A baby hyena is called a cub. The term applies across all four living hyena species: the spotted hyena, the striped hyena, the brown hyena, and the aardwolf. You may occasionally see “pup” in older wildlife literature, but “cub” is the standard term used by researchers and field biologists today. The word itself, though, barely hints at how strange and aggressive these newborns actually are. Spotted hyena cubs in particular are among the most unusual neonates in the mammal world, born with their eyes open, teeth already erupted, and an immediate willingness to fight their own siblings.
Why “Cub” and Not “Pup”
Hyenas belong to the suborder Feliformia, making them more closely related to cats and mongooses than to dogs, despite their dog-like appearance. That taxonomic placement is part of why the cat-family term “cub” stuck rather than the canine “pup.” In practice, both words have appeared in scientific publications over the decades, but contemporary hyena researchers overwhelmingly use “cub.” If you encounter “pup” in a wildlife documentary or older text, it is not wrong per se, just outdated. For the aardwolf, whose young are smaller and more delicate, “cub” is still the accepted term.
Born Ready to Fight
Most carnivore newborns enter the world helpless, with sealed eyes and soft gums. Spotted hyena cubs are a dramatic exception. They are born with fully erupted front teeth, open eyes, and enough motor coordination to move and bite within minutes of birth. Their androgen levels are elevated right from the start, which researchers have linked to precocial physical development and intense neonatal aggression.1PubMed. Fatal sibling aggression, precocial development, and androgens in neonatal spotted hyenas This is not the gentle mewling you see in kittens. Spotted hyena cubs are born combat-ready.
The aggression begins almost immediately. In their first days, cubs engage in “bite shakes,” the most violent form of neonatal aggression observed in the species. These attacks are directed at siblings and happen inside the natal den, a private burrow where the mother gives birth away from the rest of the clan. Research tracking early social development found that bite shakes decline sharply within the first week of life, though other forms of aggression persist. By the second week, social play begins to emerge between siblings, and by two to three weeks of age, the mother typically relocates her cubs to the communal den, where they encounter the wider clan for the first time.2ScienceDirect. Aggression decreases as play emerges in infant spotted hyaenas: preparation for joining the clan
Siblicide Is Real, but Not Inevitable
Early research on spotted hyenas painted a grim picture, suggesting that siblicide was essentially routine in same-sex twin litters. The idea was that one cub would kill the other as a matter of course. Later work has significantly revised that view. Siblicide in spotted hyenas is facultative, not obligate. It happens, but only under particular circumstances, most often when food is scarce and competition between siblings becomes desperate.3Animal Behaviour. Siblicide revisited in the spotted hyaena: does it conform to obligate or facultative models?
A study combining ultrasonic examination of wild and captive hyenas found that litter reduction occurred in roughly a third of pregnancies in both settings. Among captive hyenas, all litter reductions were caused by fetal resorptions or stillbirths rather than sibling killing. In wild populations, sex ratios in twin litters shifted with the intensity of feeding competition, suggesting that siblicide is an ecological response rather than an automatic behavioral program.4Behavioral Ecology. Siblicide in the spotted hyena: analysis with ultrasonic examination of wild and captive individuals The intense neonatal aggression, then, seems to function primarily as a way to establish dominance within the litter. One cub comes out on top, and that hierarchy persists. Killing only happens when resources cannot sustain both.
The Prenatal Hormone Story
The aggression and physical precocity of spotted hyena cubs trace back to the womb. Female spotted hyenas are famously masculinized, possessing an elongated clitoris through which they mate and give birth. This unusual anatomy is shaped by exposure to androgens during fetal development. Those same androgens influence cub behavior after birth. Research on wild populations found that dominant females have higher androgen concentrations during late pregnancy than subordinate females, and that both male and female cubs born to mothers with elevated late-pregnancy androgens show higher rates of aggression and mounting behavior.5PubMed. Rank-related maternal effects of androgens on behaviour in wild spotted hyaenas
The hormonal picture creates a cascade. Androgens shape the mother’s anatomy, influence cub temperament, and affect the reproductive process itself. Fetal exposure to these naturally circulating androgens makes delivery through the clitoral opening more difficult and reproductively costly for the mother. Yet the same androgens appear to be essential for males to physically reproduce with a normally masculinized female.6PubMed Central. Exposure to naturally circulating androgens during foetal life incurs direct reproductive costs in female spotted hyenas, but is prerequisite for male mating The whole system is a tangle of evolutionary trade-offs, where the traits that make birth dangerous are also the ones that make the species function.
