What Do Hyenas Eat? Hyena Diet, Prey and Feeding Habits

What Do Hyenas Eat: Hyenas eat meat. Spotted hyenas, the most common species, hunt and eat wildebeest, zebra, antelopes, warthogs and buffalo calves, and they also scavenge carcasses left by other predators. They eat almost every part of an animal, including skin, hooves and bones.

The diet varies by species. Striped and brown hyenas are mainly scavengers that also eat insects, eggs and wild fruit. The aardwolf, the smallest member of the hyena family, eats almost nothing but termites.

This article explains what each hyena species eats, whether hyenas are hunters or scavengers, how much they eat, how they digest bone, what cubs eat, and where to watch hyenas feeding on safari.

What Do Hyenas Eat, by Species

Species	Main food	Also eats	Feeding style
Spotted hyena	Wildebeest, zebra, antelopes, warthogs, buffalo calves	Carrion, bones, birds, fish, reptiles, eggs	Hunter first, scavenger second
Striped hyena	Carrion and bones	Insects, small mammals, birds, fruit, vegetables	Solitary night scavenger
Brown hyena	Carrion and bones	Seal pups, ostrich eggs, insects, wild melons	Solitary scavenger of dry country
Aardwolf	Termites	Other insects and larvae	Insect eater, no hunting or scavenging

What Do Spotted Hyenas Eat?

Spotted hyenas eat medium and large hoofed animals. They are adaptable and take whatever is most common where they live.

Large prey: wildebeest, zebra, topi, hartebeest, waterbuck and young buffalo.
Medium prey: impala, gazelles, Uganda kob, reedbuck and warthog.
Small prey: hares, birds, fish, lizards, snakes and insects.
Young animals: the calves of giraffe, hippo and even elephant when they are left unguarded.
Carrion: any carcass they find, from a lion kill to an animal that died of disease.
Other items: eggs, dung from other animals, and rubbish near villages.

Spotted hyenas rarely eat plants. They may chew grass now and then, but they get nearly all their energy from meat, fat and bone.

Are Hyenas Hunters or Scavengers?

Hyenas are both, but spotted hyenas are mainly hunters. Field studies in East and Southern Africa show that spotted hyenas kill between about 60 and 95 percent of what they eat, depending on the area. The idea that they live on lions’ leftovers is a myth.

Scavenging still matters. Hyenas have an excellent sense of smell and watch for circling vultures, so they find carcasses quickly. A large clan can also drive lions, leopards and cheetahs off a kill.

Striped and brown hyenas are the true scavengers of the family. They walk long distances alone each night in search of carcasses and bones.

How Do Hyenas Hunt?

Spotted hyenas hunt by endurance, not ambush.

Testing the herd. Hyenas trot towards a herd and watch for an animal that is young, old, sick or slow.
The chase. They run at up to 60 km per hour and can keep up a fast pace for several kilometres until the prey tires.
The kill. They bring the animal down by biting its legs and belly, and begin to eat at once.
Teamwork. One hyena can catch a gazelle or a wildebeest calf. Zebra and adult buffalo need a group of ten or more.

Most hunts take place at night or at dawn. Hyenas see well in low light, which gives them an advantage over their prey.

How Much Do Hyenas Eat?

A spotted hyena eats about 2 to 4 kg of food a day on average. It can swallow up to 14.5 kg in one meal, which is roughly a quarter to a third of its body weight.

Hyenas eat fast because competition at a kill is fierce. A clan can strip a zebra to almost nothing in under half an hour. After a big meal, a hyena may not need to eat again for several days.

Do Hyenas Eat Bones?

Yes. Hyenas eat bones, and they are better at it than any other living carnivore.

Jaws and teeth. Thick, cone-shaped premolars and huge jaw muscles let a spotted hyena crack the leg bones of a buffalo or giraffe.
Strong stomach acid. Their stomachs dissolve bone and absorb the minerals and marrow fat inside.
Very little waste. Hair, hooves and horn sheaths cannot be digested, so hyenas cough them up as pellets.
White droppings. All that calcium turns hyena droppings chalk-white as they dry, an easy sign to spot on safari.

What Do Striped Hyenas Eat?

Striped hyenas eat carrion, bones and whatever small food they can find. They live in dry country from East and North Africa to India, where large prey is scarce.

Carcasses and old bones, including those of livestock
Insects, lizards, rodents, hares and ground birds
Wild fruit, dates and melons
Rubbish and crops near villages

They seldom hunt anything larger than a hare.

What Do Brown Hyenas Eat?

