Do Hyenas Hunt or Scavenge? Spotted Hyena Diet Facts

How scientists found out hyenas are hunters

For a long time, people saw hyenas mostly by day, waiting around lion kills, and assumed they lived on scraps. The picture changed in the 1960s, when the Dutch biologist Hans Kruuk studied spotted hyenas for several years in Tanzania’s Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater, following them at night.

Kruuk found that hyenas were active, efficient predators. In Ngorongoro they killed the great majority of the animals they ate, and lions there often fed on carcasses that hyenas had killed, not the other way round. He published his findings in the book The Spotted Hyena (1972). Later studies in Kenya, Botswana, South Africa and elsewhere confirmed that hunting is the main source of food in most populations.

The share of hunting versus scavenging varies. Where prey is plentiful and lions are few, hyenas hunt nearly everything they eat. Where carcasses are common, for example during large migrations or near people, they scavenge more.

What spotted hyenas hunt

Spotted hyenas mainly take medium-sized hoofed mammals that weigh roughly 55–180 kg (120–400 lb). The main prey depends on the region:

• Serengeti and Ngorongoro: blue wildebeest, followed by zebras and Thomson’s gazelles.
• Kruger National Park: wildebeest, impalas, zebras, kudu and sometimes buffalo.
• Etosha and the Namib: springbok and kudu.
• Kalahari: gemsbok, eland and other antelopes.

They also catch hares, birds, reptiles and fish, eat insects, and occasionally kill young giraffes, hippos or rhinos. Groups can bring down an adult buffalo, although this is rare.

How hyenas hunt

Hyenas are endurance hunters rather than ambush hunters. They often run into a herd to make it scatter and watch for an animal that is slow, young or weak. Once they pick a target, they chase it at up to about 60 km/h (37 mph) and can keep going for several kilometers.

A single hyena can catch a wildebeest calf or a gazelle, while hunts of adult zebras usually involve larger groups. Researchers have even seen hyenas behave differently before zebra hunts, gathering and scent-marking before setting off, which suggests they “plan” the target in advance.

The kill is not clean or quick: hyenas pull the prey down and start feeding immediately. Clan members arrive quickly, drawn by the noise, and a group can strip a wildebeest carcass in well under an hour.

Eating everything: bones, skin and hooves

Spotted hyenas waste almost nothing. Their broad premolars and huge jaw muscles let them crack large leg bones to reach the marrow, and they swallow bone fragments, skin and even hooves. A single hyena can eat around 14 kg (31 lb) at one meal.

Strong stomach acid dissolves the bone, and the hyena absorbs its minerals and fat. Hair, horns and hooves that cannot be digested are coughed up as pellets. Hyena droppings, full of calcium, dry chalky white, which makes hyena latrines easy to spot.

This ability lets hyenas use a carcass more completely than any other African carnivore and helps clean the savanna of remains.

Hyenas and lions: who steals from whom?

Lions and hyenas compete for the same prey and regularly steal each other’s food. Lions, much heavier and stronger, take over many hyena kills, especially when male lions are present. In Ngorongoro Crater, Kruuk found that lions scavenged from hyenas more often than hyenas from lions.

Hyenas fight back with numbers. A large group of hyenas can drive lionesses off a carcass, mobbing them with loud whoops and giggles, but they usually give way to adult male lions. These clashes are a major cause of injury and death for both species, and lions kill many hyenas without eating them.

Lions, for their part, scavenge more than many people realize: in some areas a substantial part of a lion’s diet is stolen or scavenged. To see the lion’s side, read What do lions eat?

What other hyenas eat

Not all hyenas are hunters. The hyena family has four species, described in Are hyenas dogs or cats?, and their diets are very different.

The striped hyena of North Africa, the Middle East and India forages alone at night, eating carrion, bones, small animals, insects and fruit. The brown hyena of southern Africa also lives mainly on carrion, and on the Namib coast it scavenges along the shore and takes some seal pups. The aardwolf does not eat large animals at all but laps up termites.

Why the scavenger myth persists

The myth has several roots. Hyenas are most active at night, when their hunting is rarely seen, while in daytime tourists see them hanging around lion kills. Their hunched build, sloping back and giggling calls also made them easy villains in folklore and films. Finally, two of the four hyena species really are scavengers, and their reputation spread to the whole family.

In reality the spotted hyena is one of Africa’s most successful predators, and scavenging is simply an extra skill that lets it make the most of every opportunity.