{"id":888856,"date":"2026-09-09T05:46:34","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T05:46:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/888856\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T05:46:34","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T05:46:34","slug":"i-repeatedly-observed-lions-tracking-hyenas-gps-collars-reveal-secrets-of-fierce-carnivore-rivalry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/888856\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI repeatedly observed lions tracking hyenas.\u201d GPS collars reveal secrets of fierce carnivore rivalry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Accepted wisdom on the African savannah has long been that hyenas tend to skulk after lions, tracking the big cats to scavenge any fresh scraps the apex predators might leave unguarded. But new evidence flips this on its head by showing that when the two cross each other in the wild, it\u2019s lions \u2013 primarily the males \u2013 that head towards hyenas.<\/p>\n

\"LionessesLionesses and cubs in Etosha National Park \u2013 a GPS collared lioness is visible on the left. Credit: Dr Nancy Barker<\/p>\n

The behaviour of fast-ranging wild carnivores like lions<\/a> and hyenas is notoriously hard to observe in detail, especially in remote and rugged terrain. As such, this four-year study made use of GPS collars, as well as camera traps and direct observations, to amass a bank of data on the movement and interactions of 17 lions and 14 spotted hyenas in Etosha National Park in Namibia and the Chobe-Linyanti system in Botswana.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The results, published in Frontiers in Ethology<\/a>, are surprising. \u201cOur data shows that African lions and spotted hyenas leave a clear, measurable signature in the way they move around one another,\u201d says lead author Dr Nancy Barker, of the University of Kwazulu-Natal. \u201cSpotted hyenas consistently move away from lions, while male lions tend to move toward hyenas. <\/p>\n

“Because the hyenas’ retreat signal was consistent across three independent statistical tests, we can conclude that it reflects a repeatable behavioural pattern.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AA young spotted hyena at Etosha National Park. Barker came across this individual while setting up a bait station to immobilise and collar the matriarch of the hyena clan. Credit: Dr Nancy Barker<\/p>\n

Prior to the testing, several months were spent in the field discovering more about the lions and hyenas involved, learning about the hierarchies in the various prides and clans and choosing which individuals would be best for collaring.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The collars were subsequently tracked at five-minute intervals, with the study including only those moments when both animals in a lion-hyena pairing had a GPS fix. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe asked a simple question: was each animal moving toward the other, away from it, or off to the side?\u201d explains Dr Barker. \u201cWhen repeated across thousands of simultaneous locations and many pairs of animals, a clear pattern emerges.\u201d\u00a0The study also shows that while male lions often head towards hyenas, actively tracking them, female lions are less inclined to do the same.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The findings underline behaviour previously seen by Dr Barker, who lived in the bush while studying brown hyenas during her Master\u2019s. \u201cI repeatedly observed lions tracking hyenas,\u201d she says. \u201cI was often told I had the relationship backwards\u2026 and that what I had seen was simply a series of chance encounters. I felt there was more to the story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Find out more about the study<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Top image: Spotted hyenas in confrontation with a lioness. Credit: Anup Shah\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

More wildlife stories from around the world<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Accepted wisdom on the African savannah has long been that hyenas tend to skulk after lions, tracking the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":888857,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":["post-888856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=888856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/888857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=888856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=888856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=888856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}