Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

North­ern and East­ern Africa, the Mid­dle East, India, and Asia ex­tend­ing north to the Cau­ca­sus and south­ern Siberia.

• Biogeographic Regions
• palearctic
  • native
• oriental
  • native
• ethiopian
  • native

Habi­tat

The striped hyena lives in arid, moun­tain­ous re­gions with scrub wood­land. It dens in rocky hills, ravines, and crevices. It also in­hab­its open sa­van­nah areas with dense grass­land in some re­gions. In Africa, it is out­com­peted by the spot­ted hyena in open areas and is thus rel­e­gated to other habi­tats.

• Terrestrial Biomes
• savanna or grassland
• scrub forest

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Height: 65-80 cm The av­er­age length of the striped hyena from head to tail is one meter. Males and fe­males do not dif­fer in av­er­age height or length, but males do tend to be slightly heav­ier. They are a long-haired hyena with large, pointed ears. The striped hyena can erect the long hair on its mane and ap­pear 38% big­ger, which it does when it feels threat­ened. They are gray to straw-col­ored with a black muz­zle and black stripes on their head, torso, and legs.

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Range mass

  25 to 45 kg

  55.07 to 99.12 lb

• Average basal metabolic rate

  31.954 W

  AnAge

Re­pro­duc­tion

Breed­ing is non­sea­sonal, be­gin­ning at two to three years. One to six cubs are born per lit­ter, after a 88-92 day ges­ta­tion. No de­tailed stud­ies of sex­ual be­hav­ior in the striped hyena have been pub­lished. Based on ob­ser­va­tions in cap­tiv­ity, es­trus lasts one day, with the fe­male mat­ing sev­eral times at 15-25 minute in­ter­vals through­out the day. The mother brings food to the den for her cubs after they are one month old, but con­tin­ues to nurse for ap­prox­i­mately 12 months.

• Key Reproductive Features
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual

• Average number of offspring

  2.5

  AnAge

• Average gestation period

  90 days

  AnAge

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
  Sex: female

  800 days

  AnAge

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)
  Sex: male

  800 days

  AnAge

Lifes­pan/Longevity

• Average lifespan
  Status: captivity

  24.0 years

  Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

• Average lifespan
  Status: captivity

  24.0 years

  Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

Be­hav­ior

The striped hyena is gen­er­ally con­sid­ered soli­tary, but has some so­cial or­ga­ni­za­tion. It for­ages in­di­vid­u­ally and is rarely seen in groups. It does, how­ever, as­so­ci­ate in small fam­ily groups at the den. Im­ma­ture fam­ily mem­bers will help feed younger sib­lings by bring­ing food back to the den. Vocal com­mu­ni­ca­tion is not highly de­vel­oped. It con­sists mainly of soft growls and other sounds used dur­ing in­traspe­cific en­coun­ters. Ter­ri­to­ri­al­ity is not a promi­nent fea­ture in striped hyena be­hav­ior, but does exist to some ex­tent. Dens are often used merely for short pe­ri­ods of time, and there­fore rarely need to be de­fended. In some areas, how­ever, anal-gland marks and la­trines have been found near feed­ing sites and well-used path­ways. Sub­mis­sive­ness in a so­cial en­counter is shown by pre­sen­ta­tion of the anal gland. First, the hye­nas sniff noses, fol­lowed by anogen­i­tal sniff­ing. Im­ma­ture young dis­play sub­mis­sion to adults, and one adult will often dis­play to an­other upon meet­ing, with the sec­ond adult rec­i­p­ro­cat­ing. Fight­ing con­sists of rit­u­al­ized wrestling matches, each hyena at­tempt­ing to grab the other around the cheek re­gion while at­tempt­ing to evade or break the other's cheek hold. The loser of the com­pe­ti­tion dis­plays sub­mis­sion by the anal pre­sen­ta­tion. The striped hyena is not a fa­vored prey species of any preda­tor. They keep a safe dis­tance, usu­ally around 50 me­ters, from larger, car­niv­o­rous mam­mals like lions and tigers. They also have the abil­ity to chase or keep leop­ards and chee­tahs away from food sources. The striped hyena be­haves sub­mis­sively to­wards the larger spot­ted hyena, Cro­cuta cro­cuta, and will allow spot­ted hye­nas to steal its food.

• Key Behaviors
• motile

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

• Perception Channels
• tactile
• chemical

Food Habits

The striped hyena is pre­dom­i­nantly a scav­enger; its diet con­sist­ing mainly of car­rion and human refuse. It scav­enges large and medium-sized mam­mals, such as ze­bras, wilde­beests, gazelles, and im­palas, even eat­ing bones from car­casses if the meat has been picked off. It sup­ple­ments its diet with fruit, in­sects, and oc­ca­sion­ally by killing small an­i­mals like hare, ro­dents, rep­tiles, and birds. The striped hyena for­ages prin­ci­pally at night, in­di­vid­u­ally trav­el­ling through­out its home range search­ing for food in no ap­par­ent pat­tern. Trav­el­ling speeds av­er­age 2-4 km/h, oc­ca­sion­ally in­creas­ing to 8 km/h when trot­ting. Wind di­rec­tion is not used to de­ter­mine di­rec­tion of travel, but the striped hyena will re­spond quickly to the scent of car­rion brought by the wind. It also vis­its es­tab­lished food sites, such as garbage dumps around human set­tle­ments, fruit trees, and tem­po­rary sites of large kills. Water is con­sumed every night if it is avail­able, but the striped hyena can sur­vive with­out water for long pe­ri­ods and live under desert con­di­tions.

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

The striped hyena has some ben­e­fit in that it con­sumes un­wanted human refuse. In some in­stances, vil­lages in Africa leave their garbage out­side at night for the striped hye­nas to feed on. It is not hunted for food pur­poses nor for its pelt.

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

There are not many neg­a­tive ben­e­fits. They rarely at­tack live­stock or peo­ple and are un­ag­gres­sive, often al­low­ing dogs to at­tack them with­out at­tempt­ing to de­fend them­selves.

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

It seems to be rather com­pat­i­ble with human pop­u­la­tions, and its habi­tat is read­ily avail­able and not in dan­ger of dis­ap­pear­ing.

• IUCN Red List

  Near Threatened
  More information

Con­trib­u­tors

Craig Howard (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Ref­er­ences

Estes, Richard Despard. 1991. The Be­hav­ior Guide to African Mam­mals. Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia Press, Berke­ley and Los An­ge­les.

Fox, M.W. 1971. On­togeny of a So­cial Dis­play in Hyaena hyaena: Anal Pro­tru­sion. Jour­nal of Mam­mal­ogy 52: 467-469.

Kruuk, Hans. 1976. Feed­ing and so­cial be­hav­ior of the striped hyena (Hyaena vul­garis Des­marest). East African Wildlife Jour­nal 14: 91-111.

van Aarde, R.J., J.D. Skin­ner, M.H. Knight, and D.C. Skin­ner. 1988. Range use by a striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena) in the Negav Desert. Jour­nal of Zo­ol­ogy 216: 575-577.

Walker, Ernest P. 1975. Mam­mals of the World, Third Edi­tion, Vol­ume II. Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­sity Press, Bal­ti­more.