Parahyaena brunnea

The brown hyena is dog-like in shape, with a body length of 110-125 cm, a tail length of 25-35 cm, and a weight of 40-55 kg. It has a large head, a wide forehead, and long ears. There are no stripes on the body, and the hair is mainly brown, but there are also gray, red, and nearly black color variations. Generally, the hair on the head, upper back, shoulders, etc. is lighter, and other parts are darker. There are horizontal brown and white stripes on the outside of the limbs.
The body hair is very long, rough and fluffy, with well-developed manes from the back of the neck to the buttocks. When excited, it can rise high, as if the body has suddenly become larger. The forelimbs are longer than the hind limbs, so the shoulders are higher than the buttocks, making the body tilted in a high front and low back state, which looks very energetic. There are 4 toes on all four limbs, which are blunt and cannot be retracted. The tail is slightly shorter than the dog's tail, the color is

Brown hyenas are distributed in Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe in Africa. They mainly live in the arid areas of southwestern Africa, tropical and subtropical grasslands and deserts, but some live near the coast and are called "beach wolves".

Brown hyena (scientific name: Parahyaena brunnea) is also known as Brown Hyaena in English. It has two subspecies.

Brown hyenas have a tightly organized social system, which is generally ruled by females, because in the group, the female as the leader is stronger than the male, while in other aspects, the females and males look similar. At a distance from the cave, males and females will greet each other, like other animals, by exposing the most vulnerable parts of their bodies to show compliments and trust.

Brown hyenas have good hearing and vision, and their sense of smell is extremely sensitive. Each brown hyena also has its own unique smell. During activities, group members mainly communicate with each other by smell. When they meet each other, they often sniff each other. Members of the group jointly undertake the task of defending the territory, often gather together to patrol the border, can walk long distances without getting tired, and occasionally stop to make some marks with smell and feces. Groups can show the powerful strength of the group and use it to intimidate other neighboring groups. If the group finds that some individuals from other groups have mixed in, they will drive them away without hesitation. This is a common special skirmish, but sometimes it will also lead to fights between groups, killing each other in border patrols and disputes.

Brown hyenas are timid and usually come out at night. They are active and forage at night, and hide in dense bushes, tall grass, rock crevices or old aardvark holes to rest during the day. When being chased, they will pretend to be dead to escape. When food is scarce, they sometimes come out to forage during the day. They often wander behind lions, cheetahs and other beasts so that they can pick up the food they hunt at any time. However, lions, cheetahs and other beasts hate these greedy "stalkers" very much, often threaten them, and sometimes even catch or kill them. So when lions or cheetahs "eat", they are always alert, keep a certain distance, and wait for the opportunity. Sometimes when they are really hungry, they can't help but be eager for food, and rashly plunder with unexpected actions. At the same time, they also compete with scavenger birds such as vultures and marabou. If the area it inhabits is relatively dry, it will often go to places far away from its habitat to drink water. This is the case with brown hyenas. Relying on their own strength, endurance and unique way of feeding, they have occupied a place among predators in grasslands and deserts.

Brown hyenas have a very diverse diet and eat almost everything, including some fruits and vegetables, but more importantly, they pick up carrion in the wilderness, sometimes hunt some small animals, and sometimes eat the corpses of whales and other animals pushed up by the waves when they are active on the beach. Its upper and lower jaws and teeth are strong and powerful, and its cheek teeth and masseter muscles are particularly developed, which makes it extremely strong. It can bite the thickest hard bones and meat on the heads and legs of animals such as huge African buffaloes or zebras. Its digestive function is also very strong, so it can clean up the hard food that other animals don't like to eat or can't bite, leaving nothing behind, so that it can survive. Because they are good at cleaning up animal remains on grasslands and deserts, which is very useful in preventing the occurrence of infectious diseases, they have won the title of "scavenger".

The brown hyena can make more than ten kinds of calls, which is very important for its survival, because it often moves at night and must rely on different calls to strengthen the connection between group members. But these calls are almost all very strange, and often make people feel creepy. Especially when they find food or are in heat, the strong calls they make are even more frightening. Because brown hyenas often give people a very annoying and lazy image, there are absurd legends in some places that as long as they appear in human settlements, they will bring death.

Brown hyenas do not have a fixed breeding season, and males often use tail wagging to woo females. The gestation period of females is 3-3.5 months, and each litter has 1-4 cubs. The cubs have their eyes open when they are born, weighing about 1.5 kilograms. They have to spend about 11 long months in the cave abandoned by the aardvark. During this period, the females often need to go out hunting to ensure that the cubs get enough milk and food. In the first 4 months after birth, the cubs rely entirely on milk to survive, and even when their teeth have grown, they have hardly eaten meat. When they grow to 3-4 weeks old, they can often move on the ground. Like all animal cubs, they are curious about everything, sniffing around, and soon learn to use their noses, ears and eyes to understand the outside world. The female is very vigilant, and even the male is not allowed to approach the nest and the cubs it raises, because sometimes some hungry males will eat the cubs. After 10 months of birth, the cubs can go everywhere with the female to play, especially when a group of brown hyenas are eating nearby, they prefer to follow behind. The cubs are sexually mature at about 3 years old. The lifespan is about 14 years.

The brown hyena is the smallest of the four species of the hyena family, and its number is relatively rare. It is listed in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. It has become extinct in Azania and other places of origin. There are only about 60 artificially raised in the world, which are kept in 25 zoos. Brown hyenas occur in several large protected areas, including: Namib-Naukluft, Etosha National Parks in Namibia, Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park in South Africa and Botswana, Makgadikgadi National Park in Botswana, Shamwari Game Reserve in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, and Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana.

A recent study in Botswana showed that the global brown hyena population is significantly higher in non-protected areas, and these animals can tolerate land use changes under certain circumstances (Kent and Hill 2013). Brown hyenas are evenly distributed around cattle farms in Botswana and Namibia, with 54.5% of farmers reporting the presence of brown hyenas (Lindsay et al. 2013). Efforts should be made to increase education among farmers and herders about the fact that brown hyenas pose little risk to livestock, which may enhance the protection of these animals.

Listed in the 2015 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species ver 3.1 - Near Threatened (NT).

Listed in Appendix I of the Washington Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

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