SPOTTED HYENA (Fisi)

FUN FACT: The Spotted Hyena’s heart is twice larger than animal of it body size.

It can run upto 60km per hour.

HOME

Spotted hyena are wide spread in a variety of habitats, from semi-desert and dry bush country to moist savannas and forested regions upto 13,00 (4000m).

IDENTIFICATION

Spotted hyena have a bear-like appearance and are the largest and most powerful of the three species found in Africa. They have large rounded ears, a slopping back and a short bushy tail carried erect and flared in aggresive situations. Female are larger than males and are further distinguished by the presence of a pair of enlarged dark nipples after their first cubs have been born. Spotted Hyenas posses the strongest jaws of land predators, equiped with extraordinarily powerful molar teeth for crushing bones. Males weigh 57-65Kgs while female weigh 64-75Kgs and a tail measuring 25-30cm.

SOCIAL LIFE & BEHAVIOUR

The Spotted Hyena is often called the laughing Hyena due to the sounds it makes that are so similar to a human laugh. These animals are often not given much credit for their contribution to the ecosystem. They tend to fight endlessly over food and territory. They live in a clan that can consist of upto 80 members. The females are the leaders.

DIET

Spotted Hyena preys are both large and small animals like the Wildbeest, Thomson’s Gazelles and Antelops. They feed on everything except the horns of the prey and it’s digested in 24hrs.

GESTATION

Gestation period last for 110 days. The young ones are born throughout the year, and females usually give birth to two cubs in an abandoned Aardvark or Warthog burrow with a narrow entrance to prevent preditors from feeding on the cubs. Cubs are born with their eye open, incisors and cacines cut. Cubs are black at birth.

HUMANBEING RELATION

These intelligent animals have been in constant fights with humans for raiding their farm stores, livestock killing and human death. In Masai communities, they are at times hunted down for being nuisance pests.

Scientific Name: Crocuta crocuta

Threat: List Concern

TYPE: Mammal

DIET: Omnivore

LIFESPAN: 10-12yrs

GALLERY