Few safari animals have a worse reputation than the spotted hyena. Cartoons and films paint it as a cowardly, cackling scavenger that lives off other animals’ leftovers. The reality is far more interesting. Spotted hyenas are skilled hunters, highly intelligent, and live in complex societies run by females. Once you know a little about them, they become one of the most entertaining animals to watch on a game drive.
Myth 1: hyenas are just scavengers
Fact: spotted hyenas kill most of their own food. Depending on the area, hunting makes up somewhere between about half and almost all of their diet, with the rest scavenged. They hunt wildebeest, zebra and antelopes, often in groups, and can run a long way. In some places, including Ngorongoro Crater, it’s the lions that regularly take kills from the hyenas, not the other way round.
Myth 2: hyenas are a kind of dog
Fact: they look dog-like, but hyenas belong to their own family, which is actually more closely related to cats, civets and mongooses than to dogs.
Myth 4: hyenas are cowards
Fact: hyenas are cautious, not cowardly. A lone hyena will usually back off from a lion, which is simply good sense. But a clan working together will stand its ground, and groups of hyenas can and do drive lions off kills when they outnumber them. What looks like nervous hovering at a carcass is really a careful calculation of the odds. They’re also highly intelligent: researchers have found that spotted hyenas can recognise many individual clan members and keep track of complex social relationships, much as some primates do.
Myth 3: the “laugh” means they’re happy
Fact: the famous giggle is usually a sign of excitement, frustration or submission, for example when a hyena is being chased off a carcass. The sound you’re more likely to hear at night from your tent is the long, rising “whoo-oop”, a contact call that can carry for more than five kilometres.
Life in the clan
- Females are in charge. Females are generally larger than males and dominate them. Even a low-ranking female usually outranks a high-ranking male.
- Rank is inherited. Cubs take on a rank just below their mother, so family matters.
- Big, shifting groups. Clans can number from a few animals up to around 80, but members often split into smaller groups to hunt or rest.
- The den is the centre of life. Clans share a communal den, often an old burrow with several entrances, where cubs from different mothers grow up together.
- Built for bone. Massive jaws and a very tough digestive system let hyenas crack and digest bones that other predators leave behind, so very little of a carcass goes to waste.
Conservation status
The spotted hyena is listed as Least Concern by the IUCN, with a global population estimated at roughly 27,000 to 47,000. Numbers are falling in many areas outside protected land, mainly because of persecution, snaring and habitat loss.
Where to see hyenas in Uganda
- Murchison Falls National Park: a large survey published in 2024 recorded about 45 spotted hyenas per 100 km² here, the highest density yet recorded in Africa. Early morning drives on the northern bank are excellent.
- Queen Elizabeth National Park: hyenas are regularly seen on the Kasenyi plains and around the Mweya Peninsula.
- Lake Mburo National Park: a guided night drive is a good way to find them.
- Kidepo Valley National Park: a healthy hyena population in a remote, uncrowded setting.
Researchers behind the 2024 survey suggested that hyena numbers may be rising in some Ugandan parks as lion numbers fall, a reminder of how closely the two species are linked.
Elsewhere in East Africa
The Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania and the Maasai Mara in Kenya have large, well-studied hyena clans. During the Great Migration you can often watch hyenas and lions competing over the same kills.
Practical tips
- Ask your guide about dens. A den with playful cubs, watched from a respectful distance, is one of the best sightings on safari.
- Go out early. Hyenas are most active at night and around dawn.
- Secure your food and shoes at open campsites. Hyenas are curious and will carry things off.
Plan it with us
Hyenas make any safari more interesting, and Uganda’s savanna parks are a great place to see them. Explore our wildlife safaris and let us put together a route that suits you.
