Adult female Spotted hyena in Mopane mixed age woodlands in the early morning on the 23rdof March 2018. We saw 6 Spotted hyenas in total on Round River’s Transect 7 in NG34.
by Paige Mathison, of Westminster College
Spotted Hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) are my favorite predator in Botswana. They have a unique social structure and behavior that I find incredibly fascinating.
Spotted hyenas are a member of the order Carnivora and family Hyenidae. In Setswana, Spotted hyenas are referred to as Phiri. The Spotted hyenas are intelligent and efficient hunters. Their body structure enables them to run long distances, ultimately running prey into exhaustion. As an animal with one of the strongest jaws and bite in Africa, they are known to pull and hold on to prey when trying make a kill. Although their hunting capabilities are impressive, Spotted hyenas are more well known for their scavenging efforts. Smaller carnivores like Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) and Leopard (Panthera pardus) cannot compete with Spotted hyenas at carcasses because of their colossal jaw power. Spotted hyenas can steal kills from other predators especially with large numbers in a clan. One interesting behavior that Spotted hyenas possess is that they often store food in water to mask the scent of the carcass and then return to eat it later.
The social structure of Spotted hyenas is one of a kind and very interesting to learn about. Spotted hyenas live in clans varying between 5 and 15 individuals. They have a matriarchal society, where female Spotted hyenas dominate clans. Females are also larger in size, on average weighing 90 kg. The dominant female or the matriarch, has choice access to food and is the dominant leader of the clan. Spotted hyenas are often difficult to differentiate between male and female because the female genitalia closely resemble that of a male hyena in a appearance. The female hyena has an enlarged clitoris that tends to point forward while the male hyena’s genital structure points backward. Mating is a complicated process in that the male has to maneuver under the females hindlegs in order to properly position himself. Their unusual sexual morphologies play a role in complex greeting ceremonies as well.
Spotted hyenas operate from a central den for a long period of time. Cubs stay inside dens until they are at least 6 months old. Another interesting behavior among Spotted hyenas is occurrence of siblicide, where the first born kills the second cub to be born. When siblings are of different sexes, the female cubs usually dominate the male cubs.
Our team has begun learning different tracks here around the Okavango Delta and the picture shown here is that of a Spotted hyena. One way to distinguish this track from the big cat carnivores like lion and leopard, is to notice the small claw or nail holes at the top of the imprint. Lions and leopards have retractable claws so when they walk and leave tracks there are only paw marks, while the Spotted hyena does not have this capability. Also, of the 4 smaller pads in this track, the two outer most pads have a unique shape that looks squished at the top forming a raindrop shape.
Picture of a Spotted hyena track with a pinky finger as scale reference.