Scientists know that lions and hyenas are found together in the African veld. And the assumption has always been that hyenas skulk around lions to steal the leftover scraps from their kills, just like the spotted hyenas in The Lion King.
But a new study of large carnivores in Namibia and Botswana published today in the journal Frontiers in Ethology highlights a totally different dynamic—one in which lions are actively pursuing hyenas.
Read more: “Lions Have Been Keeping One of Their Roars Secret”
Using GPS telemetry, researchers tracked the locations of 17 lions (Panthera leo) and 14 spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) at two locales: the Etosha National Park in Namibia and the Chobe-Linyanti system in Botswana. They radio-collared the animals and then collected nighttime locales every half hour, ramping up to every 5 minutes during the carnivores’ most active dawn and dusk periods.
“For every moment when both a lion and a hyena had a GPS fix at the same time, we asked a simple question: Was each animal moving toward the other, away from it, or off to the side?” explained lead author Nancy Barker of the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa.
The results, representing thousands of simultaneous GPS locations for pairs of animals, showed that hyenas mostly moved away from lions, whereas lions mostly moved toward hyenas, defying the traditional assumption. Interestingly, it was only male lions, not females, who approached hyenas, which corroborated observations by Barker of male lions actively following hyenas. (Adult male lions are larger and more active in territorial control than females, which may explain the sex difference.)
As for what the male lions are looking for, prior research in Etosha National Park found that male lions will coopt hyena kills more often than the reverse. So it could be that they’re just looking for an easy meal that doesn’t require too much effort from them.
Either way, the stereotype perpetuated in the movies of mobs of hyenas shadowing lion kills should be rethought—it’s actually probably hungry lions who are looking to steal from the proverbial plates of hyenas. 
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Lead Image: Abdelrahman / Adobe Stock
