World of the Hyena Trivia Quiz

Answer: Brown hyena

No extant species of hyena shares a genus. Hyenas are the fifth smallest family in the world of carnivores. This is why no differing species of hyena can breed together successfully.

The brown hyena is the only extant species of the genus Parahyaena, and its scientific name is Parahyaena brunnea. Brown hyenas are aesthetically distinguished from other species of hyena by their long, shaggy, brown coat, the mane of which will fluff out and stand up during physical confrontations. They do this to look larger and more intimidating, but parts of their coat are often damaged or ripped off during conflict. Brown hyenas are the second-largest extant species of hyena.

Answer: Aardwolf

Around 22 million years ago, hyenas were first established in Eurasia. The hyenas split into two groups genetically: Plioviverrops, the dog-like hyenas, which were lithe and the Borophagus hilli the bone-crushing hyenas, which were more heavily built.

Out of all the dog-like hyenas, only the aardwolf (Proteles cristatus) has survived extinction. It is resides around the south and east portions of Africa.

The aardwolf has yellowish fur and black vertical stripes in its coat. Its muzzle is thin and it has a mane growing around the midline of its neck and back. The mane stands up when the aardwolf is feeling confrontational, in order to appear larger.

Answer: Chasmaporthetes

Also known as the running hyena, the hunting hyena, or Chasmaporthetes scientifically, this hyena resided around Africa, Eurasia and North America, existing for around four million years. One of the lithely-built dog-like hyenas, in the Americas Chasmaporthetes roamed what is now Arizona and Mexico.

They had long and nimble limbs similar to that of a cheetah. It has been speculated that they fed on the extinct species of ground squirrel, Paenemarmota, in North America, with around 70% of their diet consisting of meat, as opposed to the skeletons that the bone-crushing hyenas ingest.

Answer: It has the highest protein and fat content of land carnivores

The milk of the spotted hyena is highly rich in fat and protein. Although their cubs are capable of eating solids at three months old, this rich milk is what keeps the cubs nursing between a year and 16 months, longer than most other carnivores. Both tiger and lion cubs, for example, will typically nurse for six months.

Female spotted hyenas are capable of carrying 3-4 kg (6.6-8.8 lb) of milk in their udders during lactation. Their milk is richer than the milk of any other extant land carnivore.

Answer: Spotted hyena

The spotted hyena is the only extant member of the Crocuta genus, and its scientific name is Crocuta crocuta. The spotted hyena is the most common big carnivore that resides in Africa.

Although they live in large groups called clans, spotted hyenas are competitive with each other as opposed to assisting each clan member. Mother spotted hyenas, for example, will usually only feed their own cubs and not any other cubs that are part of the clan. The males do not take care of their cubs, with the responsibility falling solely on the mother. They have been known to fight over both kills and potential mates. Clans can consist of up to around 80 hyenas.

Answer: Striped hyena and aardwolf

Aardwolves typically mate once a year and raise their young together. Although a pair of aardwolves may be socially monogamous, both will mate with other aardwolves, effectively being part of an open relationship. Aardwolves have evolved to mate for life because the female aardwolf must leave the den to feed on termites, which she cannot transport back to her young, which are born after around 90 days of gestation. The male will take care of the young whilst the mother is out searching for termites.

The striped hyena is also socially monogamous with both the male and the female taking responsibility for raising the young. They are monogamous as the striped hyena tends to either live in smaller clans than other hyena species, such as the spotted hyena, or live in completely solitary fashion other than their mate. Therefore, they have evolved to work together with little outside help from other striped hyenas in raising their cubs.

Both the brown hyena and the spotted hyena are a lot more promiscuous in comparison. They do not mate for life.

Answer: Spotted hyena and aardwolf

Unlike many other carnivorous mammals, spotted hyenas and aardwolves are born with their eyes open.

Spotted hyena cubs have been regularly known to attack each other not long after birth. The attacks are particularly bad amongst litters with cubs of the same sex. It is estimated that around 25% of spotted hyena cubs die at the hands of their sibling(s).

Striped hyenas are born with their eyes closed, with their eyes opening typically between 5-9 days. Their ears are also sealed, and they are born without manes. They are however born with markings on their fur like that of the adults. Around 2-4 cubs are usually born, and they nurse for roughly a year. Their teeth develop around three weeks after birth.

Brown hyenas are also born with their eyes closed, with them typically opening around eight days after birth. They also nurse for around a year.

Answer: Lebanon

Despite being the national animal of Lebanon, they are dwindling in numbers and are often feared and shot upon sight in the country, despite this being illegal. In Lebanon, it is common for parents to make scary claw tapping noises with their fingernails, telling their children that the hyena will come to get them if they do not go to sleep.

However, conservation efforts are thankfully being made to protect the striped hyena in Lebanon.

Answer: Spotted hyenas usually hunt in packs, striped hyenas usually hunt alone

Striped hyenas are typically scavengers that prefer to feast on the carcasses of the prey left behind by other carnivores, such as lions and leopards. They are capable of devouring entire bones within one bite and their teeth are designed to crush hooves, teeth, bones and horns. Because of its diet composing of a lot of calcium, the faeces of a striped hyena become white when exposed to air, and can be seen from some distance away.