Life in the Communal Den
After two to three weeks in the natal den, cubs are introduced to the communal den, a central gathering point used by the entire clan. Communal dens are typically underground burrow systems, often appropriated from aardvarks or warthogs and expanded over time. Multiple mothers park their cubs there while they leave on foraging trips that can cover long distances. The den becomes a nursery of sorts, though “nursery” might give the wrong impression. It is a chaotic, competitive space where cubs from different mothers interact, play, and jockey for position.
Access to the communal den is not always smooth. A study examining over 6,000 access attempts by mothers found that the vast majority of the time, around 90%, an arriving mother could reach her cubs without conflict. But during the remaining 10% of attempts when conflict did occur, a mother’s ability to access her cubs was significantly tied to her social rank. Lower-ranking mothers were more likely to be denied access.7ScienceDirect. Costs and strategies of communal den use vary by rank for spotted hyaenas, Crocuta crocuta For cubs of low-ranking mothers, this can mean longer periods without nursing, which in a species where lactation is already energetically demanding, has real consequences.
How Mothers Feed Their Cubs
Spotted hyena milk is remarkably rich compared to that of most terrestrial carnivores. It has to be. Mothers often forage far from the den, sometimes for days at a time, meaning cubs may go extended periods between nursing bouts. To compensate, females adjust the composition of their milk depending on conditions. Research has shown that when nursing frequency declines, such as during periods of low local prey abundance, mothers increase the fat content of their milk and extend the duration of each nursing session.8Oxford Academic (Behavioral Ecology). Trade-offs in lactation and milk intake by competing siblings in a fluctuating environment
This flexibility matters enormously for twin litters, where sibling competition for milk access is fierce. The dominant cub in a litter typically nurses first and longer, leaving the subordinate sibling with whatever remains. In times of plenty, both cubs get enough. When prey is scarce, the subordinate cub can fall behind in growth, and in extreme cases, this is the scenario that triggers the siblicide described earlier. The energetic cost of lactation is also rank-dependent: low-ranking mothers, who tend to forage farther and less successfully, face a steeper challenge in keeping their cubs fed.
Inheriting Your Mother’s Rank
Spotted hyenas live in clans that can number dozens of individuals, organized into strict linear dominance hierarchies. One of the most striking features of this system is that cubs effectively inherit their mother’s social rank. A cub born to the clan’s top-ranking female will almost certainly occupy a high rank as an adult. This is not genetic inheritance in the usual sense. It is a learned and socially reinforced process.
High-ranking mothers intervene on behalf of their cubs more frequently and more effectively than low-ranking mothers. When a cub directs aggression toward an appropriate target, meaning a clan member who ranks below the cub’s mother, the mother supports the cub through coalitionary behavior. When a cub picks a fight with someone above its station, adults step in to shut it down. Over time, this teaches the cub exactly where it stands in the hierarchy. The mechanism is strikingly similar to how rank inheritance works in some primate species.9Animal Behaviour. Mechanisms of maternal rank ‘inheritance’ in the spotted hyaena, Crocuta crocuta
A particularly elegant test of this came from studying adopted cubs. When a cub is raised by a surrogate mother instead of its biological mother, it ends up with a rank similar to the surrogate’s, not the birth mother’s. The competitive ability of adopted offspring at adulthood was best explained by the postnatal behavioral support they received, not by prenatal hormonal effects or genetic predisposition.10Behavioral Ecology. Maternal effects on offspring social status in spotted hyenas In other words, what matters most is who raises you and how actively they back you up in social conflicts.
What Kills Cubs
Despite being born with teeth and attitude, spotted hyena cubs face serious mortality risks. A long-term study of juvenile mortality identified five primary causes of death for cubs under one year old: starvation following the death of their mother, humans, lions, siblicide, and infanticide by other hyenas. The single largest source was the death of the mother, which accounted for about 35% of cub deaths with a known cause. Without a mother to nurse them, young cubs cannot survive.
