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The spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta), also known as the laughing hyena, [3] is a hyena species, currently classed as the sole extant member of the genus Crocuta, native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is listed as being of least concern by the IUCN due to its widespread range and large numbers estimated between 27,000 and 47,000 individuals. [ 1 ]
The Eurasian "cave hyenas" (Crocuta spelaea, Crocuta ultima and others) have either been considered subspecies of the living spotted hyena, [1] or as distinct species. [3] Genetic analysis of cave hyenas have found them to be strongly genetically divergent from living African spotted hyenas, albeit with some evidence of limited interbreeding ...
The spotted hyena, though it also scavenges occasionally, is an active pack hunter of medium to large sized ungulates, which it catches by wearing them down in long chases and dismembering them in a canid-like manner. Spotted hyenas may kill as many as 95% of the animals they eat. [53]
The bones of cave hyena prey were often cracked open/crushed in order to feed on the interior marrow, as is done by living spotted hyenas. [10] The diet of the cave hyena is thought to have primarily consisted of large ungulates like wild horse, aurochs, steppe bison, Irish elk/giant deer, wild boar, red deer and reindeer, with larger ...
The remains — buried in layers of soil in the collapsed cave — contained the genetic material of cave bears, hyenas and 13 bones of early humans who died some 45,000 years ago.
Spotted hyena attacks on humans are underreported. During 1960 coup and the Red Terror, [10] hyenas were reported extensively fed on human corpses. In El Kere and Bare of south-eastern Ethiopia, 50 people were attacked by hyena in the year 1998/1999, of which of majority of them (35 out of 55) were children.
The spotted hyena (cave hyena subspecies) is depicted in a few examples of Upper Palaeolithic rock art in France. A painting from the Chauvet Cave depicts a hyena outlined and represented in profile, with two legs, with its head and front part with well distinguishable spotted coloration pattern.
A single spotted hyena can eat at least 14.5 kg of meat per meal, [20] and although they act aggressively toward each other when feeding, they compete with each other mostly through speed of eating, rather than by fighting as lions do. [21] Spotted hyenas can take less than two minutes to eat a gazelle fawn, [22] while a group of 35 hyenas can ...