Brown Hyena

Hyaena brunnea

Today's animal is the Brown Hyena, the rarest of the different Hyena species. These interesting carnivores live only in southern Africa, and they make dry desert and semi-desert areas their home.

Brown Hyenas live in small social groups that are led by an alpha pair, very similar to wolves. These packs have a specific hierarchy that is enforced through aggressive and submissive displays. Typically only the dominant female will breed, though not always with the dominant male!

Scavenging is the name of the game with the Brown Hyenas. Their packs will consume animals killed by other predators, and sometimes they will even drive that exact predator off in order to get to the meal. They aren't very good at hunting their own food though, and because they never know when a carcass will be available they often hide extra food to come back to later.

Brown Hyenas are considered Vulnerable because they tend to come within close range of human settlements. Their aggressive behavior causes problems, and many residents attempt to poison or shoot them. They do live within a few protected areas, but they continue to be killed outside of those borders.

---

IUCN Status : Vulnerable
Location : Southern Africa
Size : Shoulder height around 30in (76cm), Weight up to 120lbs (54kg)

Classification : Phylum : Chordata -- Class : Mammalia -- Order : Carnivora
Family : Hyaenidae -- Genus : Hyaena-- Species : H. brunnea
Image :  Pistoleros

Read More

Cave Hyena

Crocuta crocuta spelaea

Tens of thousands of years ago the Cave Hyena could be found all across Europe and Asia, hunting the massive Pleistocene mammals that live there. A subspecies of the extant Spotted Hyena, the Cave Hyenas were larger (weighed up to 225lbs) and lived far beyond the warm weather confines of the African Continent.

Cave Hyena fossils have been found in abundance, and because these creatures were such prolific hunters, they were responsible for large deposits of herbivore fossils as well. Unsurpsingly, they lived in caves, and sometimes even had to compete for spaces with Neanderthals and early humans. Hyena fossils with tool marks on the bones have been located, and they are also depicted in cave paintings and in sculptures that date back more than 20,000 years.

No one is really 100% sure how and why these predators went extinct. Climate change may have had something to do with it though. The grasslands that they lived in became forests in many areas, and those environments were more suited to hunters like wolves and humans. Hunting by humans may also have played some role, and competition with new predators most certainly had something to do with it as well.

Interestingly, Hyenas might one day return to their old Asian stomping grounds. Out in a Siberia, a nature reserve known as Pleistocene Park is working to restore the tundra to its original grassy steppe condition. They are accomplishing this by reintroducing the large, Pleistocene-like herbivores that lived there thousands of years ago. Now that different herbivores have been thriving, there is talk of bring back carnivores as well. Though the Cave Hyena subspecies is extinct, their close Spotted Hyena relatives are still around, and could one day make the park their home.

---

Status : Extinct for 11,000 years
Location : Europe, Asia
Size : Weight up to 225lbs (102kg)

Classification : Phylum : Chordata -- Class : Mammalia -- Order : Carnivora
Family : Hyaenidae -- Genus : Crocuta -- Species : C. crocuta -- Subspecies : †C. c. spelaea

Image : Heinz-Wener Weber

Read More

Spotted Hyena

Crocuta crocuta are the largest of the living species of Hyena, all of which are found within the family Hyaenidae, which itself is part of the suborder Feliforma. That all means that despite their doggish looks and pack behavior, Hyenas are actually more closely related to cats! 

Image Source

Spotted Hyenas live all across Africa south of the Sahara. As mentioned, they live in large packs, sometimes numbering up to 80 members, which are led by the females. They are large, muscular hunters, capable of weighing over 175lbs. Interestingly, the males and females are extremely difficult to distinguish from one another, as they have similar looking external reproductive organs. The species is also sexually dimorphic, with the females being larger than the males.

They are exceptional hunters, working in groups to take down prey that includes gazelle, buffalo, and wildebeast. They are also extremely opportunistic feeders, which can cause problems when they live in close vicinity to humans. Spotted Hyenas, like all Hyenas, have a dentition that allows them to crack bones. Spotted Hyenas also have the strongest jaws among all animals, which assists greatly in their bone breaking ability. They can consume and digest their entire kill. There is a myth that Hyenas are scavengers, and while they will do so on occasion, around 95% of the diets consist of food that they have killed themselves.

Read More