Basic behavior:


- Spotted hyenas are the best clean-up mammal in the African ecosystem, hunting and consuming mostly vertebrates, particularly ungulates. Large predators will waste 40% of their kills and spotted hyenas take full advantage of that by consuming everything from teeth to hooves, but except the horns of the animals. There is no other large carnivore on earth that consumes carcasses so effectively as spotted hyenas do, which makes it one of the most successful carnivores on earth and the third most successful in hunting successes, and the most widespread large carnivore in Africa. Hyenas can be both active at night and day, preferring to hunt at night, they exhibit two activity peaks at night one just after dark and one 2 hours before dawn. Throughout the day hyenas forage for food, patrol their territories and while also resting in water on hot days although females return to the communal den to socialize, suckle their young, and rest in a safe environment.

- Spotted hyenas exhibit a single social structure, however, this one is particularly complex containing multiple substructures in it making it very difficult to understand, they're called clans:

Spotted hyenas live in hierarchical social groups that consist of females, males of all horizons, and ages. 
In these ‘clans,’ there is a strict, linear dominance hierarchy in which all females and their young dominate all immigrant males. Daughters and sons inherit the social ranks right below that of their mothers. Thus, spotted hyenas live in matrilineal societies led by an ‘alpha-female followed by her young and all other females with their young. Below the lowest-ranking native clan member comes the highest-ranking immigrant male, followed by all other immigrant males. In exceptional cases, a male may lead a clan if he is the only heir to a matriarch's rank. Despite being one of the most social large carnivores in Africa, hyenas prefer to spend a lot of time separately from each other, only meeting on kill scenes, fights with other hyenas and predators, or during hunting attempts.

If a female wants what he has, whether would it be a kill or a place in a puddle of water, the female will take it easily without the male engaging and just walking away, adult males are not even allowed to be near the communal den site unless they're the most dominant one and sometimes cubs will join in bullying those adult males. Greeting ceremonies occur when two individuals haven't seen each other for long periods of time, however, it is done to reinforce social bonds or ranks and not as means to know who this is and males generally don't engage with females in these ceremonies

Social rank in hyenas determines everything even if a dominant individual is wounded or smaller they will dominate whomever they are under in the pecking order, however, some low-ranking hyenas will try to improve their rank by challenging the monarchy of the clan, though that is extremely an extremely rare behavior. Though coalitions of hyenas are common and the higher-ranking individuals have their own coalitions usually the matriarch's coalition, lower-ranking female coalitions which are the only ones able to change their positions, and immigrant males coalitions which are known for sometimes bullying lone female hyenas.

- Spotted hyenas don't exhibit a breeding season or birthing season and the estrus cycle in females is relatively short only lasting 2 weeks; males will try to locate a lone female and will be extremely careful and wait multiple days before attempting to mate. If the female grunts, growls or even looks at the male from behind the male will bolt from fear, once allowed near her the male will chase any other male that gets close, although if the male is higher ranked the low-ranking male will back off. Once ready to give birth the female will move into a den nearby the communal den site and nurse her cubs, after 10 days (10min in-game) she moves them to the communal den site, which is left un-guarded by adults for long intervals.

- Spotted hyenas foraging method can be described in one sentence: it will scavenge and steal food whenever possible and will always select the most easily captured prey. Despite them being able to take down animals the size of a bull wildebeest, hyenas never do this unless desperate for food and always try to look for the weakest member of a group. They hunt solo or in pairs usually by cantering towards a group of animals, which then proceed to run a few meters away which helps the hyena know which individual is the weakest. Once selected the animal is then run down to exhaustion and brought down and eaten alive. The stampeding movements of large herds of ungulates attract other hyenas which can then turn into an all-out hunting party where numerous hyenas try to select a target uncooperatively. Once a target has been taken down by all hyenas or is selected by a majority, all hyenas head to it. It happens that sometimes groups of hyenas that met along the way start eyeing together a group of ungulates and decide to go hunting as a unit, however, it is generally led by a female and made up of males the majority of time. Prey that run into deep water generally are not be delt with because of the hyenas bad swimming skills but also because of crocodiles.

- If a small kill is made and just a few hyenas are around to easily determine who is dominant and who isn't; boundaries will be set and lower-ranking individuals will wait their turn, however, if its a large kill everyone can feed quietly but if the numbers increase hyenas will start fighting and being noisy which not only attracts other hyenas which will turn into a feeding frenzy where everyone tries to eat as quickly as possible but also attracts lions to the carcass.

- Hyenas can keep or take over kills if the group of lions they encounter consists of females and young males and if they manage to recruit at least six times more members than the adult and young adult lions present at the kill. The more hyenas there are generally around a lion kill the more the hyenas will become louder and bolder, whooping and laughing to attract even more hyenas onto the scene. As they get bolder the hyenas will start regrouping in a mass advancing towards the lions and even starting nipping at the lions.
At that point, the lions either leave or fight which makes the hyenas more aggressive and everything will spark into a fight where hyenas will help each other when pounced and regroup after a charge, generally, if the hyenas feel confident enough the fight is generally won easily. It's fair to say that whether it's lions or painted wolves hyenas will not save each other unless it's a mother protecting her young and are not at all coordinated if anything they'll use a pounced hyena in order to bite a distracted lion or painted wolf.


- Hyenas are less dangerous than lions when it comes to their competition, but they are still are nonetheless aggressive. Cheetah cubs, Leopard cubs, and lion cubs are at risk of getting killed by lone hyenas, subadult lions will require a few hyenas to take down. Spotted hyenas also steal from a lot of their competitors with relative ease (cheetahs, pairs of painted wolves, and leopards ..etc), but they also steal from painted wolf packs that require a  few hyenas to actually steal the kill so depending on how many painted wolves there is the number required will vary. When it comes to lions and leopards, hyenas can target lone lionesses and young lone males for coming close to their communal den site or stealing kills from leopards, they will not target male leopards by themselves and will require more than one hyena to chase an adult which is healthy off its kill.

- Hyena clans are territorial against other clans but where prey is available encounters are rarely bloody and even when they occur both groups charge and back up in a continuous loop until one fully intimidates the other and all respective clans return to their own territories.