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Dark-Hyena — Cave hyena and spotted hyena
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Published: 2012-11-01 16:20:29 +0000 UTC; Views: 7806; Favourites: 161; Downloads: 45
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The cave hyena has always fascinated me, yet I appear to be alone in this interest. Even paleontologists seem to only take interest in the fact that we owe the cave hyena gratitude for having accumulated so many bones in now famous fossil sites. There aren't anywhere near as many documentaries/publications detailing the animal's anatomy/behaviour as there are on say dire wolves, short-faced bears or sabre-teeth. This ought to be rectified, considering that this animal is among the most abundant in Pleistocene fossil sites, and, considering the behaviour/success of its modern African cousin, it would be interesting to theorize how its ice age environment affected its habits.In drawing this, the only things I had to go on were the animal's spotted pelt (confirmed through cave paintings), its longer limbs, shorter paw bones, and larger size. The rest is speculative, and based largely on how wolves (I know they're not related!) in frosty areas differ from their desert/forest-dwelling cousins. The fur obviously would be longer, but also possibly more greyish, less brightly coloured, and the ears would be smaller to conserve heat.
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Comments: 17
An interesting fact,a lot of paleontologists think that the large number of cave hyenas in north east Siberia during the ice age was the factor that was preventing humans from colonizing America earlier than 13,000 years ago,i do wonder why the hyena never considered migrating to America itself,but that might have to do with the more numerous competition from other large carnivores in Alaska such as the short-faced bear.
Also hyena drawing are almost nonexistent in cave panting's such as in Lascaux,but there is one drawing in the Chauvet caves with have a far more diverse fauna depiction than the former,but still the drawing looks like a bear than someone latter added spots on to make it look like a hyena,i also know of a hyena sculpture made out of woolly mammoth ivory dubbed "the creeping hyena".The Cro Magnons and Neanderthals both seemed to have looked on the hyena in the same way modern peoples do,as a dim witted, mangy, slobbering and filthy scavenger that was in no way ideated to their respect compared to the cunning wolf,mighty cave bear and the ferocious cave lion.Just goes to show how discriminating people were to certain animals even back then.
Its surprising too considering the cave hyena was the only predator in Pleistocene Europe to regularly hunt one of the most dangerous prey items on the landscape the woolly rhino,i would have thought that the people would have found that impressive.
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Well, there is this supposed "hyena" from the Le Gabillou Cave:Crocuta crocuta cave art - Le Gabillou cave
But you are right, unfortunately it seems the unfounded prejudice against hyenas stretches back far to long.
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Good restoration! I'd like to see a bunch of cave hyenas go up against a scimitar cat.
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Hyenids are so underappreciated amongst the large carnivorans....they are easily one of my favorites! btw hyenas (like the African wild dog) don't have dewclaws - just sayin'.
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AWD are canids, they are not hyenas
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These are well done!
I'm also surprised to see not so much prehistoric hyena art and information as well. The cave hyena is fun to draw; my gallery has several pictures.
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A good alternative name would be the Eurasian spotted hyena.
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Pretty cool picture. I did find Cave Hyenas to be fascinating creatures, I was interested in hearing more about them, it's a shame there isn't more research on them then.
But that is a very neat comparative study between it and the spotted kind.
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Awesome.
I agree - that's a pity that there isn't enough information on these animals.
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Love these comparison pics you do. More love for hyenas, yo.
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God dammit, when are they going to reintroduce them to Europe? This historical injustice must be rectified! I dream of a day in which I can walk through the plains of Padania and hear the beautiful "ooo-WHUP!" calls that once graced the nights of this once verdant continent.
(but srsly, why don't you do a stamp on it, using the same arguments the wolfaboos used for YT? 
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Bringing hyenas back to Europe would be a bad idea for 2 reasons
First it went extinct naturally,im not jumping on the hole agenda that humans wiped out every animal that died out 10,000 years ago,do to the decline in its prey and habit,sp a natural extinction should be left in piece ,witch bring us to the second and main problem.
There is no habitat for them,the spotted hyena live in open landscapes witch are all to rare in the forest continent Europe,exept for steppes of Ukraine and Moldova,but even then there is little prey for them,they can hunt red deer,wild boar and fallow deer,but hyenas are known to over hunt and could hunt the ruminants to extinction,and could extirpate native predators such as lynxes and foxes,but most of all wolves witch would defiantly go to an all out war for territory with the hyenas,even brown bears could be at risk from atatcks,in other words hyenas are capable of damaging the entire ecosystem of the European wilderness.
There is however a reserve in Siberia called Pleistocene park that intents to repopulate it with animals that lived there during the ice age,they already brought in European bison,musk ox and horses in it,along with the already native animals such a reindeer,moose,bear and wolf,and they intent on bringing in several other animals incuding the spotted hyena.
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You're correct in saying their demise was natural, and FYI roughly 25,000 years ago. The coldest periods of the ice age were too much for them, it seems:
markgelbart.wordpress.com/2015…
www.sciencedirect.com/science/…
Yes, there's no habitat left for them. We need lots of horses and woolly rhino to feed them, as they were their preferred natural prey:
www.geology.cz/bulletin/fullte…
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Haha... I don't wish that on the people of Europe. Too many good people there, including almighty DH! I'd make a stamp about them, but I know hardly anything about them. Even striped hyenas, one of my favorite animals... I need to broaden my knowledge base... honestly.. especially since I think I've decided on which exact area of wildlife biology I want to study on. I want to go for arctic biology, since I want to intern up in Iceland or somewhere high north. Forget all this wolf crap down here. Too much of a headache.
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lol, I meant doing a stamp "promoting" a spotted hyena reintroduction, using the same "balance of nature" crap the tards used (and still do) to promote wolf propagation.
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OH, I gotcha. As you know, I'm slow in the head...
I shall do so.
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