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Claim check

Are hyenas scavengers that steal from lions?

Not supportedNo good evidence supports this, or the evidence points the other way.

The theft mostly runs the other way. Years of observation, including at night, found spotted hyenas hunting most of what they eat and lions frequently appropriating their kills. The reputation comes from watching, in daylight, an animal that hunts in the dark.

The claim as it circulates

“Lions hunt and hyenas scavenge, driving lions off their kills and living on what braver animals killed.”

Where you may have met it: Documentary narration about African predators; Children’s films and books about the savannah; General reference material on large carnivores

Taking it apart

What was claimed
That spotted hyenas obtain their food chiefly by scavenging and by displacing lions from kills, while lions are the hunters of the pair.
What was actually observed
Spotted hyena clans were followed directly over years, including systematic night-time observation, with the origin of each carcass recorded as hunted, found, or taken from another species. Hyenas obtained the majority of their food by hunting. Interactions at carcasses were scored in both directions, and lions appropriated hyena kills more often than the reverse.
What the evidence supports
That the balance is close to the opposite of the popular account, and that the error has a specific cause: hyenas hunt mostly at night and are seen standing at carcasses in daylight, while lions are conspicuous at any hour. An observer working in daylight would record precisely the story that stuck.
What it does not support
It does not make lions scavengers and hyenas pure predators. Both do both, and the proportions vary between populations, seasons and prey communities. The observations are from one region and one hyena species; the other hyena species differ considerably.

This one is worth keeping for the methodological lesson rather than the animals. A reputation formed by watching a nocturnal animal in daylight is not a finding about the animal; it is a finding about when the observers were awake. Correcting it required somebody to follow hyenas in the dark for years, and the correction is now decades old without having displaced the story.

The rest of the answer

  • Scavenging
  • Lion

    Where another piece of the same reputation was checked

  • Predation

    Hunting and scavenging as two ways of getting a meal

The claims underneath

Each one carries its own evidence, scope and caveats. Expand any of them to reach the studies.

Spotted hyenas hunt most of what they eat, and lions often take kills from them. The popular picture runs the other way — from watching, in daylight, animals that hunt at night.

Established

Specialists would state this without hedging. Multiple independent lines of evidence agree.

Long-term direct observation, including systematic night follows, found spotted hyenas obtaining the majority of their food by hunting, with lions appropriating hyena kills more often than the reverse. Proportions vary between populations and with prey availability.

Who this applies to
Documented for spotted hyenas; the other hyena species differ substantially in diet and behaviour.Do not extend this beyond the taxa listed — the popular version over-reaches.
Studied in
Crocuta crocuta, Panthera leo
Why we rate it this way, and what the caveats are
EstablishedHigh confidence

Direct observation over years, including at night, and repeatedly confirmed by later work in other populations.

How far it can be extended

Hunting proportion varies between populations and with prey availability, and other hyena species are not the same animal.

Caveats

  • Both species do both things. The claim concerns the balance, not an exclusive category for either.
  • The proportion hunted varies between populations, seasons and prey communities.

Still unanswered

  • How much of the variation between populations is prey availability and how much is local competition with lions.

Last reviewed 2026-09-03

The evidence (1 study)

Go deeper

Scavenging

Carrion looks like free food. So why has no walking animal ever managed to live on it?

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Last reviewed 2026-09-03