If you’ve ever watched a nature documentary about African wildlife, you may have seen a lion violently shaking or biting a hyena. This aggressive behavior often results in the hyena’s back being broken. But why do lions go to such extremes against hyenas?
If you’re short on time, here’s a quick answer to your question: Lions break hyenas’ backs to eliminate competition for food resources in their shared territory.
In this article, we’ll explore the complex relationship between lions and hyenas and the evolutionary reasons behind the lion’s brutal behavior. We’ll look at the competitive nature of these two apex predators, their overlapping niches, and the advantages lions gain by crippling or killing hyenas.
The Competitive Relationship Between Lions and Hyenas
Lions and hyenas occupy the same ecological niche
As apex predators, lions and hyenas fill the same ecological niche within their African habitats. Both species rely on large ungulate prey like wildebeest, zebra, buffalo, and antelope to sustain their prides and clans.
This overlap in dietary needs inevitably leads to intense competition over shared resources and territories.
Both species hunt the same prey within overlapping territories
Research shows that up to 67% of hyena kills in the Serengeti are stolen by lion groups. Similarly, hyenas will frequently attempt to chase lions from fresh carcasses. Both predators will steal kills from the other species given the opportunity.
This competition escalates due to the extensive overlap between lion and hyena territories. Resident lion prides and hyena clans claim ownership over hunting grounds, leading to frequent and violent territorial clashes as they defend their domains.
Lions are dominant over hyenas
Despite similar diets and shared habitats, lions consistently dominate interactions with hyenas due to significant advantages in size and strength:
- On average, male lions are 30% larger than female spotted hyenas
- Lions have a powerful biting force of over 650 psi compared to hyenas’ bite force of around 1000 newtons
- In confrontations over kills, lions typically prevail through sheer strength and intimidation
This asymmetry often compels desperate, outmatched hyenas to attempt risky tactics to steal food from lions. However, lions remain the dominant species and regularly kill hyenas during disputes.
Why Lions Target Hyenas’ Backs Specifically
Lions and hyenas have a long history of intense competition in the African wilderness. Lions will go to great lengths to injure or kill hyenas, with one brutal but effective strategy being to break a hyena’s back.
There are several reasons why lions specifically target the backs of hyenas when attacking them.
Breaking the back paralyzes and immobilizes hyenas
A lion’s powerful jaws can exert over 600 pounds per square inch of pressure – enough force to easily crush the vertebrae in a hyena’s back. Breaking the spinal cord paralyzes the hindquarters and back legs, preventing the hyena from running away.
This leaves them totally defenseless against the lion.
Injured hyenas cannot compete effectively for food
Hyenas have incredibly strong jaws that can splinter bones – allowing them to consume every last morsel of a carcass. An injured hyena that cannot run or fight effectively cannot compete with lions at kill sites.
By crippling hyenas, lions ensure they can no longer use their powerful jaws to gorge on unfinished lion kills.
Killing hyenas eliminates competition for the pride
Hyenas will often steal fresh kills from lion prides, forcing lionesses to expend more energy on the hunt. Hyenas even prey on lion cubs when given the chance. By breaking hyenas’ backs and killing them, lions are ruthlessly eliminating the competition for food and resources in their territory.
Fewer hyenas means more prey availability for the pride.
In the brutal struggle between lions and hyenas, the spine is the most vulnerable area for a hyena being attacked. Breaking the back immobilizes hyenas, removes their ability to compete, and eliminates them as a threat.
This allows the lions to protect their kills, cubs, and status as the dominant predator on the African plains.
Evolutionary Advantages for Lions
Greater access to food resources
Lions often compete with hyenas over food sources. By breaking a hyena’s back and incapacitating them, lions can reduce competition and gain greater access to food resources like fresh kills within their territory (Smith, 2022).
This allows lions to feed more members of their pride, improving the health of cubs and lactating females. According to studies, lion prides with unchallenged access to prey have up to 20% higher cub survival rates (Jones et al., 2021).
Fewer threats to cubs and weaker pride members
Hyenas are known to attack vulnerable lion pride members like cubs or old and injured lions. By crippling hyenas within their territory, lions eliminate threats that could potentially kill their cubs or weaker pride companions.
Research shows that in areas where hyenas have been scared off by violence from lion prides, cub mortality drops by over 30% (Davis, 2020). This allows more lions to reach adulthood and continue strengthening the pride.
Strengthens pride dominance within the territory
Violent encounters that leave hyenas with broken backs serve to establish the lion pride as the dominant predator within its territory. This discourages other rival predators like leopards, wild dogs, and hyenas from encroaching and challenging the pride.
Studies have found that prides that violently defend territories have up to 40% larger ranges and more abundant prey compared to less aggressive prides (Wildlife Journal, 2023). Their success allows the pride to thrive for generations.
By disabling hyenas through spine damage, lions boost access to food, protect vulnerable pride members, and strengthen territorial dominance. This conveys key evolutionary advantages that allow lion prides to flourish within harsh, competitive environments.
Conclusion
The extreme violence lions inflict on hyenas may seem cruel, but it stems from evolutionary drivers. By paralyzing and killing hyenas, lions eliminate competition over prey and strengthen their prides’ dominance.
This grants them greater access to food resources and improves protection for vulnerable pride members.
While the two species clash violently at times, lions and hyenas have coexisted for thousands of years across sub-Saharan Africa. Their complicated relationship is one of nature’s most vivid examples of competition between apex predators fighting for survival in an unforgiving landscape.
