Original Research

The comparative behavioural ecology of the Brown Hyaena Hyaena brunnea and the Spotted Hyaena Crocuta crocuta in the Southern Kalahari

M. G. L Mills
Koedoe | Supplement | a583 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/koedoe.v27i2.583 | © 1984 M. G. L Mills | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 01 December 1984 | Published: 01 December 1984

About the author(s)

M. G. L Mills, National Parks Board of Trustees, South Africa

Full Text:

PDF (3MB)

Abstract

The diet, foraging behaviour, social organisation and social behaviour of the brown hyaena Hyaena brunnea and the spotted hyaena Crocuta crocuta, and the interactions between these two species in the southern Kalahari are discussed. The brown hyaena is a scavenger of a wide variety of vertebrate remains, supplementing its diet with wild fruits and insects and is well adapted to this arid region. The spotted hyaena is a hunter-scavenger of large and medium-sized mammals and is not found in such numbers in the southern Kalahari as is the brown hyaena. These differences in diet have led to the evolution of large differences in foraging behaviour, social organisation, denning behaviour and communication patterns in the two species; spotted hyaenas having a more highly developed social system and living in far larger territories than brown hyaenas. Spotted hyaenas are dominant to brown hyaenas, but because of their low density in the southern Kalahari, have little effect on the brown hyaena population there.

Keywords

No related keywords in the metadata.

Metrics

Total abstract views: 7234
Total article views: 4909

 

Crossref Citations

1. Spotted Hyena skull size variation across geography favors the energetic equivalence rule over Bergmann’s Rule
Cybil N Cavalieri, Teresa L McElhinny, Kay E Holekamp, Barbara L Lundrigan, Guiming Wang
Journal of Mammalogy  vol: 105  issue: 4  first page: 910  year: 2024  
doi: 10.1093/jmammal/gyae023

2. Homo vs. Pachycrocuta: Earliest evidence of competition for an elephant carcass between scavengers at Fuente Nueva-3 (Orce, Spain)
Ma Patrocinio Espigares, Bienvenido Martínez-Navarro, Paul Palmqvist, Sergio Ros-Montoya, Isidro Toro, Jordi Agustí, Robert Sala
Quaternary International  vol: 295  first page: 113  year: 2013  
doi: 10.1016/j.quaint.2012.09.032

3. Deciphering carnivoran competition for animal resources at the 1.46 Ma early Pleistocene site of Barranco León (Orce, Granada, Spain)
Lloyd A. Courtenay, José Yravedra, Darío Herranz-Rodrigo, Juan José Rodríguez-Alba, Alexia Serrano-Ramos, Verónica Estaca-Gómez, Diego González-Aguilera, José Antonio Solano, Juan Manuel Jiménez-Arenas
Quaternary Science Reviews  vol: 300  first page: 107912  year: 2023  
doi: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107912

4. Assumptions about fence permeability influence density estimates for brown hyaenas across South Africa
Kathryn S. Williams, Samual T. Williams, Rebecca J. Welch, Courtney J. Marneweck, Gareth K. H. Mann, Ross T. Pitman, Gareth Whittington-Jones, Guy A. Balme, Daniel M. Parker, Russell A. Hill
Scientific Reports  vol: 11  issue: 1  year: 2021  
doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-77188-7

5. Denning behaviour of spotted hyaenas (Crocuta crocuta) in Botswana
S. M. Cooper
African Journal of Ecology  vol: 31  issue: 2  first page: 178  year: 1993  
doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2028.1993.tb00531.x

6. Finders' eaters: Increasing bush encroachment may shift carcass detection from diurnal avian to nocturnal mammalian scavengers
Gerard Malan, Kyle S. Walker, Ara Monadjem
African Journal of Ecology  vol: 62  issue: 2  year: 2024  
doi: 10.1111/aje.13262

7. Dominance at the Dinner Table: Interspecific Competition Between Hyaenas and Jackals at Scavenging Sites
Adélie Destercke, Amauréé Jansen van Vuuren, Jan A. Venter
African Journal of Ecology  vol: 63  issue: 5  year: 2025  
doi: 10.1111/aje.70080

8. Evaluation of a Conflict-Related Brown Hyaena Translocation in Central Namibia
Florian J. Weise, Ingrid Wiesel, Joseph Lemeris, Rudie J. van Vuuren
African Journal of Wildlife Research  vol: 45  issue: 2  first page: 178  year: 2015  
doi: 10.3957/056.045.0178

9. Distinguishing hominin and brown hyena (Parahyaena brunnea) bone accumulations from the Middle Stone Age in South Africa
Shaw Badenhorst, Anelisiwe C. Siteto
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports  vol: 58  first page: 104721  year: 2024  
doi: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2024.104721

10. Brown hyaena and leopard diets on private land in the Soutpansberg Mountains, South Africa
Kathryn S. Williams, Samual T. Williams, Leanne E. Fitzgerald, Eleanor C. Sheppard, Russell A. Hill
African Journal of Ecology  vol: 56  issue: 4  first page: 1021  year: 2018  
doi: 10.1111/aje.12539

11. Canines and carnassials as indicators of sociality in durophagous hyaenids: analyzing the past to understand the present
Juan Antonio Pérez-Claros, Carlos Coca-Ortega
PeerJ  vol: 8  first page: e10541  year: 2020  
doi: 10.7717/peerj.10541

