Is a Hyena Considered a Dog? The Science Explained

Hyenas are not dogs. They have a doglike face, long legs and a habit of running in packs, but scientists place them on the cat side of the carnivore family tree.1Wikipedia. Hyena2Africa Safaris. Are Hyenas Dogs The resemblance is a case of unrelated animals arriving at a similar design, the way bats and birds both ended up with wings.

Where Hyenas Sit on the Carnivore Family Tree

Meat-eating mammals fall into two great branches. One is the dog branch, which includes dogs, wolves, bears and seals. The other is the cat branch. Hyenas belong to the cat branch, alongside cats, mongooses and civets.3Africa Safaris. Are Hyenas Dogs Within it they form their own family, the Hyaenidae, which has only four living species.4Consensus. Are Hyenas More Closely Related to Cats Than Dogs?

That doesn’t make a hyena a kind of cat, any more than it is a kind of dog. Being on the cat branch means sharing a more recent common ancestor with cats than with dogs.

Genetic studies find that the hyenas’ closest living relatives are mongooses and the fossa, a Madagascar predator.5PubMed. Molecular systematics of the Hyaenidae: relationships of a relictual lineage resolved by a molecular supermatrix A larger DNA study placed hyenas beside the mongooses and Madagascar’s carnivores.6PubMed. Molecular phylogeny of the carnivora mammalia assessing the impact of increased sampling on resolving enigmatic relationships So a hyena is a closer cousin of a meerkat than of a wolf, though meerkats look nothing like hyenas.

Outward shape is molded by lifestyle and can fool the eye. Details like ear bones and tooth structure carry deeper family signals, and so does DNA. A house cat and a hyena sit on the same branch, so a hyena is more closely related to your cat than to your dog, even though it looks far more like the dog.

Where Hyenas Came From

Hyenas first appeared about 22 million years ago in the forests of Eurasia.7Wikipedia. Hyena The earliest ones were slim, civet-like animals, likely resembling today’s African civet.8Wikipedia. Hyena Civets are small, long-bodied cat-branch animals that live partly in trees. One early species, Plioviverrops, is recognized as a hyena by its middle ear and teeth.9Wikipedia. Hyena The doglike shape came much later, built up from a very different starting point.

Getting from a small forest animal to a long-legged runner didn’t happen in one step. It unfolded over millions of years as the family spread into new habitats. Fossils show the family was once much more diverse, and today’s four are the survivors of a bigger group. As open grassland expanded, hunting and scavenging in the open would have favored longer legs and stronger jaws.

A running hyena once roamed widely, too. The extinct Chasmaporthetes had a light build made for chasing prey and lacked heavy bone-cracking teeth.10Stratigraphy and Timescales. The latest European record of Chasmaporthetes lunensis lunensis (Del Campana, 1914) from Schernfeld (Bavaria, Germany) in terms of the changes in the European carnivore paleoguilds It lived across the northern hemisphere from about 4.5 to 1.5 million years ago.11Stratigraphy and Timescales. The latest European record of Chasmaporthetes lunensis lunensis (Del Campana, 1914) from Schernfeld (Bavaria, Germany) in terms of the changes in the European carnivore paleoguilds It was the only hyena to reach the Americas.12Paleobiology. The evolution of the bone-cracking model in carnivorans: cranial functional morphology of the Plio-Pleistocene cursorial hyaenid Chasmaporthetes lunensis (Mammalia: Carnivora) Its skull stresses suggest it used its jaws more to subdue prey than to crack bones.13Paleobiology. The evolution of the bone-cracking model in carnivorans: cranial functional morphology of the Plio-Pleistocene cursorial hyaenid Chasmaporthetes lunensis (Mammalia: Carnivora)

Why Hyenas Look and Act Like Dogs

Hyenas resemble dogs in body and behavior because unrelated animals can evolve similar features.14Wikipedia. Hyena Across carnivore history, similar skull shapes arose in different lineages under similar pressures, such as an all-meat diet.15Paleobiology. Constraint and adaptation in the evolution of carnivoran skull shape In extinct bone-cracking dogs and hyenas, similar skull shapes came with a similar ability to crack bones.16PubMed Central. Testing Adaptive Hypotheses of Convergence with Functional Landscapes: A Case Study of Bone-Cracking Hypercarnivores Bone-cracking demands a skull that can take heavy stress without breaking, so unrelated groups facing it end up with similar answers.

Sharks and dolphins share a streamlined shape even though one is a fish and the other a mammal. Hyenas and wolves both became endurance hunters of large prey.

The doglike traits are easy to list: long legs and a deep chest for running, a long muzzle and strong jaws, and a life of living and hunting in groups. Hyenas also walk on their toes, with claws that can’t be pulled back. Walking on the toes lengthens the leg and lets the animal cover ground with less effort. Fixed claws stay blunt and work like running cleats rather than weapons. Cats, by contrast, keep sharp retractable claws for gripping prey, another sign that hyenas aren’t built like their branch’s best-known members.

Hyenas that chase prey over long distances have a notably stiff lower back.17PubMed Central. Running, jumping, hunting, and scavenging: Functional analysis of vertebral mobility and backbone properties in carnivorans A stiff back keeps the body steady so each stride pushes forward instead of flexing. Like wild dogs and wolves, they rely on endurance rather than sudden bursts, a different skill from the quick pounce of a cat.

