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Description
The forequarters are more heavily built than the hindquarters and gives a sloping outline to the back. The hair is short and somewhat woolly whereas the hair is long and coarse in brown hyenas. The coat becomes sparse with age. Females have a fat-filled pseudoscrotum and the clitoris is erectile and the same size and almost the same shape as a male's penis looking remarkably similar to the males', resulting in the mistaken belief that hyenas are hermaphrodite. Average total length 1,6m, tail 25cm, shoulder height 80cm. Average weight of males is 60kg, females 70kg Visible Male/Female DifferencesFemales are dominant and larger than males and a female's belly slopes less sharply upwards than a male's. Lactating females have one pair of prominent mammae between their hind legs. The females' pseudoscrotum is less deeply lobed than the male's scrotum. The erectile clitoris of the female has no neck and the tip is blunt, while the male's penis has a narrow neck and a pointed tip. Habitat and Distribution
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ich is territorial varying in size up to 1 800 km. Separate dominance hierarchies exist among males and females, and females dominate all males. High-ranking females have first access to food and to resting sites near the den entrance. They also rear more cubs than low-ranking females. High-ranking males have priority of access to females. Males integrate themselves into new clans by months of persistent submissiveness and grovelling to females. Neighbouring clans fight to defend their areas. Territories are patrolled by groups of residents and are demarcated by anal gland scent marks and middens containing large accumulations of white faeces.
Spotted hyena hunt by running down their prey at speeds of up to 60 km/h over distances of up to 3 km. They kill by disembowelling the prey and biting major blood vessels. Hunting group size depends on intended prey: normally springbok and springhares are hunted by single hyenas, wildebeest by groups of three, eland and adult gemsbok by groups of four. Carrion is detected by smell from as far as 4,2 km downwind. Live prey is detected by sight and sound. The sound of other predators feeding attracts spotted hyenas from up to 10 km away. Normally lions cannot be displaced from a carcass unless they are outnumbered four to one or if an adult male lion is present. Lions will steal carcasses from spotted hyenas. Excess food is occasionally cached, often in shallow water.
The most distinctive call is a drawn out 'whooo-oop', which is a long-range contact call and assembly signal. Around carcasses, in fights and when attacking lions they scream, giggle, whoop, laugh, low, growl and snarl. Cubs whine for food and milk.
Dung is 4-8cm long with
tapered ends, dark when very fresh and white when old. Deposited in middens. Spotted hyena dens are less likely than brown hyena dens to have large
accumulations of bones. Scent marks are brown smears which are white when very
fresh on bunches of grass stems.
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A large carnivore resembling a large, heavily built dog with a sloping back.
Coat background is cream to light brown with irregular dark
spots. The muzzle is black. The tail has a bushy, black tip. The head is massive
and the jaws extremely powerful. The ears are rounded as opposed to the ears of
the 
Active at night, spotted hyenas travel as much as 70 km. Often seen during the day resting
in shade or lying in shallow water; uses caves, aardvark holes and drain culverts as dens.
Highly social, they live in a matriarchal clan wh