Infanticide, specifically killing by unrelated adult females, turned out to be a much larger factor than previously recognized. Although infanticide was observed only rarely in real time, modeling of mortality data suggested it accounted for roughly a quarter of juvenile deaths. About one in ten hyenas born in the study population died from infanticide.11PubMed. Infanticide by Females Is a Leading Source of Juvenile Mortality in a Large Social Carnivore Lions accounted for a similar proportion. The finding that female-driven infanticide is this common was somewhat surprising, as infanticide in mammals is more commonly associated with males in other species.
How Mothers and Cubs Recognize Each Other
Spotted hyenas are famous for their vocalizations, and the long-distance call known as the “whoop” plays a critical role in mother-cub bonding. Playback experiments in the wild demonstrated that mothers respond far more vigorously to recorded whoops of their own cubs than to whoops of unrelated cubs. Control females, those who were breeding but not the mother of the played-back cub, showed weaker responses.12Animal Behaviour. Vocal recognition in the spotted hyaena and its possible implications regarding the evolution of intelligence This individual vocal recognition is essential in a species where mothers leave their cubs at communal dens and forage independently. A returning mother needs to locate her specific offspring among a crowd, and the whoop system makes that possible even at a distance.
Cubs develop their own whooping calls as they mature, and the calls carry individual acoustic signatures that adults can distinguish. This capacity for individual recognition is part of what makes spotted hyena social life so complex. They track relationships, alliances, and hierarchies across large groups, and vocal identification is one of the key tools that makes this cognitive work possible.
Growing Up and Leaving Home
Cubs are weaned at roughly 12 to 18 months, though they may begin eating solid food much earlier by scavenging at kills brought to the den area. Full social maturity takes longer. Females typically stay in their natal clan for life, inheriting rank and eventually reproducing within the group. Males face a different path. Most male spotted hyenas disperse from their birth clan around the time they reach sexual maturity, typically at two to three years of age, and attempt to join a new clan where they start at the bottom of the male hierarchy.
Interestingly, not all males leave. A long-term study of 254 males found that some chose to remain in their birth clan rather than disperse. These philopatric males were not low-quality individuals making the best of a bad situation. They were of similar phenotypic quality to dispersers, had similar fitness outcomes, and appeared to apply the same settlement rules based on the reproductive prospects available to them in different groups.13PubMed Central. Why do some males choose to breed at home when most other males disperse? Whether a male stays or goes seems to depend on the specific opportunities available rather than on any inherent difference in quality.
Cubs in Other Hyena Species
Most of what gets discussed about hyena cubs focuses on spotted hyenas, because they are the most studied and by far the most behaviorally extreme. But the other three species have their own patterns worth knowing about. Striped hyena cubs are born with closed eyes and are far less aggressive at birth than their spotted cousins. Brown hyena cubs are also altricial at birth, meaning they are born relatively helpless. Both species raise their young in dens, sometimes communally, but the intense sibling aggression and neonatal weaponry of the spotted hyena are not shared across the family.
The aardwolf, the smallest hyena, is the most divergent. Aardwolf cubs are born in underground dens and are cared for by both parents, which is unusual among hyenas. They feed almost exclusively on termites rather than scavenging or hunting large prey, so the competitive pressures that shape spotted hyena cub behavior are largely absent. Aardwolf litters typically contain two to four cubs, and neonatal aggression of any kind is rare. The term “cub” applies to all of them, but the experience of being a cub varies wildly within the family Hyaenidae.
How Livestock Herding Affects Cub Survival
Spotted hyenas increasingly share landscapes with pastoralist communities, and a reasonable concern is whether livestock grazing near den sites disrupts cub-rearing. A study examining clans exposed to regular daytime pastoralism found no detectable difference in juvenile recruitment compared to unexposed clans. Stress hormone levels, measured through fecal glucocorticoid metabolites, were also similar between groups.14Journal of Animal Ecology. Diurnal pastoralism does not reduce juvenile recruitment nor elevate allostatic load in spotted hyenas This does not mean all forms of human activity are benign for hyena cubs, but it does suggest that moderate, predictable daytime livestock herding is something hyena clans can tolerate without measurable harm to their young. Direct persecution, vehicle strikes, and snaring remain more serious threats to cub survival across much of the species’ range.