Hyena Jaws Versus Wolf Jaws

Three of today’s four hyenas, the spotted, striped and brown, are bone-crackers.18bioRxiv. Ecological specialisation and evolutionary reticulation in extant Hyaenidae When biting with the back cheek teeth, a spotted hyena’s lower jaw carries less stress than a gray wolf’s.19Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. Mandibular biomechanics of Crocuta crocuta, Canis lupus, and the late Miocene Dinocrocuta gigantea (Carnivora, Mammalia) Lower stress means the bone can take hard bites over and over without damage. That lets a hyena bite down on dense bone that would risk injury for a wolf, so hyenas can crunch bones that wolves leave behind.

In practice, bones hold marrow and minerals that other predators can’t reach. Eating them lets hyenas use almost all of a carcass, and their droppings are often white from bone minerals. The aardwolf does not share this lifestyle, so bone-cracking is a trait of most of the family but not all of it.

It’s widely said that hyenas have extremely acidic stomachs to digest bone.20PubMed Central. The Evolution of Stomach Acidity and Its Relevance to the Human Microbiome Hyena experts know of no data that actually measured this.21PubMed Central. The Evolution of Stomach Acidity and Its Relevance to the Human Microbiome

The Four Living Hyenas

Spotted hyenas have spots and rounded ears. Striped hyenas have stripes, pointed ears and a mane. Brown hyenas have long, shaggy dark coats.

Where they live differs too. Spotted hyenas are widespread and live in big clans, while brown hyenas of southern Africa live in smaller groups. The striped hyena’s range into North Africa and Asia makes it the one most likely to be found outside sub-Saharan Africa.

The aardwolf surprises people. It looks like a small striped hyena, but it licks up termites rather than hunting large prey. It is still a hyena, which shows that diet alone doesn’t define the family.

How Hyena Society Differs From a Dog Pack

Spotted hyena clans can number 60 to 80 animals, with a separate ranking for each sex.26Animal Behaviour. Social organization of the spotted hyaena Crocuta crocuta II Dominance and reproduction In one clan, a single female and her descendants dominated all the others.27Animal Behaviour. Social organization of the spotted hyaena Crocuta crocuta II Dominance and reproduction Cubs inherit their mother’s rank, so rankings stay stable over years.28Animal Behaviour. Social organization of the spotted hyaena Crocuta crocuta II Dominance and reproduction A daughter of a top female starts life near the top, and the order isn’t fought over constantly. High-ranking females get first access to food, which helps their cubs grow. Wolf packs usually center on one breeding pair, while spotted hyena clans are large and split into subgroups.

The female spotted hyena is the only mammal that mates and gives birth through a penis-like clitoris.29PubMed Central. Exposure to naturally circulating androgens during foetal life incurs direct reproductive costs in female spotted hyenas, but is prerequisite for male mating. Its shape is influenced by the mother’s male-type hormones before birth.30PubMed Central. Exposure to naturally circulating androgens during foetal life incurs direct reproductive costs in female spotted hyenas, but is prerequisite for male mating. But the organ starts forming before those hormones are made.31PubMed Central. Development of the External Genitalia: Perspectives from the Spotted Hyena (Crocuta crocuta) So hormones play a part without fully explaining it. Because birth happens through the same organ she mates through, it is notably difficult.

The hyena’s “laugh” can signal the caller’s age, identity and rank.32PubMed Central. What the hyena’s laugh tells: Sex, age, dominance and individual signature in the giggling call of Crocuta crocuta It isn’t a sign of amusement.

In lab tests, spotted hyenas solved cooperation puzzles better than chimpanzees.33Duke Today. Hyenas Cooperate, Problem-Solve Better Than Primates That doesn’t mean hyenas are smarter overall than chimpanzees, only better at this type of task.

Hyenas, Wild Dogs and Their Bad Reputation

Spotted hyenas and lions dominate African wild dogs, a true member of the dog family.34PubMed Central. Space Use of African Wild Dogs in Relation to Other Large Carnivores Hyena and wild dog diets overlap heavily.35Conservation Biology. Limitation of African Wild Dogs by Competition with Larger Carnivores They eat many of the same animals, so they compete for the same food, and the larger, stronger lions and hyenas usually win. The rivalry has nothing to do with family ties.

Where hyenas are common and the view is open, they often steal from wild dog kills.36Conservation Biology. Limitation of African Wild Dogs by Competition with Larger Carnivores The dogs spend energy on the chase, and a hyena that arrives can take the meal in a few minutes. Many hyenas can therefore keep wild dog numbers low.37Conservation Biology. Limitation of African Wild Dogs by Competition with Larger Carnivores

Western culture often sees hyenas as ugly and cowardly, and African folklore as greedy and foolish yet dangerous.38Wikipedia. Cultural depictions of spotted hyenas Across Africa and Asia they are linked with death, evil and witchcraft.39Conservation Frontlines. Book Review: Humans and Hyenas: Monster or Misunderstood Yet spotted hyenas hunt much of their own food. Scavenging is a normal part of many predators’ lives, including lions, so it isn’t a mark of cowardice.