What’s the Difference Between Hyenas and African Wild Dogs?

On a recent morning game drive in Botswana’s Chobe National Park, our group happened upon a pack of wild dogs. “Are those hyenas?” someone in our vehicle whispered. The resemblance was obvious. Both animals are medium-sized carnivores with patchy fur and a canine appearance. However, when it comes to canines, only one of these creatures is the real thing.

African wild dogs, also known as “painted wolves,” and hyenas are often mistaken for one another, and they do share a lot of similarities. Both predators thrive in packs or “clans,” hunt in teams, and have their own hierarchical system. They also have loads of stamina when it comes to chasing down food. But while wild dogs are agile and slender, hyenas are shaggy and goofy looking, built with strong, powerful necks and longer front legs than rear legs, giving them a hunched-back appearance. Another big difference: African wild dogs are one of the continent’s most endangered carnivores. Years ago, about 500,000 painted wolves roamed across Africa. Now there are only about 6,600. What’s responsible for their decline in numbers, and what else differentiates these two distinct mammals? Read on…

Wild Dogs (aka “Painted Wolves”)

African wild dogs are also known as Lycaon pictus, a scientific name that means “painted wolf.” With their irregular, patchy coats of brown, black, white and yellow fur, it’s a moniker that’s especially fitting. Still, these creatures are neither dogs nor wolves, but a genetically distinct genus of canine all their own.

Since the name “wild dog” conjures up images of roaming packs of scraggly and nefarious creatures, most conservationists are leaning toward the name “painted wolf” to help change the perception of these magnificent beasts and, in turn, increase their chances of survival.

Painted wolves are known for their large, round ears, which provide excellent hearing and—along with their keen sense of smell—are important tools for hunting prey. Each individual sports its own unique markings, a bushy white-tipped tail, long legs, and only four toes per foot.

They’re social animals, gathering in packs of anywhere from 10 to 40 individuals, and use teamwork (each pack is led by a dominant male and female) to take down larger prey, such as antelopes. They’ll often hunt smaller prey like wildebeest calves and birds on their own, tearing apart their catch with long, sharp teeth for consumption. Painted wolves are primarily diurnal hunters, since their night vision isn’t on par with other large carnivores, like lions and hyenas.

Threats to African Painted Wolves

Native to all of sub-Saharan Africa, painted wolves are now primarily limited to the open savannas, woodlands and grasslands of Southern Africa and the southern part of East Africa, including Tanzania. They can sprint up to 44 miles per hour and have been known to travel as many as 31 miles in a day. Because they may occupy territories of about 580 square miles—communicating across these distances with a distinctive “hoo” call—painted wolves require unfragmented habitats in which to roam.

However, with increasingly fragmented terrain, the number of painted wolves in the wild continues to drop. They’ve been listed as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List since 1990, due to habitat loss as well as human conflict and infectious diseases like rabies and canine distemper (a highly contagious disease that affects a dog’s respiratory, nervous and gastrointestinal systems). Farmers often perceive them as a threat to livestock, which can lead to retaliatory killings, and their patterned fur makes them especially alluring to hunters.

Ways to Protect Them

Thankfully, there are various conservation efforts in effect to protect African painted wolves. These include establishing protected wildlife corridors. A great example is the Kavango-Zambezi Conservation Area (KAZA), a 200,773-square-mile transboundary conservation area spanning five southern African countries—Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe—that provides critical unfragmented habitat for such creatures.

Conservationists are also working to train local farmers in livestock management techniques, including constructing bomas (livestock enclosures) to protect their animals from predators, and providing local communities with the tools to manage and protect natural resources, including endangered species.

Hyenas

Hyenas, Africa’s most common large carnivores, are a central feature of the safari experience. These coarse-furred, opportunistic scavengers are native to both Africa and Asia’s Arab Peninsula, and while they look and act more like dogs than cats, they’re actually neither. However, when push comes to shove, they’re considered more cat-like, partly due to their “cat-like” grooming habits.

There are four hyena species: spotted, brown, striped, and the aardwolf, which looks more like a fox.

• Spotted hyenas (aka “laughing hyenas”) have a more robust, muscular build and are both the largest and most often sighted. They’re also the only hyena species that makes a sound akin to laughing, typically when threatened or distressed.
• Striped hyenas have a more slender build with a straight back.

• Brown hyenas are the rarest species and mostly nocturnal, boasting a long, shaggy brown coat, pointed ears, and a short tail.
• Aardwolves are often classified as hyenas, but they belong to their own family, Protelidae, and primarily dine on termites.

In general, hyenas are known for having jaws so powerful that they can crush bones, and they use their long forelegs plus strong neck and shoulders to dismember and carry prey. Along with a spot-on sense of smell and hearing, they also have excellent night vision. Their clans tend to be smaller than African painted wolf packs, and always have a dominant female in charge.

While spotted hyenas, especially, still face threats like habitat loss and human-wildlife conflict, their large numbers—estimated to be between 27,000 and 47,000 individuals in the wild—qualify them as a species of “least concern” on the IUCN Red List.

Do Painted Wolves and Hyenas Get Along?

Since they tend to go after the same prey (hyenas make no bones about stealing kills from painted wolves), the two animals are often considered enemies in the wild. However, if there’s enough food to go around, “frenemies” might be a more fitting term. Whatever the case, seeing them together in nature is sure to be an unforgettable experience.

Look for painted wolves and hyenas on Nat Hab’s Epic Botswana & Namibia Safari.