Brown hyenas eat mostly carrion. They live in the deserts and coasts of Southern Africa and may walk 30 km or more in a night to find food.

Carcasses left by lions, leopards and cheetahs
Cape fur seal pups along the Namib coast
Ostrich eggs, insects and small animals
Wild melons and cucumbers, which supply water in the desert

What Do Aardwolves Eat?

Aardwolves eat termites. Using a long, sticky tongue, one aardwolf can lick up as many as 250,000 termites in a single night. Its cheek teeth are small pegs, so it cannot chew meat or crack bone. It does not hunt livestock, although it is sometimes wrongly blamed for doing so.

What Do Baby Hyenas Eat?

Baby hyenas drink their mother’s milk. Spotted hyena milk is among the richest of any land carnivore, very high in fat and protein.

Birth to 3 months: milk only, inside the den.
3 to 9 months: mostly milk, with first tastes of meat at kills near the den.
9 to 14 months: meat and milk together as cubs start following the clan.
14 to 18 months: fully weaned.

Spotted hyena mothers do not carry meat back to the den or regurgitate food, so cubs depend on milk for far longer than lion cubs or wild dog pups. Brown and striped hyenas do carry food back to their young.

Do Hyenas Drink Water?

Yes. Hyenas drink when water is available, but they can go several days without it. Much of the moisture they need comes from the meat and blood of their prey.

Why the Hyena Diet Matters

Hyenas keep the savannah clean and its herds healthy.

They remove carcasses. By eating rotting meat and bone, hyenas limit the spread of diseases such as anthrax.
They recycle nutrients. Calcium and phosphorus from bones return to the soil through their droppings.
They control herds. By taking the weak, sick and old, they help keep prey populations strong.
They feed others. Jackals, vultures and marabou storks all eat the scraps hyenas leave.

Watching Hyenas Feed on Safari in Uganda

In Uganda, spotted hyenas eat mainly Uganda kob, topi, warthog, oribi and buffalo calves, along with anything they can scavenge.

Queen Elizabeth National Park: hyenas follow the kob herds on the Kasenyi plains and in the Ishasha sector.
Murchison Falls National Park: look for them at dawn on the northern bank, often close to lion kills.
Kidepo Valley National Park: open plains make it easier to watch hyenas hunting and scavenging.
Lake Mburo National Park: hyenas are mostly heard after dark, and night game drives give the best chance of a sighting.

For the best views, go out at first light or book a night drive. Circling vultures in the early morning often lead to a kill, and to the hyenas feeding on it.

Frequently Asked Questions about What Do Hyenas Eat

What is a hyena’s favourite food?

A spotted hyena’s favourite food is whichever medium-sized grazing animal is most common nearby. In the Serengeti that is wildebeest, zebra and gazelle. In Uganda it is the Uganda kob.

Are hyenas carnivores or omnivores?

Spotted hyenas are carnivores. Striped and brown hyenas are sometimes called omnivores because they add fruit and insects to a meat diet. The aardwolf is an insectivore.

Do hyenas eat lions?

Hyenas do not hunt healthy adult lions. They will eat a lion that has already died, and a clan may kill lion cubs or a weak, injured lion if it gets the chance.

Do lions eat hyenas?

Lions often kill hyenas but seldom eat them. The two are rivals for the same prey, and lions kill hyenas to remove competition.

Do hyenas eat their prey alive?

Yes, sometimes. Hyenas do not use a throat bite as cats do. They pull prey down and start feeding straight away, so the animal usually dies quickly from shock and blood loss.

Do hyenas eat humans?

Attacks on people are rare. Hyenas are opportunists, though, and have been known to attack people sleeping outdoors in rural areas. On safari, staying in your vehicle or tent keeps you safe.

Do hyenas eat other hyenas?

Rarely. Spotted hyenas may feed on a dead hyena when food is very scarce, but cannibalism is not a normal part of their diet.

Do hyenas eat fruit or plants?

Spotted hyenas almost never do. Striped and brown hyenas regularly eat wild fruit and melons, partly for the water they contain.

What animals eat hyenas?

Adult hyenas have few predators. Lions are their main killers, and leopards, crocodiles and rival hyena clans sometimes kill cubs or lone adults.

The Short Answer

Hyenas eat meat, and spotted hyenas hunt most of it themselves. Wildebeest, zebra, antelopes and warthogs are their main prey, and their bone-crushing jaws let them eat parts of a carcass that no other predator can use. Striped and brown hyenas rely more on scavenging, while the aardwolf lives on termites.

To watch hyenas hunting and feeding in the wild, contact Gorilla Nests Safaris and plan a game drive in Uganda’s savannah parks.