Spotted hyenas are one of Africa’s most effective predators, hunting in coordinated groups and taking down prey several times their own body weight. About one-third of their hunting attempts end in a successful kill, putting them on par with or ahead of many large African carnivores. Despite their reputation as scavengers, spotted hyenas actively hunt for a significant portion of their food, and their methods are surprisingly sophisticated.
Endurance Over Speed
Spotted hyenas don’t ambush prey the way big cats do. Instead, they rely on persistence hunting, chasing their target at moderate speeds over long distances until it tires. A typical hunt begins with one or more hyenas testing a herd, watching for animals that are slower, younger, or injured. Once they select a target, they pursue it relentlessly. Hyenas can sustain speeds of around 60 km/h (37 mph) in short bursts, but their real advantage is stamina. They can maintain a steady chase pace for several kilometers, wearing down animals that are faster in a sprint but burn out quickly.
This strategy works especially well against large herbivores. In the Namib Desert, a four-year study found gemsbok (a large antelope weighing over 200 kg) in 63% of hyena scat samples, and springbok in nearly 44%. Spotted hyenas are generalist predators that preferentially target prey weighing between 56 and 182 kg, though they regularly kill animals much heavier than themselves. Zebras, wildebeest, and various antelope species are all common targets depending on the region.
Group Tactics and Pack Size
The size of a hunting party depends on what they’re chasing. A single hyena can take down a young wildebeest or a smaller antelope alone. For larger prey like adult zebras or gemsbok, groups of two to six or more hyenas work together, taking turns chasing the target and attacking from different angles once it slows down.
Unlike wolves, which follow a rigid pack structure during hunts, hyena hunting groups are more fluid. Clan members join or drop out of a chase based on opportunity. A hunt might start with two individuals and attract others as the chase progresses. The kill itself is fast and brutal: hyenas bite at the legs, flanks, and belly of exhausted prey, pulling it down and beginning to feed almost immediately. Their approach lacks the suffocation technique lions use. Instead, hyenas overpower prey through sheer numbers and persistence, often consuming it before it fully dies.
Built for Crushing
A spotted hyena’s bite force measures roughly 4,500 Newtons, or about 1,011 pounds of force. That’s one of the strongest recorded bites among all carnivorous mammals, and it serves a clear purpose: hyenas eat almost everything, including bones. Their massive jaw muscles and reinforced skull structure let them crack open femurs and other large bones to access the nutrient-rich marrow inside. After a group finishes feeding, very little remains. Horns, hooves, and teeth are sometimes all that’s left.
This bone-crushing ability also means hyenas extract calories from carcasses that other predators leave behind, blurring the line between hunting and scavenging. A hyena clan can strip a zebra carcass to almost nothing in under 30 minutes.
Hunting at Night
Spotted hyenas do most of their hunting after dark. Their night vision is believed to be as good as their daytime vision, and researchers have found no difference in hunting success between day and night hunts. This is a major tactical advantage. Many of their prey species have poorer night vision, making it harder for them to detect an approaching group or coordinate an escape. Hunting under cover of darkness also reduces competition with lions, who are more likely to steal a kill they can see happening.
How Hyenas Communicate During Hunts
Hyenas are famously vocal, and their calls play a direct role in coordinating group behavior. The “whoop” call, their signature long-distance vocalization, can travel up to 5 kilometers and serves as a recruitment signal. When a hyena finds prey or needs backup at a kill, whooping can draw clan members from across the territory. Each whoop bout follows a loose structure, often starting with a short, simple tone that acts as an alerting signal before building into the full call.
These calls carry individual signatures, meaning hyenas can identify exactly who is calling. This helps them decide whether to respond. A close ally’s whoop might bring them running, while a distant acquaintance’s call might not. At a kill site, hyenas also use giggles, growls, and other short-range sounds to negotiate feeding access within the group, with higher-ranking individuals typically eating first.
The Rivalry With Lions
The competition between hyenas and lions is one of the most intense in the animal kingdom, and it shapes how hyenas hunt. Lions regularly steal hyena kills, a behavior called kleptoparasitism. This theft pressure has driven hyenas to evolve strong cooperative mobbing behavior. When lions move in on a fresh kill, hyenas can band together in large numbers, harassing the lions with coordinated charges and loud vocalizations until the lions retreat.
The dynamic goes both ways. Hyenas also attempt to steal from lions, though they need a significant numerical advantage to succeed. In areas where both species overlap heavily, hyenas may adjust their hunting times and locations to reduce encounters. The ability to eat extremely quickly, consuming huge amounts of meat and bone in a short window, is itself partly an adaptation to this competitive pressure. The faster you eat, the less there is to steal.
Not All Hyenas Hunt the Same Way
The hunting behavior described above applies primarily to spotted hyenas, the largest and most social of the four hyena species. The other species lead very different lives.
- Striped hyenas are primarily scavengers. They eat mostly carrion and supplement their diet with fruits, vegetables, insects, and eggs. They’re solitary or live in small family groups, and they lack the group coordination that makes spotted hyenas such effective hunters.
- Brown hyenas are also mainly scavengers, foraging along coastlines and arid landscapes for carcasses, marine debris, and small animals.
- Aardwolves are the outliers of the family. They eat almost exclusively termites, lapping up as many as 300,000 in a single night. They don’t hunt large prey at all and still retain the ability to taste sweetness, a trait spotted hyenas have lost through evolution.
So when people picture hyenas hunting, they’re really picturing spotted hyenas. This single species accounts for almost all of the active, coordinated predation in the hyena family, and they do it with a combination of endurance, jaw strength, night vision, and social intelligence that makes them one of Africa’s most successful large predators.