Striped Hyena
By M.W.
Description
The Striped Hyena:
- Mammal
- Fur covering
- Adults weigh from 57-90 pounds
- Height: 2.2-2.5 feet (66-75)
- Length: 4-5 feet.
- Communicates by giggling, growling, whimpering, and jekkering.
- The striped hyena is characterized by having stripes like a zebra, pointed, sharp ears, round face, small eyes, and fluffy, shaggy tail.
Food Chain and Habitat
- The striped hyena is an omnivore scavenger, its diet ranging from:
Vegetables to fruit, and to human originated organic waste. - The Striped Hyena usually scavenges its food off other kills made by lions or spotted hyenas and discarded livestock carcasses.
- Contrary to popular belief, the hyena does not steal livestock daily from farms. This belief causes hyenas to be treated as pests, hunted, and killed.
- Hyenas live around the north and east Africa, Middle-East, Middle, and South Asia, as well as the Indian Subcontinent.
- They live in "thorn bush country", and open habitat. The temperature there is dry and mildly-hot.
- Hyenas live in dens until they're old enough to travel with their mother.
Cubs
Two hyena cubs.
A hyena mother with its cubs in a den.
A cub playfully chews on its mother's nose.
Adaptations
- The Striped Hyena lives in a region where food, and resources are scarce. They have to compete with other animals for food.
- To face this problem, the striped hyenas are adapted to eat a wide variety of things.
- Hyenas' wide variety of food makes it so that they can survive eating off anything they can find, granting them better survival in their environment.
Reasons for Endangerment and Critical Information
- Striped Hyenas are quickly becoming extinct. They are finding less food to scavenge, and are being widely hunted, being considered pests.
- Due to the decline of predators in the east-African region, the hyenas cannot find enough carcasses to scavenge. Though they can hunt and kill prey themselves, hyenas still depend on other predators to scavenge dead carcasses from.
- Hyenas are considered pests; they are thought to steal livestock from farms or eat children. Thus, they are often killed by farmers using poisoning, baiting, traps, and pits.
- Some people even use hyena parts are "medical" or "healing products", as well as for fur coats.
- Today, the worldwide population is around 5,000 to 14,000 hyenas.
- Since little is known about the striped hyenas, to help conserve them, scientists need to do more study on the biology of the species.
- Hyenas can be placed in zoos, and kept away from poachers.
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