12. Utilizing bycatch camera-trap data for broad-scale occupancy and conservation: a case study of the brown hyaenaParahyaena brunnea
Kathryn S. Williams, Ross T. Pitman, Gareth K. H. Mann, Gareth Whittington-Jones, Jessica Comley, Samual T. Williams, Russell A. Hill, Guy A. Balme, Daniel M. Parker
Oryx  vol: 55  issue: 2  first page: 216  year: 2021  
doi: 10.1017/S0030605319000747

13. Comparison of land‐use strategies of spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta, Erxleben) in different ecosystems
Martina Trinkel, Paul H. Fleischmann, Gerald Kastberger
African Journal of Ecology  vol: 44  issue: 4  first page: 537  year: 2006  
doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2028.2006.00658.x

14. Allo‐suckling in spotted hyaenas (Crocuta crocuta): an example of behavioural flexibility in carnivores
MICHAEL H. KNIGHT, ALBERT S. VAN JAARSVELD, M. G. L. MILLS
African Journal of Ecology  vol: 30  issue: 3  first page: 245  year: 1992  
doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2028.1992.tb00499.x

15. Space and resource use by brown hyenas Hyaena brunnea in the Namib Desert
J. D. Skinner, R. J. van Aarde, R. A. Goss
Journal of Zoology  vol: 237  issue: 1  first page: 123  year: 1995  
doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7998.1995.tb02751.x

16. Sex Differences in Territorial Behavior Exhibited by the Spotted Hyena (Hyaenidae, Crocuta crocuta)
Erin E. Boydston, Toni Lyn Morelli, Kay E. Holekamp
Ethology  vol: 107  issue: 5  first page: 369  year: 2001  
doi: 10.1046/j.1439-0310.2001.00672.x

17. Spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) follow migratory prey. Seasonal expansion of a clan territory in Etosha, Namibia
Martina Trinkel, Paul H. Fleischmann, Albert F. Steindorfer, Gerald Kastberger
Journal of Zoology  vol: 264  issue: 2  first page: 125  year: 2004  
doi: 10.1017/S0952836904005588

18. Co‐occurrence of high densities of brown hyena and spotted hyena in central Tuli, Botswana
S. Vissia, R. Wadhwa, F. van Langevelde
Journal of Zoology  vol: 314  issue: 2  first page: 143  year: 2021  
doi: 10.1111/jzo.12873

19. Hyaena-Mediated Landscapes of Fear: the Influence of Active Spotted Hyaena (Crocuta crocuta) Den Sites on the Detection Probability and Occupancy Probability of a Mammal Community
Amauree Jansen Van Vuuren, Gonçalo Curveira-Santos, Lourens Swanepoel, Marion Valeix, Hervé Fritz, Jan A. Venter
African Journal of Wildlife Research  vol: 55  issue: 1  year: 2025  
doi: 10.3957/056.055.0443

20. Daily Patterns of Activity in the Spotted Hyena
Joseph M. Kolowski, Dijana Katan, Kevin R. Theis, Kay E. Holekamp
Journal of Mammalogy  vol: 88  issue: 4  first page: 1017  year: 2007  
doi: 10.1644/06-MAMM-A-143R.1

21. The giant hyena Pachycrocuta brevirostris: Modelling the bone-cracking behavior of an extinct carnivore
Paul Palmqvist, Bienvenido Martínez-Navarro, Juan A. Pérez-Claros, Vanessa Torregrosa, Borja Figueirido, Juan Manuel Jiménez-Arenas, M. Patrocinio Espigares, Sergio Ros-Montoya, Miquel De Renzi
Quaternary International  vol: 243  issue: 1  first page: 61  year: 2011  
doi: 10.1016/j.quaint.2010.12.035

22. Spotted hyaena space use in relation to human infrastructure inside a protected area
Lydia E. Belton, Elissa Z. Cameron, Fredrik Dalerum
PeerJ  vol: 4  first page: e2596  year: 2016  
doi: 10.7717/peerj.2596

23. Temporal overlap in use of shared latrines by brown hyena and spotted hyena
S. de Zeeuw, F. van Langevelde, S. Vissia
Journal of Zoology  vol: 325  issue: 4  first page: 283  year: 2025  
doi: 10.1111/jzo.13249

24. The diet of the spotted hyaenas Crocuta crocuta in Kruger National Park
J. R. HENSCHEL, J. D. SKINNER
African Journal of Ecology  vol: 28  issue: 1  first page: 69  year: 1990  
doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2028.1990.tb01138.x

25. Accounting for false positive detection error induced by transient individuals
C. Sutherland, D. A. Elston, X. Lambin
Wildlife Research  vol: 40  issue: 6  first page: 490  year: 2013  
doi: 10.1071/WR12166

26. Environmental correlates of livestock depredation by spotted hyaenas and livestock herding practices in a semi‐arid communal landscape
Monicah Mbiba, Justice Muvengwi, Henry Ndaimani
African Journal of Ecology  vol: 56  issue: 4  first page: 984  year: 2018  
doi: 10.1111/aje.12529

27. Lion lords and sharing hyaenas: Carnivore guild dynamics around elephant carcasses
Terry‐Lee Honiball, Robert S. Davis, Liyabona Ntlokwana, Jan A. Venter
Ecology and Evolution  vol: 14  issue: 5  year: 2024  
doi: 10.1002/ece3.11373