As the sun sets over the horizon, the plains of East Africa are illuminated by shades of gold and orange, and the barking and clucking of spotted hyenas fill the air. They burn with keen intelligence, form groups to hunt and patrol territory, or embark on solo foraging missions. As darkness shrouds the rocky outcrop on the border of the plain, another hyena watches – a silent and mysterious cousin. Striped hyenas are rare and little known, lurking in the shadows, shy and elusive.
Basics
In Africa, the timid and receding striped hyena is almost entirely eclipsed by its bolder, more conspicuous spots and brown cousins. So much so that few people realize that this hyena species lives on the African continent. Even coyotes are more recognizable. Unusual for large carnivores, the striped hyena's unusually secretive habits have led to piecemeal research, especially in Africa. However, this mysterious atmosphere makes them very interesting, simply because we know very little about a species in a major family of carnivores.
What little is known about striped hyena behavior stems mainly from populations found throughout Asia (striped hyenas are the only hyena species found outside Africa). Only a few papers have been published on the behavioral ecology of the African striped hyena. Much of the inference comes from a small number of observational or second-hand anecdotal evidence.
Despite the lack of information, striped hyenas are widespread (but scattered) in much of North and East Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of West Africa, albeit at low densities. They prefer semi-arid areas and avoid deserts or dense forests. Where striped hyenas overlap with spotted hyenas, they are numerous and largely competitive. Unlike spotted hyenas, striped hyenas are almost exclusively scavengers, although they occasionally prey on small and manageable prey.
There are four extant hyenas: spotted hyenas, brown hyenas, striped hyenas, and coyotes. Despite their dog-like appearance, all members of the hyena family are more closely related to the mongoose family and mongoose, which belong to the carnivorous cat family (cat-like) suborder.
While the striped hyena's striped fur and bushy mane are most similar to coyotes, a closer look reveals that it is more similar to brown hyenas. Indeed, if you remove the fur, you can see that the body shape of the two is almost identical, except that the brown skull is stronger. Unlike spotted round ears, brown and striped ears are more dog-like and expressive. Both are major scavengers, with jaw strength to crush bones and huge fleshy molars, but lack spotted head and neck strength. Their short torso and reduced hind limbs accentuate the tilting posture characteristic of the hyena family.
Physical similarities are reflected in phylogenetic relationships within the hyena family. The coyote (an animal that specializes in termite-eating) is distantly related to the other three species; The spots diverged more than 10 million years ago, and brown and striped evolved from the common ancestor of hyenas. Like spotted hyenas, stripes likely evolved in Africa and then spread north and east to Europe and Asia. However, unlike spotted hyenas, which disappeared from these areas due to habitat loss and competition with wolves and humans, smaller striped hyenas survived. The central question of why and how survival strategies are addressed is likely to be differences in social structures.