species. The dens are very small, and only allow juvenile hyenas, but not adults, to enter.

Cubs can be born either at the communal den or in a private den elsewhere and moved to the communal den later. Unlike other social carnivores, the dominant female is not the only one who breeds. However, lower ranking females sometimes permanently use dens further away from the main communal den.

Rare instances of the dominant female killing subordinant female's cubs has been recorded.

Each female nurses and rears her own cubs, and will not nurse a cub that is not her own.


to be continued