The hyena family, Hyaenidae, includes four species, but the Spotted Hyena (Crocuta crocuta) is often burdened by a persistent myth. Popular culture portrays these animals as cowardly scavengers that exclusively feed on the leftovers of powerful predators like lions. In reality, the Spotted Hyena is a highly successful and sophisticated apex predator. Its diet and survival strategy are dynamic, blending active hunting with opportunistic feeding to thrive across diverse African ecosystems.
The Dominance of Active Predation
The Spotted Hyena is a formidable and proficient hunter. Field studies consistently demonstrate that 50% to over 90% of its diet is self-procured, challenging the scavenger stereotype. They possess the speed and endurance necessary for successful pursuit, capable of maintaining speeds of up to 60 kilometers per hour over long distances.
These carnivores employ sophisticated cooperative hunting strategies, operating in groups known as clans. This teamwork allows them to successfully take down large ungulates, such as wildebeest, zebra, and Cape Buffalo. When operating as a coordinated unit, their success rate can reach 74% for larger prey. Cooperative hunting involves isolating a target, chasing it relentlessly to exhaust it, and then overwhelming it through persistent attack.
Prey selection focuses on medium to large ungulates (56 to 182 kilograms). When migratory animals are present, these become the primary food source. This active predation establishes the Spotted Hyena as a dominant force in its habitat, rivaling the African lion in its predatory role.
The Importance of Opportunistic Scavenging
While hunting is the primary method of food acquisition, the hyena’s diet is highly flexible and opportunistic. Scavenging serves as a vital supplement, ensuring survival during lean times and maximizing resource use. Hyenas frequently utilize carcasses from natural causes or accidents, acting as the essential clean-up crew of the savanna.
This scavenging often brings them into direct conflict with other large carnivores, particularly lions. The interaction is a dynamic form of kleptoparasitism, where both species steal kills from the other. Hyenas often use their numerical advantage to mob smaller groups of lions to usurp a kill, especially if adult male lions are absent.
Their keen senses aid this opportunistic feeding; they can detect carrion by smell or by hearing other predators feeding from up to 10 kilometers away. Utilizing every part of a carcass ensures minimal waste. This plays a significant role in maintaining ecosystem health by removing potential sources of disease.
Physical Adaptations for a Versatile Diet
The Spotted Hyena is equipped with unique anatomical features that enable its dual role as a hunter and extreme scavenger. Their robust skull structure supports massive jaw muscles that generate an exceptional bite force. This force averages around 1,100 pounds per square inch (PSI), which is notably stronger than the bite force of a lion.
Their dentition is specialized for processing bone, featuring conical, heavy-duty premolars adapted for crushing the toughest skeletal material. The ability to crack open bones allows them to access the highly nutritious marrow, a food source unavailable to most other predators.
The digestive system completes this adaptation with highly acidic stomach fluids. These potent acids can dissolve and process bone fragments, hooves, hair, and hide, allowing for the near-total consumption of a carcass. This specialized physiology allows them to extract nutrients from material that other carnivores leave behind, resulting in their characteristic chalky white scat due to the high concentration of ingested calcium.
Feeding Roles Across Hyena Species
The family Hyaenidae includes four species, and their feeding strategies demonstrate a spectrum of roles. The Striped Hyena (Hyaena hyaena) and the Brown Hyena (Parahyaena brunnea) align much closer to the traditional scavenger role.
The Brown Hyena relies almost entirely on scavenging, with less than five percent of its diet coming from actively hunting small animals. It is an omnivore that supplements its diet with fruit and insects. The Striped Hyena is also primarily a scavenger and omnivore, feeding on carrion, small prey, and plant matter. Both species are smaller than the spotted hyena and typically forage alone, lacking cooperative hunting prowess.
The final member of the family, the Aardwolf (Proteles cristata), is a specialized insectivore with a completely different diet. Its delicate jaw structure is not designed for bone crushing or hunting large prey. Instead, the Aardwolf consumes almost exclusively termites, using its long, sticky tongue to lap up hundreds of thousands of them in a single night.