Lions and hyenas compete over the same food in overlapping territories. Sometimes the hyenas do the work of organizing, chasing down, and killing prey only to have lions steal it. Both hyenas and lions mark and establish territories, and both species are always on guard.

Spotted hyenas give new meaning to the phrase "lick the platter clean." They eat practically every part of the animal, including skin, hooves, bone, and teeth. Powerful jaws are able to crush bones with ease. They actually prefer skin and bone to eating meat. Most other predators won’t even try to eat those things. There are some items that hyenas can’t digest, such as hair and horns, although they still eat them. Spotted hyenas regurgitate what they can’t digest in the form of a pellet.

At the San Diego Zoo, the spotted hyenas are offered a ground meat product made for zoo carnivores. In addition, they receive cow femur bones twice a week; mice, rats, and rabbits once a week; and treats of beef heart, different dry foods, yams and carrots, and fish.

What spotted hyenas eat and how they get their food depends on the time of day. Most people think hyenas are scavengers only. Spotted hyenas do scavenge during the day, but they have to compete with jackals and vultures for these leftovers. In a large group, spotted hyenas are able to chase lions away from a kill. But at night the hyena's impressive hunting skills come into play.

Able to chase down prey over long distances while running at up to 37 miles per hour (60 kilometers per hour), spotted hyenas often pick out the young or weak from the herd. What they hunt depends on numbers: the bigger the hyena clan, the larger the prey, from young rhinos, adult wildebeest, and zebras to Cape buffalo. The hyenas work in an organized pack when hunting such large prey. Smaller packs are used to chase down gazelles, eland, impalas, warthogs, and waterbucks.

When hunting alone, a spotted hyena goes after smaller prey such as ground birds, rabbits, springhare, bat-eared foxes, porcupines, jackals, fish, and puff adders—even an ostrich egg is fair game! They eat quite a bit at one time, and any leftovers are buried in a mud hole for a later meal.

Spotted hyenas are known for their very distinctive vocalizations. In fact, they are one of the most vocal mammals in Africa, with over 11 different sounds that researchers have recorded. The famous chatter they produce actually sounds like a human laughing hysterically. This “laugh” is used during times of nervous excitement or submission to a dominant hyena.

The "whoop" is a call that can be heard from far away and is used to find cubs, claim territory, or bring the clan together. Groans and squeals are used to greet each other. Other sounds include grunting, growling, and yelling. Besides communicating with each other, hyenas use their calls and scent marks to claim their territory.

The spotted hyena social system is very complex. There can be 50 to 100 individuals in a clan. Spotted hyenas have a matriarchal society, and the females are larger and much more assertive and aggressive than the males. A lower-ranking female’s cubs rank higher than the highest-ranking males. Lower-ranking males are forced to stay on the outskirts of the clan and are only allowed to participate during a hunt or a fight.

Life starts out rough for a young hyena cub. The average litter has two cubs, and the competition between them starts right away. Cubs are born with dark fur, their eyes open, and some teeth already present. They fight over who will be the dominant one and nurse first, sometimes killing their weaker sibling. Mom keeps the cubs in a private den at first to ensure their survival. The spotted hyena is the only hyena species that uses specific dens to shelter cubs.

At two to six weeks of age, the mother moves the cubs to a den shared by others where they can meet the rest of the clan and begin to establish their rank. How they hunt, how they eat, and how they fight are all determined by rank within the clan. At about two months of age, the cub loses its brown coat and begins to look like the spotted adults. Female cubs always stay with their birth clan, but the males are forced out upon maturity at around age three, if not sooner.

Spotted hyenas play a major role in Africa. They help control populations of a wide variety of species, and, because they'll eat almost anything, they appear to clean up everything in their path. While spotted hyenas are not threatened at the moment, things could change. Drought can have drastic effects on the food chain, from herbivores to carnivores.

Hyenas do not hunt humans, although there are rare reports of killings, yet humans have been caught shooting hyenas on the spot just because of what they are. The spotted hyena is a clever creature that should bring a chuckle to your heart!