Felids Interactions - Interspecific Conflicts

[Pantherinae]

(05-18-2018, 06:53 PM)AlexE Wrote: Leopard hyena. Hyena almost attacked by leopard

Previously we showed a hyena pirating prey from a leopard. Though the leopard tried to stand its ground, the hyena boldly rushed in to grab the prey. Twice the leopard tried to fend off the thief but in the end the hyena triumphed and carried off the remains of the carcass. 

But hyenas do not always walk away unscathed from interactions with leopards. There is one record of a leopard which not only knew the trick of keeping a hyena at bay, but also killed it and it did so not only once, but three times!

Hyenas and Leopards are evenly matched. Some fanatics on both sides will argue that one species are superior to the other, but that's a big lie. Even me as a cat fanatic will say this. After watching and reading about African cats as long as I can remember I have grown to respect the hyena massively they are though as tanks! And just like with different individual cats the hyenas will vary in aggression and courage based on sex and rank.

Male Leopards are powerful predators, but mostly even they will back away from a big aggressive hyena, because they cannot risk any injuries. Lower ranked hyenas are skittish and nervous and can be held back by a cheetah.
Hyenas also differ much in size across Africa with smaller hyenas in the East of Africa and Zambia being said to hold the biggest, I haven't heard anything about weights in Botswana, but I have seen some absolute monsters down there in the Okavango that will go one on with a lioness. So I would probably estimate them even bigger than the ones from Zambia in my personal opinion, Leopards in Africa are said to grow biggest in South Africa and Namibia (I think) and I have seen very impressive specimens from Congo.
So all I can say is that for a male leopard to kill an adult hyena it' would take a massive amount of effort (and risks) remember a hyena can take a ton of punishment from several lionesses and still get away relatively fine. So it would definitely not be easy task for a lone leopard to do what a group of lionesses often will fail at. Maybe a small low ranked male hyena, but a large matriarch would be a stupid thing for even the biggest of Leopards because he can just as easily end up dead himself.

But fantastic video and thank you so much for sharing :) Reply