SPOTTED HYENAS

CROCUTA CROCUTA

Spotted hyenas have a relatively short torso with high withers (shoulders) and lower hind quarters, which make their backs slope noticeably downward toward the rump – this prevents attackers from being able to get a firm grip.  Their coat is short and sandy to grey/brown with black spots, with hair on the neck and back slightly longer and able to stand on end when the hyaena becomes excited.   

Spotted hyenas are skilled hunters that can easily take down wildebeest or antelope, but tend to be associated more with their ability as scavengers.  

Spotted hyenas are very vocal and make a variety of different sounds to communicate with each other, most famously their cackling ‘laugh’ which can be heard by other hyenas from three miles away.  

Hyenas can live in groups of up to 90 individuals called clans, organized in matriarchal and patriarchal hierarchies, and headed by a dominant female.  They share a communal den and can occupy a home range of between 15 and 400 square miles (although not all clans will defend a home range).  Females usually give birth to two cubs – once they are two-six weeks old the mother will move them to a communal den with other females and their cubs.  

*International Union for Conservation of Nature is the world’s main authority on the conservation status of species.