Description:

Brown hyenas are distinguished by their long shaggy dark brown coat, pointed ears, and short tail. Their legs are striped brown and white, and adults have a distinct cream-colored fur ruff around their necks.

Body length is 144 cm on average with a range of 130–160 cm. Shoulder height is 70–80 cm and the tail is 25–35 cm long. There are no sizable differences between the sexes, although males may be slightly larger than females.

An average adult male weighs 40.2–43.7 kg, while an average female weighs 37.7–40.2 kg.

Brown hyenas have powerful jaws, and young animals can crack the leg bones of springboks in five minutes, though this ability deteriorates with age and dental wear.

Habitat:

The brown hyena inhabits desert areas, semi-desert, and open woodland savannahs in Southern Africa. It can survive close to urban areas by scavenging.

Diet:

Brown hyenas are primarily scavengers the bulk of whose diet consists of carcasses killed by larger predators, but they may supplement their diet with rodents, insects, eggs, fruit and fungi (the desert truffle).

Behavior:

Single brown hyenas may charge at leopards with their jaws held wide open and can tree (chase up a tree) adult male leopards; they have been observed treeing leopards even when no kill was in contention.