How Fast Does a Hyena Run?

Hyenas are one of the least liked animals in the entire world, but the more science discovers about them, the sillier the misconceptions about them become. Hyenas are strong predators and have been known to attack and eat humans. Lions are their mortal enemies and they have a well-defined social structure. Find out some things about hyenas you may not have known, such as how fast a hyena can run.

Identification

Hyenas look somewhat like dogs but have some major differences. They possess an elongated and muscular neck and the hind legs are shorter than the front, creating a stride that resembles that of a bear. Hyenas have a mane of hair on the neck. They come in various shades of brown, some with stripes and others with spots. Hyenas have strongly acidic juices in their stomachs that allow them to be able to digest just about anything, even teeth and bones.

Types

There are four species of hyena. They are the brown hyena, the striped hyena, the spotted hyena and the aardwolf. The aardwolf is smaller than the others and eats termites almost exclusively. The spotted hyena is also known as the laughing hyena for the strange noises it is capable of producing and is the largest of the group, weighing as much as 190 pounds. The brown hyena is much more prone to scavenging than the other three species.

Geography

The striped hyena can be found in Pakistan, India, Africa, and the Middle East. It is extinct in Europe, but is occasionally sighted in Turkey. The aardwolf is native to southern and eastern portions of the continent of Africa while the brown hyena lives in the deserts of southern Africa. The spotted hyena resides in central and southern Africa.

Considerations

Although there is little research in the area of how fast a hyena can run, biologists estimate that they can achieve a speed of up to 30 miles per hour for a short distance and can maintain slower speeds for much longer periods of time. Hyenas hunt by sight and chase their prey, which consists of animals of good size such as wildebeest and zebra, for miles before separating the weakest from the group and killing them.

Misconceptions

Few animals have more untruths floating around about them than the hyena. They are not cowardly scavengers that steal food from other predators. They hunt efficiently and kill more than 90 percent of their own food. They do not steal food from lions; in fact, lions are more likely to take a kill from a hyena. They cannot change sexes, but the females have genitals that are enlarged, making them hard to tell from the males of the species. Although they have a powerful set of jaws, hyenas do not possess the strongest bite in the animal kingdom.