In contrast to the packs of spotted hyena that roam looking for prey to take down in packs, the striped hyena will usually be alone when hunting. This means they are less successful than the spotted hyena at killing live prey for feeding. Spotted hyenas have a reputation as scavengers, however, they actually hunt down around 80-90% of their food as live prey in packs.

In Israel, the striped hyena is larger than the wolves in the area and could easily overcome them on a one-to-one fight, however, as wolves tend to hunt in packs, the striped hyena will try to avoid them.

Striped hyenas are adept at locating carcasses, and can also survive on fruits and vegetables as omnivores. This makes the striped hyena to be considered a pest among farmers, who have lost crops due to striped hyenas ravaging them.

Answer: Aardwolf

The aardwolf does not use its claws to dig up the termites, as the claws are unsuitable. Instead, the aardwolf will use its long, sticky tongue.

An aardwolf can devour 200,000 termites in one night alone. Its cheek teeth have evolved specially to eat insects.

Although aardwolves have been observed picking at corpses, they are not interested in the cadavers themselves. They are actually eating insect larvae and beetles that have gathered on the body.

Answer: Spotted hyena

Spotted hyenas are the most vocal of the hyenas and are known for their distinct "laugh." They have been studied and recorded to have at least ten different vocalisations. Spotted hyenas will regularly use these vocalisations at night to communicate with other members of their clan over large distances. Spotted hyenas will often make vocalisations which sound like laughter while competing over the carcass over the prey the pack has killed. They are not laughing - it is actually a method of communication that happens to sound like human laughter.

Striped hyenas will rarely make noise. They will chatter and make similar noise to the spotted hyena, but only when extremely frightened or threatened.

Brown hyenas do not make a laughing noise when being vocal, they instead sound like a hysterical human howling.

Aardwolves are known to make clucking noises and growl. The "laughing" vocalisation that hyenas are typically thought to have are only made by the spotted hyena.

Answer: Pachycrocuta brevirostris

Pachycrocuta existed during prehistoric times, and Pachycrocuta brevirostris was the largest of this genus. Coined the "giant short-faced hyena," Pachycrocuta brevirostris was a bone-crushing hyena that would feed on bones, accumulating them where they rested, as evidenced by fossils found of the species. They weighed around 15 stone (100 kg), but the particularly large specimens of these species weighed up to 23 stone (150 kg). The bones near the end of the limbs were noticeably short in comparison to the colossal size of their limb bones themselves, suggesting that they evolved to rip apart carcasses. It is speculated that they could have scavenged from the corpses of the prey of sabertooth cats.

Pachycrocuta brevirostris vanished from Europe around 800,000 years ago and the reason for this is lost to history. It has been theorised that the appearance of the spotted hyena means that they drove Pachycrocuta brevirostris to extinction although there is no evidence for this. The spotted hyena could simply have thrived once their larger ancestor had vanished and was no longer around to compete with them and, perhaps, eat them.

Answer: Spotted hyena

Although all hyenas have formidable jaws that can cause significant damage, the spotted hyena has the most devastating. It is recorded that the spotted hyena can inflict a bite force of 4,500-9,000 Newtons or around 1,100-2,023 pounds. The bite force of a spotted hyena is generally estimated be around 7 times more powerful than the bite of a human.

Answer: Hyenas are unintelligent

Possibly linked to their misunderstood "laugh" which is actually a form of communication that simply resembles a human laugh, hyenas have been unfairly stereotyped as unintelligent pests.

Hyenas are actually very intelligent, and this is apparent across the extant species. Studies have proven they have evolved similarly to humans and display complex social behaviours and brain evolution. In studies conducted by humans, hyenas have outdone chimpanzees in tests that focus on group problem solving. They have also found ways to escape their cages when captured by humans.

Hyenas have even been observed to possess the power to count, with male hyenas discerning how many males are present in a clan it wants to join, selecting the clan with less males. They have been noted to observe the amount of hyenas in a rival clan in order to determine whether they retreat or act aggressively towards their adversaries.

This stereotype has been perhaps compounded by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff 's 1994 Disney film, "The Lion King" where the hyenas are depicted as foolhardy, scheming yet intellectually lacking.

Hyenas are physically strong, have a difficult childbirth which often involves clitoris tearing and they are engaged and protective parents across the 4 extant species.

Answer: True

Brown hyenas can typically live to around 25 years in the wild. In contrast, lions in the wild typically live for 12 years if male, 16 years if female. Aardwolves share this expectancy with lions, typically living for 12 years in the wild, 20 in captivity. The striped hyena typically survives for 12 years in the wild, but have been recorded to live to 23 years in captivity.

Spotted hyenas typically have a 25 year life expectancy in the wild, but can live for as much as 40 years in captivity. Young spotted hyenas take around three years to achieve maturity of the skull (at around 95%) and this makes the spotted hyena possess the most protracted skull growth of land carnivores once they have reached sexual maturity.