Hyena Myths and Realities

Hyenas, first of all, were regarded as scavengers and consumers of carrion. In his Natural History, Pliny the Elder (A.D. 23-79) spoke of them as the only animals that dig up graves in search of corpses (ab uno animali sepulchra erui inquisitione corporum). Conrad Gesner, the great sixteenth-century cataloger of natural history, reported that they gorge themselves so gluttonously after finding a corpse that their bellies swell to become taut as a drum. They then seek a narrow place between two trees or stones, force themselves through it, and extrude the remains of their meal simultaneously at both ends.