Afrikaans Gevlekte Hiëna Zulu Mpisi Shangaan Mhisi Shona Bere
	Tracks F 8 cm H 6 cm
Distribution	Dung 4-8 cm Green when fresh but turns white  with age due to high bone content Deposited in middens

Description

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 brown hyena which are pointed. The limbs are strongly built with the front legs longer than the hind.

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 Differences

Females 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

A wide range of habitats, excluding dense forest and desert. 

Diet

The staple diet is medium-sized and large antelope such as blue wildebeest, gemsbok, zebra and impala. Also scavenges and takes smaller mammals, mice, birds, reptiles, fruit, eggs and insects.

Reproduction

Litters of 1-2 are born at any time of year after a gestation of 90 days. Cubs are born with eyes open and teeth well developed, and if both are the same sex and if both are females they fight savagely. If both are females one of the twins kills her sister. Weaning begins at 9 months, and is complete by 12-16 months. Cubs first accompany adults on the hunt at 6-9 months. Permanent teeth are erupted by 15 months. Both sexes are sexually mature at 3 years. Males are full-grown at 30 months and females at 36 months. All the females in a clan breed. Their cubs den together but each female suckles only her own; a female suckling another's cubs has been recorded only once. Cubs are not provided with meat. Lions kill spotted hyenas but rarely eat them.

Behavior and Habits

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

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.

Sounds

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 and Field sign

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.