You may have a misconception about the size of the spotted hyena! From the picture or video footage, the spotted hyena you see may be about the size of a dog.
This is actually the illusion of most people, because spotted hyenas often haunt large mammals such as lions, bison, and wildebeests, and spotted hyenas choose such a large reference that they appear to be very small.
But from the data, adult female spotted hyenas can weigh up to 80 kilograms, which is equivalent to twice the weight of a large dog breed, and the weight of an adult male, you can imagine the size of a spotted hyena, far from a dog can compare with it.
Although there is a word "dog" in the name of spotted hyenas, they are not the canine family to which dogs and wolves belong, but the hyena family under the cat-type family, and the kinship is closer to the civet, I believe most readers will question this.
However, there is a big gap between the spotted hyena and canines in terms of appearance, skull and tooth structure, and there is no way to classify it as canine. However, spotted hyenas do not belong to the cat family, but are juxtaposed with the cat family.
There are four animals in the hyena family, namely coyotes, hyenas, brown hyenas and spotted hyenas, of which the spotted hyena is the largest and most ferocious, and they have become predators at the top of the food chain with their social lifestyle, and are the "second brother of Africa" after lions.
However, unlike the bravery and justice represented by lions, spotted hyenas have a very poor reputation. In general, different cultures will have different views on the same animal, or there will always be some differences. However, none of the cultures that come into contact with spotted hyenas say they are good.
Whether in terms of physical characteristics, living habits, or hunting methods, spotted hyenas give a bad impression, especially the hunting methods they like and are good at attacking from the rear of their prey, which is simply disgusting.
The appearance of spotted hyenas is not good-looking, on the contrary, it is a little obscene, their forelimbs are longer than the hind limbs, they are a front-wheel drive guy, due to the lack of hind limb strength, their jumping ability is very limited, can not jump to the prey like cats, and knock the prey down.
The sound of spotted hyenas is very terrifying, and they will make laughing sounds when eating, to express excitement. During estrus, spotted hyenas can also make hideous laughing sounds and can travel far away, and if this guy is wandering around your house at night, it is difficult not to have nightmares.
The spotted hyena's diet is disgusting, and although they also hunt live prey, they prefer to eat carrion, so much so that they do not refuse any corpses, even if they are similar corpses. Moreover, spotted hyenas also have a strong bite force, which can crush the bones of the animal and suck the bone marrow inside.
The spotted hyena's hunting method is well known, which is the infamous "pulling", which specifically attacks the anus and abdomen of its prey. You'll see a herd of spotted hyenas surrounding their prey, always circling behind their prey and biting hard at the anus of their prey while they are not prepared.
If the prey resists, the spotted hyena will immediately let go, and when the prey turns back, another spotted hyena will attack the anus of the prey from the opposite direction, and they will continue to consume the prey's physical strength until the prey is exhausted.
And once the prey is unable to resist, the spotted hyena flock will rush up, and when the prey is still alive, starting from the buttocks and abdomen of the prey, tearing the flesh of the prey, which makes the prey painful, far less painful than being locked by the throat of a lion.
Why did spotted hyenas evolve hunting methods to attack the anus of their prey? This is actually related to the lifestyle and body structure of the spotted hyena.
First of all, spotted hyenas are social animals, a group often includes a dozen or even dozens of spotted hyenas, group members often have strong fighting effectiveness. But at the same time, it is also necessary to hunt larger prey to meet the food needs of the entire group, so spotted hyena herds tend to choose larger herbivores for food, such as wildebeests, bison, and even hippos.
Secondly, if you want to capture large prey, you often need a strong hunting ability, but spotted hyenas are small in size and have very limited jumping ability, they do not have the explosive power and ability to pounce on prey like lions, and they cannot reach the throat of their prey.
So spotted hyenas choose to attack another vulnerable part of their prey besides the throat - the anus or abdomen. Attacking the abdomen is obviously dangerous, and spotted hyenas are also difficult to drill under the belly of their prey, so they can only attack the anus of their prey.
So in a sense, spotted hyenas choose to "dig out the anus" is both a wise move and a helplessness, but this strategy allows spotted hyenas to capture large mammals such as bison and wildebeests, and even lions will be afraid of spotted hyenas' "" means.
Although lions are predators at the top of the food chain on the African savannah, and lions are the overlords there, once a lioness is left alone and encounters a herd of spotted hyenas, it is likely to fall into danger.
A group of 3~5 spotted hyenas dare to snatch the prey of a single lioness, and the lioness often dare not compete head-on with the spotted hyena group for fear of injury. If spotted hyenas are abundant enough, they dare to prey even on lions.
However, it is interesting that the lion knows how to squat on the ground to protect the rear from being attacked by spotted hyenas, which may be the experience of suffering too much.
In addition, once the prey is bitten anus by a spotted hyena, there is usually no too fierce resistance. It's not that prey doesn't hurt, but because they don't dare to move.
The bite force of spotted hyenas is stronger than that of lions, they will not let go once they bite the anus of their prey, and if the prey struggles, not only can not break free from the bite of the spotted hyena, but will be more painful, and even the intestines are torn out by the spotted hyena.
Of course, before the spotted hyena successfully bites the anus of the prey, the prey has been tortured by the spotted hyena herd to exhaustion, even if they want to resist, they have no physical strength, they can only let the spotted hyena swarm and feast.
Although spotted hyenas are not popular, it has to be said that their evolution is very successful, they are never picky eaters, and with collective combat and hunting, they have become the top predators on the African savannah. They do everything they can to survive!
