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The spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta), also known as the laughing hyena, [3] is a hyena species, currently classed as the sole extant member of the genus Crocuta, native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is listed as being of least concern by the IUCN due to its widespread range and large numbers estimated between 27,000 and 47,000 individuals. [1]
Pachycrocuta is an extinct genus of prehistoric hyenas.The largest and most well-researched species is Pachycrocuta brevirostris, colloquially known as the giant short-faced hyena as it stood about 90–100 cm (35–39 in) at the shoulder [1] and it is estimated to have averaged 110 kg (240 lb) in weight, [2] approaching the size of a lioness, making it the largest known hyena.
Hyenas may have occasionally stolen human kills, or entered campsites to drag off the young and weak, much like modern spotted hyenas in Africa. The oldest Alaskan human remains coincide with roughly the same time cave hyenas became extinct, leading some paleontologists to infer that hyena predation prevented humans from crossing the Bering ...
The largest remaining brown hyena population is located in the southern Kalahari Desert and coastal areas in Southwest Africa. [8] The global population of brown hyena is estimated by IUCN at a number between 4,000 and 10,000 and its conservation status is marked as near threatened in the IUCN Red List.
Striped hyena fossils are common in Africa, with records going back as far as the Middle Pleistocene and even to the Villafranchian. As fossil striped hyenas are absent from the Mediterranean region , it is likely that the species is a relatively late invader to Eurasia, having likely spread outside Africa only after the extirpation of spotted ...
Spotted hyena mask from Burkina Faso, Musée barrois Spotted hyena being fed in Harar, Ethiopia. In Africa, the spotted hyena is usually portrayed as an abnormal and ambivalent animal, considered to be sly, brutish, necrophagous and dangerous. It further embodies physical power, excessiveness, ugliness, stupidity, as well as sacredness. Spotted ...
A hyena as depicted in a medieval bestiary. Werehyena is a neologism coined in analogy to werewolf for therianthropy involving hyenas. It is common in the folklore of the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and the Near East as well as some adjacent territories. Unlike werewolves and other therianthropes, which are ...
It is still unclear whether the genus evolved in Africa or Asia, although the oldest known fossils are from Africa and dated to about 3.8 mya. [1] The earliest remains from Asia currently attributed to the genus is Crocuta honanensis from the Early Pleistocene of China dating to around 2.5-2.2 million years ago, but its relationship to the living spotted hyena is ambiguous.