The Brown Hyena

Brown hyenas really are brown with whitish manes and very long, shaggy hair (especially compared to spotted hyenas). They're also smaller.

Scientists have changed their mind about how they're related to striped and spotted hyenas over the years. Lars Werdelin thought that they were most closely related to spotted hyenas based on some details of their skulls and skeletons, but in 2006 a molecular phylogeny study showed that they are closely related to striped hyenas.

Differences between brown and spotted hyenas:

• Brown hyenas are smaller than spotted hyenas, have pointed ears and very different coats and coloring.
• Brown hyenas can live in much drier areas than spotted hyenas, such as Deception Valley in the Kalahari desert.
• Brown hyenas mostly scavenge large animal carcasses instead of hunting, but also eat a lot of fruit, even melons.
• Brown hyenas don't hunt in groups, because they scavenge small quantities of food as they find it, rather than hunting. Occasionally several will gather at one large carcass.
• Brown hyenas have two types of emissions to scent-mark with, not one. They also scent-mark much more than spotted hyenas.
• They also don't have enlarged clitoridae (that's the plural for "clitoris"), and don't sniff genitals in the greeting ceremony. Instead, they sniff heads, faces, necks, bodies, and/or anuses. The younger animal may present its anal glands to the older one, which may or may not reciprocate.
• They don't have the "whoop" call, the "giggle" or the squeal.
• They lack a dominance hierarchy -- all members of a clan are more or less equal.
• They muzzle-wrestle in fight or play, which spotted hyenas don't do.
• They cache food, which spotted hyenas do only as a rudimentary behavior, if at all. Mothers carry food back to the dens.
• Subadults may also bring food back to the den, like coyotes or wolves.

Similarities between brown and spotted hyenas:

• Both utter snarls, growls, whines and yells.
• Both scent-mark with anal glands.
• Both live in clans which control their territory as a group.
• Both are territorial, defending their clan territory against strange hyenas.
• In both, some animals, mostly males, live outside clans as nomads.
• In both, nomadic or immigrant males do most of the mating, not those born in the clan.
• Both will scavenge dead carcasses, and can crush even large bones.
• Both give birth in tunnel dens in a communal denning area.

Spotted hyenas dominate brown hyenas. If they catch a brown hyena alone, they may harass it, sometimes to the point that blood is drawn. But brown hyenas may harass a lone spotted hyena at a kill, and may be able to make it leave sooner than it intended.

Most of what brown hyenas eat is carrion, and they depend on other large carnivores that hunt for survival. But they also hunt small mammals and birds if they see opportunities. They even eat vegetables and fruits, such as the Hottentot melon.

During a study in the Kalahari desert, all the cubs were eventually moved to a communal den of tunnels dug in the sand. The adults were observed to leave the young alone for hours at a time, while the older cubs were responsible for the younger ones. All dashed into their dens at the sight of a possible danger. If a mother died, other females were seen to adopt her cubs (something spotted hyenas don't do).

Brown hyenas are endangered, mostly because of overhunting, due to the fact that ranchers think they kill livestock. In fact, this has never been observed.

They live in arid places, such as the Kalahari desert. Their range is limited to the southern part of Africa, although fossils show they once had a wider range. They are a very old species, dating back to the Pliocene, when they even roamed southwest Europe.

(Last link check May 5, 2022.)

Image courtesy of Clipart.com.