All information about the hyena

What types of hyenas are there?

Today, there are four species of hyenas:

• The spotted hyena

• The brown hyena

• The striped hyena

• The aardwolf

The spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta)

The spotted hyena is the largest, most aggressive and noisiest species of hyena. The animal is most common in large areas south of the Sahara in Africa. The spotted hyena is strongly built and has a medium-length, bushy tail. They have a broad head and the ears are short. The fur is short and brownish-gray in color. Older hyenas have lighter fur than younger hyenas. The lower part of the body is black. The tail has a black tip and the muzzle is dark brown. They can reach speeds of up to sixty miles per hour. Spotted hyenas live in groups called clans.

The brown hyena (Hyaena brunnea)

The brown hyena has dark brown/black fur with a pale yellow collar around the neck. White horizontal stripes run across its legs and its tail is dark. The loose and shaggy fur can be put on during fights, making it appear wider and larger. They weigh between 34 and 70 pounds.

The striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena)

The striped hyena has yellow-gray fur with vertical black stripes all over its body. Like the brown hyena, they can put on their fur when they feel threatened, making them look 38% bigger and wider! The throat, tail tip and muzzle are black. The striped hyena is found mainly in North Africa, Northeast Africa, the Middle East and in India. Unlike the spotted hyena, the striped hyena usually lives alone.

The aardwolf (Proteles cristatus)

The aardwolf is found in southern and northeastern Africa. The aardwolf is different from the other hyena species in many ways and is therefore often considered the maverick of the hyena family. For example, the aardwolf is a lot smaller than other hyenas and also only weighs between eight and 14 pounds! In addition, they do not eat carrion and meat, but termites. It can eat up to 300,000 termites in one night!

In the Safari Park you can admire a group of spotted hyenas.

Reproduction and hyena pups

Spotted hyenas can have young throughout the year. After a gestation period of four months, an average of two cubs are born. Sometimes there is only one, sometimes even four. Hyena pups have their eyes open immediately when they are born. They are then also still completely black. Only when they get a little older do they get the brown fur with spots.

Young hyenas are born in a den. Usually this is an abandoned burrow of an aardvark or warthog. After two to six weeks, the mother moves the young back to the clan's den. Newborn hyena siblings sometimes fight each other. Often one of the two does not survive this fight. This way there is more milk for the remaining young and the strongest ones survive. Hyena pups are still drinking from their mothers when they are 12 to 16 months old. This is generally a very late age to start drinking from the mother, and hyena pups have mature teeth even then!

Curious about what young hyenas look like and why they hide in burrows? Ranger Floor takes you behind the scenes with the hyena pups in the video below!

Where do spotted hyenas live?

Spotted hyenas live in Africa. They are found in sub-Saharan Africa, on deserts, savannas and in open forest areas. Hyenas are becoming increasingly common where people live. They are attracted to the trash and food left behind by humans.

Males or females?

With many animals, you can tell from the outside whether it is a male or female. Sometimes by horns, antlers or mane, sometimes by simply looking between the hind legs. In spotted hyenas, the female looks so much like a male, even on the underside, that they are impossible to tell apart from that. Females have a pseudopenis, which literally means "fake penis.

What is a hyena?

The spotted hyena is the largest, most aggressive and noisiest species of hyena. The hyena is a mammal and belongs to the medium-sized predators. They are found in Africa. The hyena is not often seen as a beautiful animal. Its broad head, sharp teeth and reddish fur give the animal a somewhat grim appearance. Its front legs are longer than its hind legs, which also gives it such a crooked back. Despite this odd body proportion, this animal can reach speeds of up to sixty kilometers per hour!

A group of hyenas

Spotted hyenas live in large groups, also called a clan. How large this clan is depends on the amount of food present in the habitat. A clan can consist of as many as three to eighty hyenas! In a clan there is a strict hierarchy. The females are in charge of the group and the males live on the outskirts of the clan.

However, it varies by hyena species whether they live in a group or not. The spotted hyena, for example, lives in a large clan. The striped hyena, on the other hand, prefers to live alone. Aardwolves again live alone with their families in an area and brown hyenas live in small groups or alone.

How does a hyena hunt?

A hyena is both a hunter and a scavenger. They often eat the scraps of prey left behind by other predators. Despite much thought that hyenas only eat carrion, hyenas can also hunt very well. After a study found that seventy percent of the food the hyenas eat were prey they had hunted themselves! When the hyena hunts, they hunt larger animals in groups or only small animals. In a group, they are more likely to catch large prey. They hunt mostly at night and in the morning. Hyenas choose their prey carefully and these are then often slow animals such as waterbucks. Hyenas bite until the prey bleeds to death or dies of shock.

Enemies of the hyena

The hyena's greatest enemy is the lion. The lion is a lot stronger and heavier than a hyena, so it can easily snatch prey and kill a hyena.

Species conservation

The role of zoos is to preserve and protect of animal species. European parks work closely together to achieve this goal and do so with an management program (EEP). The hyena is also part of this. In this way, a healthy reserve population is maintained. Find out more about species conservation and our role in it here.

Conservation

Fortunately, the status of the hyena is safe. But unfortunately, many of the species you see in our park are endangered and struggling in their native habitats. Did you know that worldwide more than 4,000 animal species threatened with extinction are endangered? Together we can help them, with big, or small steps. Want to know how? Then click here.

What does a hyena eat?

Although hyenas are often thought to eat only carrion, spotted hyenas are very good hunters. Mostly they hunt ungulates. They eat the prey completely including the bones! All that remains are the hooves and horns. They have very strong jaws and teeth to bite the bones into pieces. Their stomach is also specially adapted to digest the bones. You can see in the droppings of a spotted hyena that they eat bones. This is because they are colored white. You can even chalk them!

Aardwolves, unlike the other hyena species, do not eat prey. They prefer to eat insects and small animals. Their preferred food is termites.

The animals such as waterbucks that the hyena hunts are not always found throughout the year in the area where the hyena is also found. So sometimes the animals may have moved to another area. This is also called migration. When this is the case, the hyenas make long treks in search of the animals. These treks can be up to eighty kilometers long!

Hyenas in the Safari Park

In the Safari Park you will find the spotted hyenas along the walking safari.

What kind of sound does a hyena make?

Hyenas are also known as the laughing hunter. They make a sound very similar to laughing! Unfortunately, this is one of the reasons the animals have gotten a bad name. In fact, people used to think that these animals kill their prey for fun. Of course, this is not true at all, because every animal has to eat! The hyena makes this 'laugh' when it is frightened or excited. Often this is at the moment when an animal is being chased.

Is the hyena a canine or feline?

A hyena's body is adapted to the same hunting techniques as dogs. The appearance of a hyena also resembles that of a dog. Yet a hyena's DNA is more similar to felines.