Carnivores: Aardwolf African Wild Cat African Wild Dog Banded Mongoose Bat Eared Fox Black-backed Jackal Brown Hyena Cape Clawless Otter Cape Fox Caracal Cheetah Civet Dhole Large Spotted Genet Golden Jackal Honey badger Leopard African Lion Asiatic Lion Sand Cat Serval Side Striped Jackal Snow Leopard Spotted Hyena Striped Hyena Suricate (Meercat) Tiger White Tailed Mongoose Yellow Mongoose
Striped Hyena are typical looking Hyena with their backs sloping down from their high front shoulders. They are more slender than the spotted hyena and are slightly smaller, standing around 72cm high at the shoulder whereas the spotted hyena stands around 85cm high at the shoulder. They are around 1.2 - 1.5 metres in length (including around 25-35cm for the tail). Their coat is a light white-grey with black stripes. The legs are also striped. The throat is almost completely black, and the muzzle is also black. Their fur is long and shaggy, and they have a crest of fur along their back that can be raised to make themselves look larger.
Unlike Spotted Hyena, Striped Hyena tend to be more solitary, foraging alone for food, but they are believed to share a communal den for raising cubs, and possibly at other times although little is known about this. Striped Hyena are less vocal than Spotted Hyena. Because the arid areas which they inhabit support low densities of prey the Striped Hyena tends to have a fairly large home range - often over 50Km2. The home ranges are marked with scent from their anal glands. The Striped Hyena has a slender build which allows it to travel long distances when foraging - they are able to trot for up to 8 hours a night covering distances of up to 30Km
In areas where both Striped Hyena and Spotted Hyena are found, the Spotted Hyena are dominant and will steal food from the Striped Hyena.
Striped Hyena eat a range of small mammals such as hares or rodents, as well as reptiles and insects including tortoises, grasshoppers and termites. They also eat fruits such as date palms and scavenge from rubbish dumps. Like other Hyena species, the Striped Hyena is well adapted to eating bones and has powerful jaws for this purpose.
Female Striped Hyena give birth to a litter of 2-4 cubs after a gestation period of around 90 days. The cubs are usually born in a rocky den or a vacant burrow dug by another species. In some areas the Striped Hyena tends to gives birth at particular times of the year but in other areas there is no pattern to their reproduction.
Striped Hyena are found throughout North and East Africa as well as the middle East and parts of India. They live mainly in arid areas including open savannah and rocky slopes, In some areas Striped Hyena are found on the coast.
© Predator Conservation Trust.
