Striped Hyena

The striped hyena has a heavy head, thick neck and a short, powerful body set on long legs, with the hind legs clearly shorter than the front ones so that the back slopes down to the tail. The coarse coat is dirty grey to brownish grey, with a long mane of tough hairs, grey at the base and black at the tips, running along the back from the head to the tail. The muzzle is dark, the ears almost black, and there is a large black patch on the throat. It is the smallest of the bone-cracking hyenas (Wikipedia, general species account).

Across its range the striped hyena is strongly nocturnal, leaving its den only after full dark and returning before sunrise. It usually lives alone or in pairs and is not very territorial, marking objects with a paste from its anal pouch. Pairs are monogamous and the male helps raise the cubs, which are born with adult markings after about three months and leave the den after a month. Dens are dug or taken over in caves, rock crevices and old burrows and are often littered with bones. It is mainly a scavenger, with jaws strong enough to crack bones (Wikipedia, general species account).

In India the striped hyena survives well outside protected areas, including in farmland. Around Sawai Mansingh Wildlife Sanctuary in Rajasthan, a camera-trap study in 2019–2021 found high densities of 11–12 hyenas per 100 km² in a landscape of 75 villages, where 40–50 livestock carcasses a month were dumped near villages. The authors describe a coexistence that benefits both sides: hyenas get food and villagers get free waste disposal, and most people surveyed held positive attitudes (Panda et al. 2022).