Spotted hyenas

What are spotted hyenas? Spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) are gregarious predatory mammals found throughout sub-Saharan Africa. They are the second largest African carnivores after lions, and they are more abundant than any other large carnivore in Africa. They look rather doglike, yet are more closely related to cats than dogs, and their closest living relatives are the mongooses and civets. Although most people imagine spotted hyenas to be scavengers, they are in fact excellent hunters that feed mainly on large ungulates they kill themselves. An adult spotted hyena can bring down an antelope weighing over three times its own weight, and working together with other hyenas, it can kill ungulates as large as a giraffe or an African Cape buffalo. Unlike felids, hyenas are endurance hunters: they chase the selected prey animal over long distances until it is winded, and then close in for the kill. Hyenas can be active during the day or night, bear young throughout the year and can survive on a wide array of prey, from termites to elephants. They are keystone predators in many African ecosystems, and their presence is a useful indicator of ecosystem health. Hyenas can survive in environments from which cheetahs, lions and wild dogs have been extirpated; if hyenas also vanish, a particular habitat must have become severely degraded.