Spotted Hyena

About the spotted hyena

The spotted hyena, also called the laughing hyena, is the only living member of the genus Crocuta and the largest extant member of the family Hyaenidae, part of the order Carnivora. It's native to sub-Saharan Africa, where the IUCN estimates a total population of between 27,000 and 47,000 individuals. Extinct relatives known as cave hyenas, generally treated as part of the same species, ranged across Eurasia for at least a million years before disappearing at the end of the Late Pleistocene.

Physically, the spotted hyena has a vaguely bear-like build: a strong, well-muscled neck and forequarters set against noticeably weaker hindquarters, with a rounded rather than angular rump — a shape that makes it harder for an attacker coming from behind to get a grip. The head is wide and flat, with a blunt muzzle and rounded ears, unlike the pointed ears of the striped hyena. Each foot has four webbed toes tipped with short, blunt claws, and the tail is short, 300 to 350 mm (12 to 14 in), resembling a pompom. Unusually for a mammal, females are larger than males and dominate them. The spotted hyena is also the only placental mammal in which females have a pseudo-penis and no external vaginal opening.

Its skull is among the most powerfully built of any member of the Carnivora relative to its size. The upper and lower third premolars are conical bone-crushers, and the carnassials — the shearing teeth used to cut meat — sit behind them rather than in front, a layout that lets the animal crush bone without dulling its cutting teeth. Combined with large jaw muscles, this produces a bite that can generate roughly 80 kgf/cm² of pressure, about 40 percent more force than a leopard can manage; free-ranging hyenas have been observed cracking open giraffe long bones 7 cm across. The species also has a long history of crossing paths with people: depictions of it survive from the Upper Paleolithic, including cave paintings at Lascaux and Chauvet.

Behavior and diet

Spotted hyena society is the most complex of any carnivore's, organized into large clans led by a strict, female-based hierarchy that has drawn more comparison to baboon troops than to other carnivore societies. Access to kills, mating opportunities, and even the timing of a male's eventual departure from the clan all depend on an individual's ability to outrank rivals and build alliances with clanmates. Females raise only their own cubs, and males provide no paternal care — yet clan members cooperate closely in other ways, hunting, eating, and resting together, and using their numbers and communication skills to fight off a common enemy.

The species is both hunter and scavenger, with a digestive system built to handle skin, bone, and other animal remains that most predators leave behind — by some measures, the most efficient use of animal matter of any carnivore in Africa. It hunts alone, in small parties of two to five, or in large groups, often running through a herd of prey animals to single one out before chasing it over several kilometers at speeds up to 60 km/h (37 mph).

Range and habitat

The spotted hyena is native to sub-Saharan Africa, where it remains the continent's most common large carnivore thanks to its adaptability and willingness to hunt or scavenge as opportunity allows. Its range once reached much further: related cave hyena populations lived across Eurasia for at least a million years before dying out at the end of the Late Pleistocene. Genetic research into these extinct populations tells a layered story — mitochondrial DNA points to a shared Afro-Eurasian ancestry, while nuclear genome analysis suggests the African, European, and Asian lineages were largely separate for long stretches of time, with periods of interbreeding between them afterward.

Specific habitat types aren't detailed here, but populations living outside national parks and other protected areas are declining because of habitat loss and poaching, even as the species as a whole remains widespread and numerous.

Conservation status

The spotted hyena is classified as Least Concern by the IUCN, a status supported by its wide range and an estimated population of 27,000 to 47,000 individuals. That overall stability masks a narrower problem: populations outside protected areas are declining due to habitat loss and poaching, even as numbers inside parks and reserves hold up better.

The IUCN's hyena specialist group has also flagged something less tangible but still consequential for the species — its reputation. In Western culture the spotted hyena has long been regarded as ugly and cowardly; in African folklore it's often cast as greedy, gluttonous, and foolish, though also powerful and potentially dangerous. The specialist group considers this negative image actively harmful to the species' prospects for survival, both in the wild and in captivity.